Residential house of Pertsova

Petr Nikolayevich Pertsov, a railway engineer and an ardent art lover, has perpetuated his name building the house, which has become a dwelling and a talent boutique for many artists and theatrical people.

The house perfectly fitted for a cradle of the new wave of Russian art, since the house itself was built based on a sketch of talented artist Sergey Malyutin. Enamored with theater and Russian folklore fabulous epos, he created the buildings, the furniture and everyday objects thinking about their convenience and rationality, however filling their images with a sense of fairy-tale, with symbols he found in folk art. Mr. Malyutin authored the "Russian wonder", winning the hearts of the whole world – Matryoshka doll.

It's no coincidence that Pertsov asked Malyutin to develop the image of his future house. Several years before, next to the land plot bought by Pertsov, another house in Russian fairy-tale style appeared, which house was created by Viktor Vasnetsov (29, Prechistenskaya embankment). The owner of the mansion, Ivan Tsvetkov, a friend and a fellow man of Pertsov in collecting, gave him an idea of making something similar. The house had to draw the eye with its extravagance, simultaneously expressing the national originality of the Russian art.

Malyutin completely unlocked his creative potential gained for the years of work for the good of princess Tenisheva in Talashkino village. The artist invited his friends from "Murava" pottery partnership located in the same village.

For two years of construction the craftsmen decorated the façades of the building with incredible majolica panels depicting the epic stories and fabulous ceramic elements. Thus, one of the balconies is borne by fantastic snakes. The internal decoration is also unusual: carving on all wooden elements, wavy pattern on the floor, chimeric wall decorations. A severe mental stroke hit Malyutin, when after some time all internal artistic solutions of the rooms were simplified, literally destroyed: carving was removed almost completely, walls smoothly plastered and painted in one color.

The house is also remarkable due to the fact that architect N.K. Zhukov (jointly with V. Shnaubert) built it on the remains of a building previously located here, giving all the sides of the house an original but stylistically holistic look. Here, in the Russian palace such artists as Robert Falk, Aleksandr Kuprin, Pavel Sokolov-Skalya lived willingly.

The upper storeys accommodated the workshops and bedrooms of the artists. The first floor hosted the famous "Bat" cabaret founded by the first Russian entertainer Nikita Baliev and oil tycoon N. Tarasov. Theatrical legend has it that when the founders were looking for a suitable building for cabaret, a bat flew towards them walking downstairs to the basement, and that's why the cabaret is named after the bat. The cabaret opened on February 29, 1908. Here revue-sketch comedies of the actors of Moscow Art Theatre were staged. In the deep of night the curtain showing a bat – mocking the seagull of Moscow Art Theatre – opened here and Stanislavsky became a magician, Nemirovich-Danchenko – an orchestral conductor, Kachalov - a wrestler, Knipper-Chekhova – a chansonette...

After the revolution the building was used as a hostel for military officers.