A history reflected in porcelain: the Dulevo Factory Museum
The Dulevo Porcelain Factory Museum is a place that brings together an exceptionally rich collection of items produced at the factory — from masters of the Kuznetsov era to contemporary painters. The team of the National Centre RUSSIA, led by Director General Natalia Virtuozova, visited the town of Likino-Dulyovo in the Moscow region, where the renowned Russian factory is located.
"The year our factory was founded is 1832. Since that moment, the enterprise has operated without interruption. The only pause occurred during the pandemic, when production was halted for one and a half months in the spring of 2020 by order of Rospotrebnadzor. Against the backdrop of our 193-year history, those one and a half months are insignificant," noted Galina Krutova, Chief Curator of the Dulevo Porcelain Museum.
The introduction to the museum begins with the historical hall. It brings together documents and exhibits that tell the story of the factory’s achievements: awards received by employees, prizes for participation in exhibitions and contests, and commemorative gifts presented to the factory. Display cases feature works that have received high international recognition, including the Grand Prix and diploma of the 1937 World Exhibition in Paris, where Petr Ivanov’s design "Beauty" was awarded a gold medal, which returned together with Alexei Sotnikov’s sculpture "The Lamb". A significant number of exhibits are marked by awards from the 1958 World Exhibition in Brussels — the first major post-war exhibition for the factory — where Sotnikov’s sculpture "The Hen and the Falcon" received the Grand Prix, and the image of the falcon later became the factory’s trademark. Many of these artistic motifs are still used today in the decoration of tea sets.
"Plant and floral ornaments are characteristic of Dulevo: the beauty of the surrounding nature is transferred onto porcelain. 'Agashka' is a design named after a woman called Agafya. In essence, it can be any flower executed in the distinctive brushstroke technique. This tradition dates back to the Kuznetsov period, at the dawn of the factory’s existence, when floral motifs and petals were applied in a free, painterly manner. Some pieces are made in an Oriental style. By the early twentieth century, the factory was actively working with the markets of Central Asia and the Middle East, which is why plant ornaments remain part of the legacy of the Kuznetsov era even today, including in post-war works," Galina Krutova explained.
Each display case is dedicated to a specific artist: even while working within the same artistic direction, the masters preserved their own individual style and visual language. The museum presents artists of the older generation — self-taught painters without formal education, yet possessing an innate sense of colour and taste, whose designs are still used today. One such figure is Chief Artist Petr Leonov, who arrived in Dulevo in the 1930s with no experience of working with porcelain. He succeeded in uniting the masters and setting a new artistic direction while maintaining a strong connection to folk traditions.
"There is also a sculpture hall in the museum. Before the Revolution and in the early years of Soviet rule, the factory did not engage in sculpture — it produced porcelain tableware exclusively. It was only in the 1930s, with the arrival of the first sculptors, and later after the Great Patriotic War, in the late 1940s and early 1950s, that the flourishing of Dulevo sculpture began. Each artist had their own distinctive artistic style. A special place among them belongs to Nina Malysheva. Ballet, theatre and fairy-tale imagery played an important role in her work. She expressed herself particularly vividly in genre sculpture — scenes of everyday life. The display cases feature various works by the artist: ‘The Swing’, ‘Children’s Bicycle’, ‘Mischief-makers by the Stream’, ‘The Dreamer’, and ‘The Aeroplane Has Arrived’. She had a subtle sense of humour, clearly evident, for example, in the work ‘At the Photographer’s’. The couple being photographed looks especially touching: to match the lady, the gentleman stands on a small bench — a detail that inevitably brings a smile," Galina Krutova said.
The Chief Curator of the Dulevo Porcelain Museum noted that all the artists whose works are presented in the museum can be described as true long-serving figures of the factory. According to her, the masters worked until their final years, never allowing themselves to relax, preserving the strength of their hands, their energy and their ability to work with raw materials over decades. Many of them spent their lives moving between Moscow and Dulevo and devoted 30 to 40 years to the enterprise. This, Galina Krutova emphasised, shapes the museum’s distinctive character, its history and the image of its masters.
The museum also displays the "Presidential" set — a unique ensemble of Dulevo porcelain produced in 1934–1935 by order of the American Embassy for the President of the United States, Franklin Delano Roosevelt. After the establishment of Soviet–American diplomatic relations, Ambassador William Bullitt visited an exposition of Soviet porcelain and the Dulevo factory, highly praised the products and placed a major order that included tableware, tea and coffee sets for hundreds of people, executed in a decorative manner using full-coverage painting and Khokhloma motifs. The order was completed in record time and sent to the United States, while the proceeds were directed towards the needs of industrialisation. At the same time, some items from the set are now preserved and displayed in museums. Among them are works created specifically for the French political and statesman Charles de Gaulle.
Guided tours are held both in the museum and at the factory, where visitors can not only explore the exhibits but also see the porcelain production cycle with their own eyes. Master classes are also organised for those who wish to try their hand at porcelain painting. The Dulevo Factory Museum embodies Russian history and is located on the grounds of a manufactory that for centuries supplied Russian families with porcelain.
The National Centre RUSSIA informs visitors of temporary changes to its opening hours for the coming week.
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