By 1914, Shchukin owned thirteen Monet paintings, including the iconic Lady in the Garden and the smaller but complete version of Picnic; three by Renoir; eight by Cézanne, including Carnival (Mardi Gras); four by Van Gogh, including the Portrait of Dr. Felix Rey (but the most famous Van Gogh paintings in Russia, Prison Courtyard and The Red Vineyard, were purchased by Shchukin's friend and competitor, Ivan Abramovitch Morozov); sixteen by Gauguin of the Tahitian period, which were hung in his dining room in the manner of an orthodox iconostasis; seven by Henri Rousseau; sixteen by André Derain; eight by Albert Marquet; and two by Maxime Dethomas.

[5] Henri Matisse created La Danse for Shchukin as part of a two-painting commission, the other important painting being Music, 1910.

In 1909, Shchukin opened his home on Sundays for public viewings, introducing French avant-garde painting to the Muscovites.

After the 1917 Revolution, the government appropriated his collection (decree of the Council of the People's Commissioners, signed Lenin, 8 November 1918) while Shchukin escaped to Paris, where he died in 1936.

[6] In 1948 the State Museum of New Western Art was closed down by a decree signed by Stalin due to its allegedly bourgeois, cosmopolitan and wrongly oriented artworks.

In 2008, the families of Shchukin and Morozov made efforts to compel Russia to provide them with “reasonable compensation,” which become an international legal and political issue.

[7] Shchukin died on 10 January 1936 in Paris and is buried in Montmartre Cemetery, Avenue des Polonais 1st Division.