Paintings collection

Curator: Antonina Nefedova.

1 850 artworks performed on canvas, cardboard, and plywood (mostly oil, less often tempera).

Since the beginning of the 20th century, at different times, the best Russian animalist artists such as V.A. Vatagin, A.L. Komarov, N.N. Kondakov, V.V. Trofimov, K.K. Flerov, A.N. Formozov, V.A. Belyshev worked for the museum. Their wonderful paintings, a significant part of which can be seen at the museum's permanent exhibition, is the heart of the collection. A well-known series of paintings (oil on canvas) by V. A. Vatagin on the topic of zoogeography, sketched from the author's watercolors, were commissioned for the "Atlas of zoogeography" by Professor M. A. Menzbira published in Moscow, 1911.

Of great interest are paintings by Vasily Vatagin and Konstantin Flerov depicting extinct animals with great scientific accuracy. Most of them are also exhibited in Darwin museum halls. A significant number of paintings by Vasily Vatagin, Konstantin Flerov, and Mikhail Ezuchevsky is covering one topic - "Animals in the service of man".

White-headed Cockatoo by Vasily Vatagin. Oil on cardboard, 1919.

Portrait of a young Charles Darwin with the botanist John Henslow by Viktor Evstafiev. Oil on cardboard, 1960.

Cassowaries by Vasily Vatagin. Oil on canvas, 1938.

Fauna of the mountainous areas of Indochina by Vasily Vatagin. Oil on canvas, 1939.