Museum of the World Ocean
04.03-01.04 External stands of the Russian House in Brussels
Language: Russian/English
Travelling around the world under sail is, first of all, the Age of Discovery, full of courage and firmness of brave navigators, which still continue in the 21st century.
The first Russian Antarctic expedition took place in 1819-1821. Its participants, Faddey Bellingshausen and Mikhail Lazarev, made one of the most distinguished geographical discoveries in history: they came upon the sixth continent – Antarctica – as well as 29 previously unknown islands. Two centuries later, the tall ships Sedov, Krusenstern and Pallada set off to The Sails of the World-2020 around the globe, organized to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the Antarctica discovery and the 75th jubilee of the Great Victory Day. Two employees of the Museum of the World Ocean, senior research officer Pavel Matviets and artist Eugeni Mashkowski, took part in this expedition.
In the days of the first sailing expeditions, a ship’s naturalist artist’s main task was to record in detail what they saw. Today, a photo or video camera at hand is enough. Therefore, Eugeni Mashkowski’s task was different – he was to depict the impressions he would experience during the expedition.
And there were so many of them during the six-month journey: the ship crossed the equator twice, took part in a commemorative Sails of the World tall ship race by the Russian Federal Agency for Fishery, passed through raging storm waves and called at various ports worldwide on several continents…
Using his favourite tool – coloured pencils, Eugeni Mashkowski created 52 art works for the Museum of the World Ocean. Simple at first glance, drawings are full of details worth looking at.
Museum research officer and art historian Pavel Matviets participated in the expedition to collect artistic, ethnographic and natural science materials for the Museum of the World Ocean. He was responsible for the museum’s representative office on the ship, organizing exhibitions during port calls, lecturing on the history of culture and art to the personnel and establishing business contacts. At the expedition, Matviets kept a “watercolour” diary.
The Museum of the World Ocean and the Russian House in Brussels invite you to take a special journey around the world, made possible by unique graphics and extracts from the expedition diary.
