The story
In 1891 the painter Vasily Polenov, best known for A Moscow Courtyard and his scenes from the life of Christ, bought the Borok estate on the high right bank of the Oka river, and the next year he built a white three-storey house there to his own design. He meant it to be a home, a studio for his friends and students, and what he hoped would be the province's first museum open to the general public.
After the revolution, local peasants debated whether to destroy the estate and decided to leave it alone, because the painter had done a great deal for the neighbourhood. Polenov died in 1927, his family handed the collections to the state, and the house museum was formally established in 1939. His son Dmitry became its first director, followed by Dmitry's son Fyodor, and since 2011 it has been run by Natalia Polenova, the painter's great-granddaughter.
Inside, more than 20 rooms hold Polenov's own paintings alongside works by his contemporaries Ilya Repin, Konstantin Korovin and Ivan Kramskoi, with furniture and objects the family made or designed. The separate building called the Abbey, where Polenov had his workshop, is open as well. About 20 minutes' walk away, in the village of Bekhovo, stands the church Polenov designed, a rare example of Russian Art Nouveau, and he is buried in its churchyard.
