Watch our video tour of the exhibition

This is the show that caused all the complications and the paintings that became political pawns in the continuing spat between London and Moscow. Now, in a collaboration that hopefully could help to start rebuilding bridges, the Royal Academy trumpets the opening of a pretty spectacular exhibition.

From Russia, French and Russian Master Paintings 1870-1925 from Moscow and St Petersburg was worth fighting for. The rich mixture of treasures from Russia’s great state collections includes masterpieces to pull in huge crowds. Here are a couple of the world’s most famous Matisse paintings, including his 1910 The Dance, its terracotta figures flowing in their eternal leaping circle. This powerful second version of a landmark experiment feels even more energetic, more jubilant, more highly charged than its earlier incarnation, which is among the most prized possessions of New York’s Museum of Modern Art.

Here is a corner of Monets, a wall of Cézannes, a row of Gauguins, a cluster of Renoirs. Some have barely been seen in the West before, let alone brought to Britain. Now they arrive, like grand elder statesmen, to help to broker a diplomatic entente. They bear testimony to a ground- breaking era when Russia turned towards Paris for inspiration. Its artists spent years there, absorbing the lessons of anyone from the Barbizon painters to the Cubists. The landscapes of Levitan are brought alive by Camille Corot’s blustering light. Tatlin seeks a way forward using Picasso’s fractured planes.

This show sets out to trace this Russian progress, introducing the spectator to a handful of artists he has probably never heard of. Some deserve their anonymity — their pictures are clumsy rip-offs. Others are revelatory. But if you keep on track you can follow the story of how Russia started to dispense with its former role models, finding a path, via such pioneers as Kandinsky, towards the ground-breaking abstractions of Malevich and an era in which Russia led the avant garde.

This exhibition looks likely to get terribly clogged in the opening rooms. The amazing French canvases that were squirrelled away a century ago by a pair of Moscow collectors look set to be the real pull. But persist. Russia also can call on some pretty prestigious ambassadors. They are artistic heavyweights who know how to stand up for their country.

Right from the beginning you can spot the stubborn streak. You can see the fierce pride in national identity developing, the burgeoning interest in folk art traditions. Valentin Serov’s portrait of the temptress Ida Rubinstein, her body draped against a blank backdrop like a relief carving stirring into psychological life, speaks an unsettling language. It has a haunting, erotic force. A work such as this seizes the eye and the imagination. The art of diplomacy does not have to be anodyne.

The show, for which The Times is the media partner, opens on Saturday, January 26.

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