Exhibition: Beautiful Life Magazine (Moscow, 2024)

Just 10 years ago, glossy magazines were the main source of fashion trends for us. Glossy magazines cover a wide range of topics, including culture, society news, current events, and travel. We can find all of these sections in modern fashion magazines, and it was the same 100 years ago.

The exhibition I visited in September at the Moscow Museum of Russian Impressionism is dedicated to the first Russian glossy magazine, published from 1913 to 1917, called "Capital and Manor". The edition was created based on the model of foreign magazines “Town & Country”, “Tatler” and “Country Style”, and was addressed to a wealthy audience: high society and those seeking to get closer to the aristocracy.

The publisher Vladimir Krymov's appeal published in the first issue stated: "The beautiful life is not available to everyone, but it still exists. I would like to emphasize the beautiful in the present. This is the task set by the editors. Any politics, party affiliation, class discord will be absolutely alien to the magazine."

The audience of "Capital and Manor" magazine grew rapidly, despite the high price of the issue. Everything attracted readers: colorful illustrations, articles about balls, travels, hunts, jewelry, grand ducal engagements and weddings, magnificent interiors and rich private collections. Even Empress Alexandra Feodorovna herself subscribed to the magazine.

Modern people are inclined to perceive the last pre-revolutionary decade as a time of impeccable taste, sophistication, honor, education and intelligence, especially in relation to the high society of that time. The curatorial team of the exhibition in no way argues with this poeticized perception of the past.

The sections of the exhibition were named after the magazine's regular headings: "The Capital", "The Manor in the Past and Present", "About This and That", "In the Auditorium", "Tourism", "Art Exhibitions", "Petrograd During the War".

Art on the pages of the magazine is an attribute of dolce vita, an indicator of status. The exhibition includes works that were either reproduced on the pages of the magazine or described in detail by critics in reports from exhibitions.