Gorky House Museum, Biographical museum in Moscow, Russia.

The Gorky House Museum occupies a mansion at 6 Malaya Nikitskaya, built by Fyodor Schechtel in 1900–03 for Stepan Ryabushinsky. Its pale pink and yellow brick facade has a white arched entrance porch, a balcony with wrought-iron railings, and a mosaic frieze of irises. Inside, a three-storey staircase with a polished concrete-and-marble railing curls upward past a glass-and-brass jellyfish lamp.

Built for businessman Stepan Ryabushinsky around 1900, the mansion was seized by the state in 1917. Stalin gifted it to writer Maxim Gorky in 1932, where he remained until his death.

The Ryabushinsky family were Old Believers, an Orthodox doctrine condemned by the official church, so Schechtel hid a small chapel under a corner of the roof. It was discreetly integrated into the decoration. The family also assembled a noted collection of Russian icons.

The museum entrance is through the former service door in the courtyard, not the main porch. The ground floor, where Gorky lived, is the main exhibition area; his family's rooms were upstairs. Allow time to examine the library and period furnishings.

A jellyfish-shaped chandelier hangs at the base of the marble staircase, catching light in an unexpected way. Colorful mosaic friezes depicting flowering orchids run along the exterior walls, giving the house a lavish botanical quality.