Collector Shchukin acquired 37 paintings by Matisse over seven years of acquaintance

The calling card of the Shchukin collection: Henri Matisse's Dance. Matisse's canvases occupy a special place in Shchukin's collection, just as the artist himself does in the life of the collector. As for Shchukin's place in the life of Matisse, the reformer of painting repeatedly spoke of his acquaintance with the Russian patron as a stroke of luck. And so it was: Shchukin met Matisse when he was still, in essence, a nobody, having seen just a single work of his, and over the following 7 years of their acquaintance he acquired 37 canvases, and from an artist who with every year grew more renowned and at length became a cult figure. I do not know whether a book on this relationship has yet been written, but the way in which the two men influenced one another and altered one another's views is revealed in their numerous letters, in the memoirs of contemporaries and even in critical articles in the newspapers. In Moscow, Shchukin's devotion to Matisse was more often described as the gulling of a Russian simpleton by French swindlers. Meanwhile S.I. not only bought up and commissioned Matisse's paintings, but also instilled a taste for them, and for other artists, in fellow collectors, Morozov for one.