Alexander Benois Archive: Collection and Distribution

Abstract

Art historian, artist, and critic Alexander Nikolaevich Benois (1870–1960) collected and systematized his archive both before and after emigration from Leningrad to Paris in 1926. According to his own assessments and according to contemporaries, the materials contained in the archive are valuable for studying the history of art culture at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and as sources for the history of Russian emigration in the first half of the twentieth century. Research and exhibitions devoted to the biography and work of Benois, as a rule, focus on his activities until the autumn of 1926 and narrate the artist’s activities in emigration, not appealing to archival materials of this period. During 34 years of emigration, part of the archive, partially transported from Leningrad, was replenished with new materials of a personal and professional nature. His personal archive became part of the museum’s collections during his lifetime, and after his death it was distributed among several more storage locations in Russia and the United States, still partially remaining in the family. Information about the archival heritage of Benois is extremely scattered, which might explain their insufficient coverage in studies of Russian emigration, as well as ideas about the activities and significance of Benois personality for the artistic and the emigration world of the mid-twentieth century. The article traces the history of the formation and principles of collecting the archive, identifies the reasons and the course of distribution, systematize information about its location and the composition of materials in storage places.