The figure of the world-famous gallery creator strangely hides in the shadow of his brainchild. Books, articles, and television programs dedicated to Tretyakov passionately talk about the artists he patronized, the paintings he acquired, and how the Tretyakov continued to exist after the death of its creator. With all the abundance of dedicated P.M. It seems to Tretyakov of literature that an unknown artist sketched his image with light strokes, took up the paints - but never finished the picture, did not color it with the bright colors of individuality, did not breathe into it God's spark of the soul... Of course, speaking about Tretyakov, one cannot ignore attention to what represented for him the goal of life - the creation of a collection of paintings in Lavrushinsky Lane. However, the author sees his main task as relying on documentary evidence to show the reader the multifaceted personality that Pavel Mikhailovich Tretyakov was.