The exhibition focuses on the unusual characteristic of graphic pieces – the size thereof. The unconventional size of drawings may be often ensued by special tasks, circumstances, assignments and, definitely, like any other parameter, may reflect trends in the art development.

Throughout its development, drawing has periodically faced the need to fulfil monumental tasks. An important step in academic education was a large graphic sketch performed lifesize. An excellent example is the pen drawing Copper Serpent by F.A. Bruni. Another sphere of ‘monumental graphics’ development was decorative painting that also required preparatory drawings of the so-called ‘cardboard’ size. The exhibition displays cardboards by K.P. Bryullov, A.E. Yegorov, V.M. Vasnetsov, M.V. Nesterov, A.V. Shchusev, E.E. Lansere and others. The late XIX century witnesses a growing interest in graphics as an independent field of art. I.I. Shishkin was the first to create easel graphic pieces similar in significance to works on canvas. His huge pen drawings along with his pictures were displayed at travelling exhibitions.

The strife of graphics for monumentality suddenly found its expression in the form of the large-format grand portrait. Its brilliant examples are represented by the works of I.E. Repin (Portrait of M.K. Tenisheva, Portrait of Eleonora Duse), V.A. Serov (Portrait of A.I. Chaliapin), M.A. Vrubel (Portrait of N.I. Zabela-Vrubel. After the Concert), A.Y. Golovin (Portrait of N.K. Roerich), A.E. Yakovlev (A Woman Dancing) and others. A new type of monumental graphics was emerging at that very time – an advertising poster where many artists showed the best of themselves.

Tiny miniatures performed on paper and ivory in the eglomese technique will contrast with large graphic pieces.

The miniature watercolor portrait is an important component of the Russian gentry’s culture and an integral element of the manorial life. In the middle of the XIX century the watercolor portrait gives way to vigorously developing photographic reproductive techniques. Having lost its functional significance it ceased to exist for nearly half a century. Yet the strife for accuracy and filigree finish typical for watercolor miniatures find their way into sketches for pictures – tiny landscapes by I. Kramskoy, E. Polenova and I. Levitan are real masterpieces. The new life of the miniature began in the epoch of the Silver Age when artists of the Mir Iskusstva association saw the revival of forgotten genres and techniques of their favorite Pushkin time as one of their main tasks.