"As one climbs the stairs [of the Shchukin Gallery], frozen through and through, one glimpses at the top of the stairwell the famous Matisse murals, naked figures rhythmically arranged against a background of concentrated red as warm and as luminous as as that of Russian icons. Matisse, Gauguin, and Picasso were the major passions of this collector. One room has twenty-nine Gauguins crammed on its walls . . . There is probably no other place in the world that provides one with such an overview of Picasso's development, from the early paintings of his twenties through 1914."
~~ from Moscow Diary by Walter Benjamin
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