Russian estate near Sergiyev Posad, 57 km north of Moscow, and site of an artists’ colony. It was first recorded in documents between 1584 and 1586 under the name Obramkovo. In the 18th century it became the village of Abramkovo, part of a private estate known by the mid-19th century as Abramtsevo. In 1843 the estate was acquired by the writer Sergey Aksakov (1791–1859). He wrote his most successful works there and had numerous artists and writers as visitors, including Taras Shevchenko and Vissarion Belinsky. In 1870 the estate was acquired by the prominent industrialist and patron SAVVA MAMONTOV, who made it a major Russian artistic colony from the 1870s to the 1890s. Here, as at Princess Tenisheva’s estate at Talashkino, an interest in national culture and antiquities flourished, and there was a revival of Russian folk art. Various well-known Russian artists lived at Abramtsevo at that time, among them Il’ya Repin, Mikhail Vrubel’, Valentin Serov, Konstantin Korovin, Mikhail Nesterov, Yelena Polenova, Vasily Polenov and Viktor Vasnetsov. They formed the Abramtsevo/Mamontov artistic circle—an association of representatives of the most advanced artistic intelligentsia, who were creatively involved in the construction and decoration of the estate.

• Abramtsevo
  • Mamontov, Savva
  • Moscow, §II, 2: Art life and organization, c 1700–1917
  • Russia, §VI, 3: Furniture, c 1800–1917
  • Russia, §XIII: Patronage
  • architecture
    • Vasnetsov: (1) Viktor Vasnetsov
  • members
    • Chekhonin, Sergey
    • Korovin: (2) Konstantin Korovin
    • Malyutin, Sergey Vasil’yevich
    • Polenov: (1) Vasily Polenov
    • Polenov: (2) Yelena Polenova
    • Repin, Il’ya, §1: Early work: Peasant themes, 1870–82
    • Yakunchikova , Mariya
  • pottery
    • Russia, §VII, 1(i): Pottery, before 1917
  • stage design
    • Levitan, Isaak, §1: Early career, late 1870s to 1889
  • wood-carvings
    • Russia, §XVI: Art education