Alexander Goldenweiser, as well as his family, closest relatives and friends liked to spend time in the country house, which began to be built in the summer of 1935. The origins of the dacha village Nikolina Gora go back to the 15th century when the monastery of St. Nicholas appeared on this site. Peasant households soon appeared in the surrounding area, and the small village of Nikolskoye-on-Pesku emerged. After some time, the monastery ceased to exist, but the memory was preserved in the unofficial name of the village, which arose here in the 20th century. This village was built by a dacha-building cooperative of employees of the Academy of Sciences and Arts, established in 1925.
The first houses were built from old log cabins, which were bought from peasants. Those houses looked simple from the outside, but were strikingly beautiful inside, and the sumptuous interior decoration resembled old pre-revolutionary estates. The Moscow Art Theater actor Vasily Kachalov, the singer Antonina Nezhdanova and her husband, the conductor of the Bolshoi Theater Nikolay Golovanov, the writer Sergey Mikhalkov, the composer Sergey Prokofiev and many other prominent artists and scientists used to live in the dacha village at different times.
From 1935, Alexander Goldenweiser had been spending the summer at his dacha in Nikolina Gora, surrounded by relatives and creative intelligentsia. He could often be heard playing the piano as he gave concerts of classical music. The family of Goldenweiser’s niece Natalya Gershenzon-Chegodayeva often visited the composer — the musician had a warm close relationship with the relatives.
In 1949, while visiting her great-uncle’s dacha, Maria Andreyevna Chegodayeva, a well-known art critic, publicist, member of the Union of Artists of the USSR, painted the landscape “Nikolina Gora. Crossing the Moscow River”. For a long time, there was no bridge leading to the left bank of the Moscow River in Nikolina Gora — there was only a pontoon crossing. In winter, people walked on top of the frozen river. The young artist’s painting features people crossing the river, going to the dacha village of Nikolina Gora on the left bank. A small ferry, full of people wearing summer clothes, is controlled by a ferryman who moves the boat along a cable stretched between the banks. The color scheme, chosen by the artist, conveys the state of nature before the rain.
The painting by Maria Chegodayeva is in the collection owned by the pianist Alexander Goldenweiser.
