Sergei Ivanovich Shchukin (27 May 1854, Moscow – 10 January 1936, Paris) was a Russian businessman who became an art collector, mainly of French Impressionist and Post- Impressionist art, following a trip to Paris in 1897, when he bought his first Monet. He later bought numerous works to a total of 258 paintings decorating the walls of his palatial home in Moscow.

Synopsis

The way in which modern American and European art is studied is in large part due to the work and life of Alfred H. Barr, Jr. In 1929, Barr was appointed as first director of The Museum of Modern Art in New York City. As Director until 1943 (when he was forced to resign), Barr was instrumental in promoting the art of established modernists like van Gogh, Gauguin, Matisse and Cézanne. Additionally, there was perhaps no greater champion in America for the work of Pablo Picasso. Barr sought out many of the artist's pieces and arranged the well-known retrospective at MoMA in 1946, Picasso: Fifty Years of his Art.