Peredvizhniki - an association of Russian artists, which existed from the last third of the XIX century to 1920 and set itself the task of showing the life of ordinary people without embellishments and varnish the reality, as it really was and to focus attention on the main vices of our society. Peredvizhniki often contrasted their paintings to stiffened academism, which often did not find much demand in Russia, as rich customers preferred to buy paintings by foreign artists. And in any case had a huge impact on the development of Russian painting. In this article you can read more about the Peredvizhniki, find out how much they earned and why, despite the success of this society eventually disintegrated.
Peredvizhniki wrote a lot of paintings, which are easy to identify by some distinctive features. On how to recognize that before us is a picture of the Peredvizhniki, to identify its distinctive features, we will talk in this article.
often poor and indigent. Usually itinerant painters painted people from the people, the heroes of the paintings became burlaki, by the way, not only in Ilya Repin, but also in some other artists, such as Vasily Vereshchagin or Alexei Savrasov, although it is fair to say that Repin's burlaki much more expressive, perhaps because it is so well known.
Vasily Perov. The Three.
Wanderers, wanderers, worshipers, beggars, migrants, old men and old women, children engaged in hard labor, as in Perov's famous painting “Troika”, peasants, pogoreltsy, and their poor clothes and rags allocated with special care and expressiveness.
Victor Vasnetsov. From apartment to apartment
Another key theme of the Peredvizhniks' paintings. They set themselves the task of protecting the most vulnerable characters, usually children and old people, orphaned families, as in Vasily Perov's painting “Seeing the Dead Man Away”, they also showed the unhappy fate of young girls married off against their will, as in Vasily Pukiryov's great painting “Unequal Marriage”.
Vasily Perov. Seeing the dead man off.
And all of them patiently and uncomplainingly bear their cross, do not protest and do not try to change anything in their lives, simply because it is impossible. Small tragedies in individual paintings by the Peredvizhniki make an indelible impression on an indifferent viewer, and it is one thing to sympathize with the burlaks - mostly strong and sturdy men, who often chose such a fate themselves and another thing - with children, orphaned families, old men and old women, as in Vasily Maximov's painting “Will she get there?”.
Vasily Maximov. Will she get there?
a tavern, a lodging house, a disenfranchised court. The urban environment in the paintings of the Peredvizhniks most often emphasizes their plight, often carrying all possible harmful temptations, as, for example, in Perov's painting “The last tavern at the outpost” or Vladimir Makovsky's canvas “I will not let them in”.
Vasily Perov. The last pub at the outpost
Indeed, itinerant artists tried in every possible way to show the harmfulness of drunkenness, both for the men themselves and especially their families, and the lower classes in Russia abused often, at least, such a conclusion can be drawn from the paintings of itinerant artists and works of our classics - read the story “The Men” or “In the ravine” by the wonderful writer Anton Chekhov. They drank largely because life was hopeless - endless artwork for 10-12 hours a day with only one day off.
Vladimir Makovsky. I won't let you in.
Peredvizhniki often showed in an unsightly light petty officials, insignificant clergy, as in Vasily Perov's painting “Cross Procession at Easter”, landlords who forget that the peasants and servants have human dignity and merchants who ungodly cheat artisans and peasants, and sell them during the feast of the Throne vodka.
Vasily Perov. Cross Procession on Easter
But they usually never painted in a satirical way really important figures - major ministers or the sovereign. Censorship in the Russian Empire acted quite strictly and such paintings would simply not have been missed. Even Perov's relatively harmless canvas “The Procession at Easter” was banned from public display for censorship reasons, and the artist himself “well-wishers” wrote: “How would you not go to Solovki for such a dismissive attitude to the clergy.
Vasily Perov. Tea party in Mytishchi, near Moscow
In the 1870s and 1880s many young people shared the ideas of Narodnikism and devoted their lives to the struggle against the tsarist regime. Among the advanced itinerant artists they always found understanding and partly justified their actions, however, the artists did not emphasize their rightness and innocence too explicitly, although they sympathized with the condemned in their paintings. There were many images of rebels in the paintings of the Russian Peredvizhniks - it is enough to remember the paintings “Life All Around” by Nikolai Yaroshenko, “The Arrest of a Propagandist” by Ilya Repin or the artwork “Party” and “Condemned” by Vladimir Makovsky.
Ilya Repin. Arrest of a propagandist.
Often itinerant painters painted portraits where the main thing is not specific people, but their social affiliation, which is generalized in a single type. Such are portraits of peasants, workers, students, representatives of the creative intelligentsia. The external background is practically absent here or it is extremely ascetic, the main emphasis is on the image of a person from the people. The attitude towards him is usually sympathetic or even glorifying, but never mocking and ironic.
Ivan Kramskoy. Field worker.
writers and artists, rulers of the mind, for Pavel Tretyakov. The Peredvizhniki were not very fond of painting commissioned portraits, although they had to do it - they had to live on something. Ivan Kramskoy wrote a lot of portraits - 5-6 hours a day, even when he was seriously ill, that is, he worked to the limit, perhaps because he died so early - at the age of 49. But for Tretyakov he gladly painted portraits of famous writers and poets, who were at that time the real rulers of minds. Usually they were executed in almost monochrome, like the portraits of Leo Tolstoy, Nikolai Nekrasov and Saltykov-Shchedrin by Kramskoi.
Ivan Kramskoy. Portrait of Leo Tolstoy.
In a similar style are portraits of Dostoevsky by Vasily Perov and the critic Stasov by Ilya Repin.
Vasily Perov. Portrait of Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky.
For artists it was more important to show an intelligent and thinking man, deeply concerned about what is happening in Russia, staying in thought about the search for the meaning of life and the special path of our people and here excessive colorfulness would only harm the whole image. It is not by chance that many textbook portraits of the classics were painted by our itinerant artists.
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