The Year of Russia in China will be bought to a close with an exhibition featuring a series of Russian paintings from the later half of the 19th Century, considered the golden age of Russian art.

Visitors to the exhibition will be treated to a feast of masterpieces by top Russian painters including Repin, Shishkin, Levitan and Kramskoy.

                       
The 118 works will be on display from now until January 15 at the National Museum of China. They include portraits and landscape paintings handpicked from a vast collection from 19 Russian museums.

The exhibition, entitled The Post-19th-Century Realistic Painting of Russia, depicts the development of Russian art through the 19th Century. According to Qian Linxiang, vice dean of the National Art Museum of China, Russian art from the 19th Century, represents one of the most important periods of art development in the world. Its idealism and romanticism influenced the development of Chinese art in the 1950s. The artists Repin, Surikov and Levitan were greatly admired by Chinese artists of the time.

Realist paintings created at the time of the former Soviet Union have also had much impact on Chinese art, both in terms of its theory and techniques. It also allowed Chinese art fans to satisfy their emotional bonds to the films, art and music of the 19th-century.

Although this is only a sample of the huge collection of Russian 19th Century art, the pieces are considered representative of the era. Most of the pieces are works that influenced the course of Russia's art history, and became known to the Chinese art world. For example, the exhibit includes the Portrait of the Artist Ilya Repin by realist painting master Kramskoy a primary figure of the Circle of Itinerants. Repin himself has five pieces included in the exhibit, including Portrait of T.A. Mamontova and Putting A Propagandist Under Arrest. The exhibition also includes landscape paintings by Shishkin, Levitan and Savrasov.

Price:20 yuan.
Time: Dec 13-Jan 15
Address: At the National Museum of China, 1 Wusi Dajie, Dongcheng District.
Tel: 010-6401-7076.