Gems and Masterpieces from the Galagan Art Collection

Significant contribution to the replenishment of the collection was made by Hryhorii Galagan (1819-1888), a well-known state and public figure.

The bigger part of the collection is the family gallery, represented by portraits of eight generations of this family, starting with the portrait of famous Pryluky regiment commander Hnat Galagan.

Paired to it is the portrait of his wife Olena, which O. Lazarevskyi described as “the best of our old ... portraits.”

Worthy of attention are the portraits of other family members, in particular, Hryhorii Ivanovych Galagan (about 1793), created by a talented foreman self-trained artist Fedir Zemliukov, and works by German artist Heinrich Gottlieb Hauser (the 18th century), who painted portraits of the Galagan relatives – Natalia Razumovska and Vasyl Daragan.

The collection also represents the variants of ancient canonical portraits of Ukrainian hetmans – Ivan Mazepa, Ivan Skoropadskyi, Pavlo Polubotok, Bohdan Khmelnytskyi.

Interesting are the folk paintings, including famous Cossacks Mamai, dated the 18th and 19th centuries. The decoration of the family collection are also the portrait of Hryhorii Pavlovych Galagan (1843) by Vasyl Serebriakov, the painting “Italian woman” (1851) by Ivan Shapovalenko, one of the early works of Ivan Aivazovskyi “Storm at the Sea” (1840-1842), painting “The Gothic Bridge in the Sokyrynskyi Park” by Oleksii Voloskov (1846).

First of all, paintings “Travelling Musicians” (1626) by Hendrick Jansz ter Brugghen, “Fish on the seashore” (1653) by Abraham van Beyeren, “Cavalry Attack” (the I half of the 17th century) by Palamedes the Elder are worth paying attention.

The Flemish School is represented by the painting “Military Camp” (1705) by Peter van Blumen and two animalistic landscapes “Out at grass” (the 19th century) by Balthazar Paul Ommegank.

Among the works of the French school of painting an allegorical portrait of Prince Borys Mykolaiovych Yusupov by famous artist Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun “Cupid” (1790’s) and the genre scene of famous master of household plots Alfonso Cornet “Near the Well” (the I half of the 19th century) are distinguished.

The German painting is represented by the works of Paul Schweier, Henry Frisch and Heinrich Gottlieb Hauser.

The Italian school of painting is represented mainly by copies of high quality anonymous authors of the 18th-19th centuries.

The collection of European graphics includes Italian reproduction prints of the late 18th and early 19th centuries of Raphael’s frescoes in Vatican, reproductions of works of William Hogarth performed by German engravers, English engravings of the third quarter of the 18th century concerning the Anglo-Mysore Wars.

The collection of Western European sculpture consists of interior works of masters of France and Italy of the end of the 18th-19th centuries.

Among them – marble compositions “The Rape of Proserpine” and “The Rape of the Sabines” by Etienne Falconet (the 18th century), bronze plastic: “The Young Man Fighting an Eagle” (the end of the 19th century) by Jean-Marie Verschneider, “Cosette” by Francois Pompon (the end of the 19th century) and “Shepherd” by Giuseppe Renda (the beginning of the 20th century.)The museum collection also contains objects of decorative art – samples of English, German and French porcelain and earthenware, artistic glass of the 19th century.