Derozhinskaya's mansion in Kropotkinsky Lane. Architectural fantasy in Kropotkinsky Lane
The Art Nouveau style Derozhinskaya mansion at 13 Kropotkinsky Lane was built between 1901 and 1904 for Alexandra Ivanovna Derozhinskaya. The project was carried out by the architect Fyodor Osipovich Shekhtel with the participation of Alexander Antonovich Galetsky.
Like the previous building built by Shekhtel for Zinaida Morozova at 17 Spiridonovka Street, the building is located freely on the site and deviates somewhat from the red line of Kropotkinsky Lane.
The spatial-planning dominant feature of the Derozhinskaya mansion is an impressively sized two-height hall, which clearly appears from the front of the building in the form of a prominent central volume, which is decorated with a powerful attic and a large arched window opening with a frame divided horizontally and vertically by four imposts.
According to some experts, the compositional integrity of the central part of the building is somewhat disrupted by the fragmented volumes arranged and the decor of small stucco parts on the right side of the mansion. True, the architect managed to neutralize this drawback with the help of a built ornamental fence, which visually seems to unite all the volumes of the mansion.
Separately, it is worth dwelling on the interiors, which, according to art historians, are of great artistic value.
The interior space of the mansion at 13 Kropotkinsky Lane is based on the play of contrasts between the intimate scale of the furniture and decorative elements, made in the spirit of some monumentality. This made it possible to give the volume the illusion of pulsation when moving from one space to another.
It is worth noting that Fyodor Osipovich Shekhtel masterfully drew all the details of the interiors, making sketches of lamps and even textile drawings especially for the Derozhinskaya mansion.
History of the Derozhinskaya house
Before the construction of the Art Nouveau mansion, a wooden manor house stood on this site, the history of which was associated with the names of the poet Gabriel Romanovich Derzhavin, who stayed here in 1788-1789 during his visits to Moscow, and the memoirist Elizaveta Petrovna Yankova, who owned the house since 1828 .
The owner of the newly built building, Alexandra Derozhinskaya, was the daughter of the manufacturer and merchant Ivan Butikov, who eventually became the wife of I.I. Zimin - the owner of a textile production.
In 1921, delegates of the Third Congress of the Communist International were accommodated in the premises, and then the publishing department of the Glavpolitprosvet department, in which the writer Alexander Konstantinovich Voronsky then worked, was transferred here.
At the end of the 20s of the last century, the diplomatic mission of China moved into the former mansion of Derozhinskaya, but starting from the 1930s, representative offices of the already union republics were alternately located here: Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan. Since 1959, the building has been occupied by the Australian diplomatic mission.
Between 2009 and 2013, the mansion was restored. During the work, mosaic floors and ceiling paintings were restored in some of the premises. Not without a remake, which is represented by frescoes made according to sketches by the late 19th century artist Viktor Elpidiforovich Borisov-Musatov.
Currently, the Derozhinskaya mansion at 13 Kropotkinsky Lane is occupied by the Australian Ambassador. The building itself is included in the list of “cultural heritage sites of federal significance.”
Twice a year, on April 18 and May 18, days of historical and cultural heritage are held. On these days, the doors of embassy buildings located in historical mansions, closed for excursion visits on other days, are opened. The mansion of A. I. Derozhinskaya is a residential building in the Art Nouveau style, built in 1901-1904 according to the design of the architect F. O. Shekhtel. One of the key monuments of Moscow Art Nouveau and one of the most famous buildings of the architect Shekhtel. The excursion took place in 2014.
Excursions to other embassies:
All the creations of the architect Franz Adolf (Fedor) Shekhtel are always distinguished by their own style, but the Derozhinskaya-Zimina mansion on Shtatny (Kropotkinsky) Lane stands out even among the best examples of Moscow Art Nouveau. The owner of the house had three marriages, which is why there is some confusion in the names, but most often it is called the Derozhinskaya mansion
Young Sashenka Butikova, the daughter of a textile millionaire, was married at the age of sixteen to Pavel Ryabushinsky, who came from an equally wealthy family. Two Old Believers merchants became related, linking the destinies of their children, but the marriage turned out to be unhappy. At the age of 17, Alexandra inherited part of the family fortune after the death of her father, then another share after the death of her mother, and a few years later - after the death of her childless brother. Although her brother managed to splurge and run things wrong at the factory and in stores, Alexandra Ivanovna, who had business acumen, quickly put everything in order and became one of the richest Moscow entrepreneurs. She immediately divorced her unloved husband and, out of passion, married a nobleman, a brilliant guards officer, Vladimir Derozhinsky. The young husband had nothing but a mortgaged estate somewhere near Voronezh, but he retired and soon took a high position in his wife’s manufacturing partnership. To build a family nest, Derozhinskaya turned to the fashionable architect Franz Schechtel. He built a house for her former relatives, the Ryabushinskys, and Alexandra Ivanovna knew his talent and business skills well. In 1901, she bought an old noble estate for demolition in an elite part of Moscow, in a quiet side street between Ostozhenka and Prechistenka. By 1903 the new house was ready. 
Shekhtel solved issues in a comprehensive manner - the architectural design, decoration, and development of interiors, furniture, lamps, decoration items and even garden decor - he personally handled everything. And everything was of great artistic value. In 2009, when the Australian Embassy, which had used the mansion for about fifty years, vacated it, the doors of the architectural monument were briefly opened to tourists. Then photographs were taken, by which art nouveau lovers now evaluate the interiors of the mansion. But it is better to consider a house when it is inhabited, when there are books on the library shelves, vases with flowers on the mantelpieces, and carpets on the floor. Such photographs can be found on the website of the Office of the Diplomatic Corps at the Russian Foreign Ministry (www/updk.ru). Better yet, get old photographs from the time of Derozhinskaya. 
Derozhinskaya's second marriage also did not last so long. In 1910, she separated from her husband, leaving him, however, at his post in her company, and again married Ivan Zimin, an Old Believer and a wealthy textile magnate... The enlightened Zimin family was famous for its philanthropy, Ivan Zimin was the main shareholder of a private opera theater Zimin, which was founded by his brother. But Alexandra Ivanovna was not keen on charity, did not donate money to art, and even managed to offend the artist Borisov-Musatov to death. According to her order, he completed sketches of panels for the living room of the mansion and was very pleased with his work. But Derozhinskaya-Zimina did not rate the sketches highly and, so that the artist would not pester her, she offered such a meager fee for the work that Borisov-Musatov could only proudly retire. 
The fate of the owner of the house after 1917 is unknown. How many people went missing in the vastness of revolution-stricken Russia? In 1918, the People's Commissariat of Education, under the leadership of N.K., moved into the mansion built by Shekhtel. Krupskaya, then the house changed several more owners - Soviet organizations, diplomatic missions... But many details bearing the stamp of Shekhtel’s talent still survived. Luckily for us. 
The Ostozhenka district has always been a place where Moscow millionaires lived; it is not surprising that even in our time this street has the title of the most expensive street in Moscow. It was all the more interesting to get into one of the most famous mansions located in the alleys of Ostozhenka, in Kropotkinsky (Statny) Lane - the famous Derozhinskaya mansion.
Before talking about the mansion, it is impossible not to say a few words about its owner, because she was an extraordinary person. Alexandra Ivanovna, nee Butikova, was the daughter of a textile millionaire, merchant of the first guild, and hereditary honorary citizen Ivan Ivanovich Butikov. After the death of her parents, she inherited all the Butikovs’ possessions in Ostozhye and estates near Moscow, and the factories and shops were given to her brother Stepan.
Marriages between merchant families were not uncommon at that time, especially between neighbors, and in 1893, sixteen-year-old Alexandra Ivanovna was married to Pavel Pavlovich Ryabushinsky. In this marriage a son, Pavel, was born. But the marriage did not last long, and they separated.
Despite the fact that the consistory did not recognize the divorce, and the process dragged on until 1904, in 1901 Alexandra Ivanovna married lieutenant of the Nikolaev Life Guards Cavalry Regiment Vladimir Valerianovich Derozhinsky. She decides to build a new house for her new family and buys property on Shtatny Lane, previously owned by Agrafena Vasilyevna Demidova. The choice of location, in general, was not accidental, because the Butikovs were old-timers of Ostozhenka - three generations of the Butikovs lived in 1st Ushakovsky Lane (now Korobeinikov Lane, Building 1). Having destroyed all the old wooden buildings, Derozhinskaya orders a house design from the most fashionable Moscow architect Fyodor Osipovich Shekhtel, whose acquaintance she owes to her first husband, since Shekhtel built many buildings for the Ryabushinsky family. In 1901-1902 F.O. Shekhtel with the participation of A.A. Galetsky designed and built in the possession of A.I. Derozhinskaya has a magnificent residential building, a service outbuilding and a garage.
F.O. Shekhtel not only developed the building design, but also thought out the concept of the mansion’s interiors: furniture, fabrics, lamps, floor lamps, doors and trim, and bronze fittings were ordered based on the architect’s own drawings. At the beginning of 1903, the house was put into operation. On the occasion of housewarming on February 6, 1903, the young couple gave a festive dinner: soup-prentanier, royal jelly, lamb lard, fried game, salad and ice cream. Subsequently, the house was not famous for dinner parties - businessmen gathered in the living room much more often than cultural figures.
After the death of her brother, who had no children, in the mid-1900s, Derozhinskaya inherited the entire family business. The brother did not conduct business successfully, production was on the verge of collapse, but Alexandra Ivanovna took everything into her own hands, and also brought her husband V.V. into the management of the company. Derozhinsky, and things went uphill.
Although the second marriage was for love, it also did not last long. In 1910, Derozhinskaya married Ivan Ivanovich Zimin, a textile magnate, director of the Zuevskaya Manufactory Partnership. And although marrying a divorced woman was not welcomed by the Old Believers, they had to endure it: Alexandra Zimina had significant wealth and occupied a high position in society. At the same time, Alexandra Ivanovna maintained good relations with her former husbands. The following memories of the British Consul in Moscow, Bruce Lockhart, have been preserved: “ I find it interesting to watch how Madame Zimina, a Moscow millionaire, dined and played bridge every Sunday with her three husbands - two former and one present».
In her third marriage, Alexandra Ivanovna had a son, Sergei. After the marriage of I.I. Zimin moves into his wife's mansion and gets a position as a financial advisor in her company.
Little is known about Zimina’s fate after the revolution. According to one version, she and her two sons went to Italy. According to the memoirs of Sergei Ivanovich Zimin, her husband’s brother, Alexandra Ivanovna remained in Moscow, came to visit, but the family could not forgive her for her deviation from the traditions of the Old Believers, they believed that her son should not be raised by her. She most likely died in poverty from illness in the mid-1920s.
After the revolution, the famous mansion was occupied by various Soviet institutions: the Cultural and Educational Society of the Ukrainian Rada, the extracurricular department of the People's Commissariat for Education, and after 1921 various diplomatic missions. Since 1959, the Australian Embassy has been located in the Derozhinskaya mansion.
In 2009 - 2013, the mansion was restored, during which some of the ceiling paintings and mosaic floors were restored. And most recently, the residence of the Australian Ambassador was located there, but since they have not yet had time to “settle in,” there is very little furniture there. And yet, on Cultural Heritage Day, thanks to the “Exit to the City” project, I managed to visit there.
First, let's look around the courtyard of the house.
The house itself is located at the back of the courtyard, and in front of it there is a small garden.
The cast iron fence is genuine, and the motif of its patterns will be encountered more than once in the design of house interiors.
The façade of the building is covered with single-color ceramic tiles called “boars.” An interesting element of the courtyard façade is the corner tower.
There were such charming animals in the niches of the house, but these were most likely decorations of the new owners.
The utility building in the courtyard is made in the same style and color scheme as the mansion, which unites all the buildings on the site into a ceremonial ensemble. Alexandra Ivanovna had two Minerva passenger cars with a capacity of 24 and 26 horsepower, for which a garage was built.
The most expressive part of the side facade is the huge recumbent window located in the center.
The main entrance is decorated with an image of the mysterious Lorelei.
And through two pairs of massive doors we find ourselves in the hallway.
In the Art Nouveau style, terribly beautiful things are often found, and so it is here: as if in contrast to the beautiful lady above the entrance, the handles of the internal doors are made in the shape of a spider.
In the hallway, the wall decoration with oak panels with hangers and benches - chests - has been preserved.
Interesting camouflaged door to the toilet.
To make it easier to navigate the house, we’ll add a plan.
We go up a small staircase to the living room.
The luxurious living room is the compositional and artistic center of the mansion. Its walls were supposed to be decorated with panels, and the architect recommended I.E. Derozhinskaya. Grabar, but the owner halved the cost of the work, and the artist refused. Afterwards the job was offered to V.E. Borisov-Musatov, but things didn’t work out with him either. In October 1905 he wrote to Alexandre Benois: " My mural was a fiasco. That's how I wanted to write it. So I dreamed about it. Even though it is a colossal amount of work. I made four watercolor sketches, and everyone really liked them. Spring, summer, and two autumns... the owner of the palazzo where the frescoes were needed nobly retreated, offering pennies for them" Shekhtel was away and could not explain to the customer that she was being offered masterpieces.
The panels we see now are a remake. During the last restoration, it was decided to restore the frescoes made according to sketches by the artist Viktor Borisov-Musatov, preserved in the archives of the Tretyakov Gallery.
One of Shekhtel’s favorite interior elements is the fireplace. In this house, it is surrounded by a wooden frame, and its upper part is supported by the figures of a man and a woman.
Lamps resembling pearls descend from the ceiling on thin metal threads, looking like a bizarre cobweb. And the ventilation grilles are disguised with patterns on the walls.
Almost the entire wall of the hall is occupied by a huge arched window, through which light literally floods the entire room.
To the left of the living room is a boudoir office.
It seems that there are no straight lines in its interior; even the walls and cornices are wavy.
The design of the ceiling is also surprising: light bulbs are mounted in a fancy pattern.
The main staircase is located in the interior of the house. Its design also uses natural motifs depicting wildly growing fairy-tale flowers.
The flower cups are inlaid with ebony. And the whole composition is crowned by a copper lantern placed on a wooden pedestal.
The next room is an office. Once upon a time it also had a ceremonial decoration, but at the request of the owner in the 1910s. was completely redone, even the wonderful marble fireplace was removed.
Neither the interiors nor the furniture in the office have been preserved; even the chandelier here is from a completely different opera.
The dining room is one of the most interesting rooms in the mansion, because it has preserved many original interior details.
To the right of the buffet, the door to the spiral staircase for the servants is slightly open.
A narrow staircase led to the service rooms; its railings are made in the form of an openwork metal ornament, the basis of which is curls, which are also found in other details of the interior of the Derozhinskaya mansion.
And let's go back to the dining room. The furniture for it was designed by Shekhtel using English and Austrian Art Nouveau motifs.
In place of the lost table, a dining set from that era is located in the center of the room. To the left of the display case with dishes there is a door leading to the kitchen.
At the end of our tour of the house, I present a small selection of the most attractive decorative elements; it’s amazing how different they all are, but at the same time incredibly stylish.
Literature:
1. Ulyanova G., Datieva N., Zolotarev M. Dynasties of the Zimins and Guchkovs in the history of Moscow and the Moscow province
2. Architectural heritage - Shekhtel.
3. PAM (First floor plan)
4. Zimin after the revolution:
The Art Nouveau style Derozhinskaya mansion at 13 Kropotkinsky Lane was built between 1901 and 1904 for Alexandra Ivanovna Derozhinskaya. The project was carried out by the architect with the participation of Alexander Antonovich Galetsky.
Like the previous building built by Shekhtel for Zinaida Morozova on the street, the building is located freely on the site and recedes somewhat from the red line of Kropotkinsky Lane.
The spatial-planning dominant feature of the Derozhinskaya mansion is an impressively sized two-height hall, which clearly appears from the front of the building in the form of a prominent central volume, which is decorated with a powerful attic and a large arched window opening with a frame divided horizontally and vertically by four imposts.
According to some experts, the compositional integrity of the central part of the building is somewhat disrupted by the fragmented volumes arranged and the decor of small stucco parts on the right side of the mansion. True, the architect managed to neutralize this drawback with the help of a built ornamental fence, which visually seems to unite all the volumes of the mansion.
Separately, it is worth dwelling on the interiors, which, according to art historians, are of great artistic value.
The interior space of the mansion at 13 Kropotkinsky Lane is based on the play of contrasts between the intimate scale of the furniture and decorative elements, made in the spirit of some monumentality. This made it possible to give the volume the illusion of pulsation when moving from one space to another.
It is worth noting that Fyodor Osipovich Shekhtel masterfully drew all the details of the interiors, making sketches of lamps and even textile drawings especially for the Derozhinskaya mansion.
History of the Derozhinskaya house
Before the construction of the Art Nouveau mansion, a wooden manor house stood on this site, the history of which was associated with the names of the poet Gabriel Romanovich Derzhavin, who stayed here in 1788-1789 during his visits to Moscow, and the memoirist Elizaveta Petrovna Yankova, who owned the house since 1828 .
The owner of the newly built building, Alexandra Derozhinskaya, was the daughter of the manufacturer and merchant Ivan Butikov, who eventually became the wife of I.I. Zimin - the owner of a textile production.
In 1921, delegates of the Third Congress of the Communist International were accommodated in the premises, and then the publishing department of the Glavpolitprosvet department, in which the writer Alexander Konstantinovich Voronsky then worked, was transferred here.
At the end of the 20s of the last century, the diplomatic mission of China moved into the former mansion of Derozhinskaya, but starting from the 1930s, representative offices of the already union republics were alternately located here: Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan. Since 1959, the building has been occupied by the Australian diplomatic mission.
Guide to Architectural StylesThe architect and the customer met when the merchant Butikov married his 16-year-old daughter to the Old Believer and financier Pavel Ryabushinsky. His brother, Stepan Ryabushinsky, was friends with Fyodor Shekhtel. This predetermined Alexandra Derozhinskaya’s passion for the Art Nouveau style. The divorce of the Ryabushinsky couple that followed in 1900 did not prevent this.
The very next year, Alexandra married a poor officer, Vladimir Derozhinsky. By that time, she herself had already inherited a decent fortune, so she thought about creating a cozy “family nest.” Then Derozhinskaya ordered Shekhtel to build a new house on the site where the memoirist Elizaveta Yankova stood. Moreover, the project appeared back in 1886, when the businesswoman and Pavel Ryabushinsky had a son.
Derozhinskaya's house was built very quickly - within a year.
How to read facades: a cheat sheet on architectural elementsAt the same time, Shekhtel was working on the Ryabushinsky mansion on Malaya Nikitskaya. But the utility building with an outbuilding, a stable for 12 stalls and a carriage house was completed much later.
In general, Derozhinskaya’s house has 2 floors and a basement. On the first there were reception rooms and family rooms, on the second there was a kitchen, rooms for children and their governesses. The basement housed utility rooms, servants' rooms, and a billiard room. And many technological innovations appeared for the first time in Derozhinskaya’s mansion: steam heating, exhaust ventilation, sewerage, water supply, electricity and telephone.
From the street the building seems small, but inside everything is huge: a window covering the entire wall, a spiral staircase from floor to roof, a main hall with high walls, and the largest fireplace in Moscow. And the plot of its decor (a man on the left and a woman on the right with her back turned) reflected the family drama of the owner.
Shekhtel thought through everything to the smallest detail: furniture, furnishings and even door handles. For example, the internal handle of the front entrance is a spider folded from two halves.
Symbolism in architecture: what do building facades tell you?Therefore, the bare walls of the front hall seem strange. According to the architect’s idea, they were to be decorated with four fresco panels from the “Seasons” cycle by Viktor Borisov-Musatov. But either the customer did not like the sketches, or greed played a role, but Derozhinskaya offered the artist such a low price that he refused the work. And soon he died.
This house did not bring happiness to Derozhinskaya herself: her second marriage broke up in 1910. That's why she married a third time - to Ivan Zimin. The couple lived in the estate until the 1917 revolution, and then emigrated to Italy. Their further fate is unknown.
After the revolution, the People's Commissariat for Education was located in Derozhinskaya's house. Then there was a dormitory for Comintern delegates here, and it was replaced by a series of embassies. In 1959, the mansion was transferred to the Australian Embassy.
In 2009-2013, the building was restored, and this time the walls of Derozhinskaya’s house were nevertheless decorated with frescoes based on sketches by Borisov-Musatov.
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