The Niko Pirosmanashvili Museum in Mirzaani

The house the painter built for his sister

Mirzaani, in the Dedoplistskaro municipality, is the native village of Niko Pirosmanashvili (1862-1918). In 1898 the painter replaced the old family house with a new brick one with a terrace, built for his sister. That house became a museum in 1960, by which time Pirosmani's fame was long posthumous.

The collection holds fourteen original works by Pirosmani, the second largest after the National Gallery in Tbilisi. Beside them hang a lithograph by Pablo Picasso and paintings by Georgian artists of the twentieth century: Lado Gudiashvili, Ketevan Magalashvili, Vera Sidamon-Eristavi.

The second part of the display is about life in Kiziki, the steppe Kakheti where Pirosmani grew up: hand-woven rugs and kilims, household utensils, the painter's personal belongings. One of the rugs, according to the museum inventory, was woven by his mother.