Pyotr Ivanovich Shchukin (1853 – 12 October 1912) was an art collector who built an important collection of Russian ancient art and artifacts and owned several impressionist masterpieces.
Early life and family Pyotr Ivanovich Shchukin was born in 1853, one of ten children"The man who loved Monet: Russia's greatest art collector" by Nancy Durrant, Saturday Review, The Times, 15 October 2016, pp. 8-9. of Ivan Vassilievitch Shchukin, a self-made Moscow merchant in the textile trade from an Old Believer"The revolutionary collector who changed the course of Russian art". Rosamund Bartlett, Apollo, 17 October 2016. Retrieved 23 October 2016. background who acquired a wealth of 4 million gold rubles, and his wife Ekaterina Shchukin, the daughter of Pyotr Konovich Botkin, a tea merchant and patron of the arts."From Russia" without love: Can The Shchukin heirs recover their ancestor's art collection? Jane Graham, Sports & Entertainment Law Journal, Vol. 6, Spring 2009, pp. 66-107. Retrieved 22 October 2016. I.V. Shchukin and Sons became one of the largest textile companies in Russia. Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts. Retrieved 22 October 2016.
Art collecting Shchukin built an important collection of Russian ancient art and artifacts and owned several impressionist masterpieces. His younger brother, Sergei Shchukin, was also a noted art collectorSergey Shchukin and Others. Hermitage Amsterdam. Retrieved 22 October 2016. while his brother Dimitri Shchukin assembled "Moscow's best collection of Old Masters" that eventually entered the Pushkin Museum. Another brother, Ivan, also collected art.
He was a customer of French art dealer Paul Durand-Ruel and accompanied his brother Sergei on buying trips to Paris.House of modern masterpieces: Shchukin at Fondation Louis Vuitton. Jackie Wullschlager, Financial Times, 21 October 2016. Retrieved 22 October 2016.
When Shchukin was blackmailed by a former mistress and needed money to pay her off, he sold his Impressionist paintings to Sergei rather than sell them back to Durand-Ruel for less.
Death Shchukin died on 12 October 1912.
References
External links
https://artinvestment.ru/en/news/artnews/20110212_collections.html https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2011/aug/04/beverly-whitney-kean-obituary