The Savitsky Art Gallery

The pride of Penza is the Savitsky Art Gallery named after the painter and first director of the Penza Fine Arts School. It is a visiting-card of our city. It is one of the oldest art galleries in all of Russia having been founded in 1897. The building is erected in “modern” style by famous St.Petersburg architect A.I.Gogen in 1912. But it is not only an architectural monument, it is a church of art in our city! It is a magnificent display of works by Russian and foreign painters. The gallery contains a collection of over four thousands works including paintings, engravings, and sculptures by Russian and West-European masters as well as all the priceless Russian icons of the sixteenth through eighteenth centuries. Three halls are devoted to the painters: K.Savitsky, I.Goryshkin-Sorokopudov and F.Lentulov whose creative work is linked with Penza. Nearly 600 works are treasures of Western European Art. They are represented by a rich collection of paintings, graphics and sculpture. The pride of this collection are the Italian, Dutch and French paintings from the 17th century and Russian art of the 19th century mainly represented by portraits and the priceless Russian icons of the 16th-18th centuries. In addition to its permanent collection, the gallery also hosts many special exhibitions brought from other museums as well as displaying works by modern-day Penzan artists. Enjoy yourself by visiting this gallery and seeing marvelous art!!! The Penza Art Gallery is one of the oldest galleries in Russia. What is special about it?

I agree that… I don’t agree that… Do you agree that the establishment of this museum was a great event in the life of the city? Why? Why not? Give your arguments. I agree that… I don’t agree that… The first argument is that… Though (хотя)… Besides… But… More than that… I don’t know. On the one hand… On the other hand…