The history of the emergence of the "association of traveling art exhibitions", its charter and organization. Establishment of the "Association of Traveling Art Exhibitions" The activities of the Association of Traveling Art Exhibitions are
ABSTRACT
TOPIC: "PARTNERSHIP OF MOBILE ARTISTS
EXHIBITIONS. HISTORICAL PAINTING OF THE SECOND HALF
No. Introduction. Brief review of the literature used………………...…3
Chapter I. Organization of the Association of Traveling Art
exhibitions……………………………………………………………………...5
§ 1. Struggle for ideological and creative independence………………....5
§ 2. Organization of the Partnership ……………………………………… 9
§ 3. Significance of the first exhibition of the Association………………………..11
Chapter II. Years of growth. Gathering strength.
Struggle for independent existence……………………………….12
§ 1. Stages of activity of the Partnership………………………………… 12
§ 2. The ideological image of the Wanderers…………………………………. 14
Chapter III. Historical painting in the Partnership……………………...17
§ 1. Creativity N. N. Ge………………………………………...……...17
§ 2. The work of V. I. Surikov is the highest stage in the development of Russian
historical painting……………………………………………….20
Conclusion……………………………………………………………...…..27
List of used literature…………………………………………29
Appendix (illustrations)………………………………………………..30
INTRODUCTION
On November 9, 1863, a large group of graduates of the Academy of Arts refused to write competitive works on the proposed theme from Scandinavian mythology and left the Academy. Seven years later, the "Association of Traveling Art Exhibitions" arose. During its half-century of existence, it has held 48 exhibitions.
One of the most interesting aspects of the work of the Wanderers is, in my opinion, historical painting. It is impossible to look at the faces of women in the painting “Morning of the Streltsy Execution” by V. I. Surikov without shudder, without admiration for the boyar Morozova, without pity for Menshikov and his children doomed to death. Perhaps many will say that these paintings are too gloomy both in mood and in their coloristic decision. But after all, the time during which the artists worked was characterized primarily by cardinal changes in the economic, political and social spheres (the consequences of the reforms of the 60s and 70s). This could not but affect the development of Russian culture. That is why the main issues of the era, the ideas of the struggle of the masses for their social and national liberation, found a vivid artistic expression in the art of the Wanderers. With great love they embodied the positive images of revolutionary fighters and outstanding figures of Russian national culture, revealed the spiritual beauty, wisdom and strength of workers, the diversity and poetic charm of their native nature. In my opinion, one of the features of the paintings of the Wanderers is the deep psychologism of their works. Peter I, Catherine II, Ermak, Menshikov appear before the viewer, first of all, not as famous historical figures, but as people with a difficult fate. The artists paid the main attention to the psychological understanding of their images. The theme of the people was also of great importance in the work of the Wanderers. By this they expressed the belief that historical progress is ultimately determined not by individual outstanding personalities, but by the people.
In general, Russian painting of the 19th century brought to the people the same ideas as literature, the ideas of civil and national dignity, freethinking, and humanism. It can be said that if Pushkin, Gogol, Turgenev and Leo Tolstoy were the voice of progressive Russia, then Kramskoy, Ge, Repin and Surikov were its vision. In my opinion, the painting of the Wanderers can rightly be called an encyclopedia of Russian life.
The exhibitions of the Association aroused great public interest in art and were extremely successful among the most diverse segments of the population, primarily because the artists were able to reflect in their works the truth, which, unfortunately, was often veiled by official ideology. Today, these paintings are not only cultural heritage, but also important historical documents. In the works of the Wanderers, each person can find something of their own and (who knows?) Discover new horizons.
The history of the organization of the Partnership, the main aspects of the activities of the Wanderers and the historical significance of this organization are presented in the books of F. S. Roginskaya "The Association of Traveling Art Exhibitions", A. V. Paramonov "The Wanderers" and E. Gomberg-Verzhbinskaya "The Wanderers". Of great interest is the monograph by Ya. D. Minchenkov “Memoirs of the Wanderers”, from where the reader can learn previously unknown details about the creative searches and life paths of the members of the Partnership. The book of N. A. Troitsky "Russia in the 19th century" (a course of lectures) perfectly illuminates the historical situation in the country during the period of the emergence of the Partnership, and also gives a brief description of the work of the Wanderers. Information about the principles of work and organization of the Partnership, the activities of the Wanderers can be found in the book “Letters. Articles." Kramskoy IN, for many years the former head of the organization. The work of A. N. Benois "The History of Russian Painting in the 19th Century" is also interesting, telling about the development of Russian art throughout the century.
CHAPTER I . ORGANIZATION OF A PARTNERSHIP
TRAVELING ART EXHIBITIONS
§ 1. Struggle for ideological and creative independence
The end of the 50s and 60s of the XIX century were a turning point in the history of Russia. The emerging capitalist relations shook the foundations of the feudal-absolutist system. The serf system came to a deep crisis, which finally became a brake on the development of the country's productive forces. The defeat of Russia in the Crimean War (1853 - 1856) showed the historical doom of the serfdom, caused a powerful growth of the anti-serfdom movement. At the turn of the 1850s and 1960s, a revolutionary situation developed in Russia. Under the pressure of growing discontent and revolutionary actions of the people, the tsarist autocracy was forced to carry out the abolition of serfdom, which opened the way for the capitalist development of the country. But the agrarian reform carried out from above did not alleviate the position of the peasantry, which fell under the double yoke of the landowners and capitalists.
The revolutionary-liberation movement has entered a new, diverse-democratic stage of its development. A huge role in the struggle of the people for national and social liberation was played by Russian democratic culture, which developed under the influence of the ideas of the great Russian enlighteners. The works of Belinsky, Chernyshevsky, Dobrolyubov laid the foundation for combat materialistic aesthetics, which became a solid foundation for the development of literature, theater, music, and fine arts.
The fine arts are filled with democratic, socially sharpened content, in which the dark sides of Russian life are widely reflected. At the end of the 50s, a whole galaxy of young painters actively performed - V.G. Perov, P.A. Petrov, A.P. Popov, N.V. Nevrev, V.I. Yakobi, L.I. Solomatkin, P .M.Shmelkov, who in their paintings and graphic works raised urgent questions of people's life, revealed sharp contradictions in the surrounding reality and pronounced a severe sentence on it. The ranks of raznochintsy artists were replenished during this period mainly by young people who came from various provincial provinces and national regions of Russia and studied at the Academy of Arts and at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. These are K. Rafalavičius, V. A. Slendzinskis, B. B. Venig, K. V. Lemokh, K. F. Gun. Imbued with democratic ideas, they not only strengthened the realistic direction of Russian art, but also transferred and developed its traditions in their native soil.
However, despite the commonality of the ideological and artistic tasks that the young artists set themselves - raznochintsy, their forces were still divided at that time.
One of the reasons for this was the system of art education and the role of all the activities of the Academy of Arts, which it played in the spiritual life of Russia at that time. Created and taking shape in the second half of the 18th century, it stimulated the flourishing of Russian classicism. The historical genre was brought to the fore, in which themes of a heroic, patriotic nature prevailed. With the loss of high civic pathos by classicism and its transformation into a stronghold of official art, the Academy, remaining the largest center of art education and a school of high professional skill, is gradually losing its former authority as a progressive cultural center country and degenerates into a bureaucratic institution pursuing a protective artistic policy. Ideologically, academic painting was also depleted, the main content of which at that time became religious, biblical and mythological subjects. All this found expression in her pedagogical system, which educated students in the spirit of official and far from life art. Her position in relation to the emerging democratic direction of Russian art was openly hostile. Therefore, young artists who left the walls of the Academy - raznochintsy, true to their democratic principles, are deprived of help and support. The socio-critical orientation of their works reproduced reality, depriving them of the opportunity to participate in the exhibitions of the Academy and receive official orders. Painful dependence on the Academy, on high-ranking patrons, industrial disorder - all this pushed artists - raznochintsy back in the 30s - 40s in search of organizational forms for joint activities, independence from the Academy, for collective performances with a wide involvement of spectators. There was a process of forming a national realistic school.
The turn of the 60s brings significant changes to the artistic life of the country. The role of democratic forces is growing significantly. The newly created "Society of Art Lovers" in 1860, the artists - democrats sought to turn into their stronghold. As active participants (since 1861) we meet - P. M. Shmelkov, V. V. Pukireva, A.K. Savrasova, N.V. Nevrev, V.G. Perova, I.I. Shishkin, I.M. Pryanmshnikov, landscape painters L.L. Kameneva, S.N. Ammosov. Almost all of them subsequently became Wanderers. Under the influence of the democratic community, the society sought to actively support realistic domestic painting, primarily domestic painting. The society also had a permanent exhibition. For many years the chairman of the Society was S.M. Tretyakov. All this activity developed social skills among artists, laid some traditions of self-government. And yet, the Moscow artists of the “sixties” felt deeply dissatisfied with their role in the artistic life and the nature of the activities of the Society of Art Lovers, since the paintings of the advanced Russian school were only interspersed in a diverse exposition. Artists still had to defend their independence from the dignitary - lordly guardianship. Thus, the Society could not become a true creative center and a conductor of their creativity to the people.
In a different way, in a more acute form, events unfold in the St. Petersburg political camp. The most striking event was, of course, the famous "Rebellion of 14" and the subsequent creation of the first artistic artel. 13 competitors for the gold medal decided to openly clash with the Academy: they abandoned the theme of the competition programs. Their names are: I. N. Kramskoy, B. B. Vent, N. D. Dmitriev-Orenburgsky, A. D. Litovchenko. A. I. Korzukhin, N. S. Shustov, A. I. Morozov, M. I. Peskov, K. G. Makovsky, F. S. Zhuravlev, A. V. Grigoriev, N. P. Petrov, K. V. Lemokh. At the last moment, P. Zabolotsky refused to protest. The sculptor V.P. Kreitan joined the protest. They prepared a petition to withdraw from the Academy in advance, and one by one, deeply agitated, in solemn silence, laid it on the table where the Academic Council met.
Kramskoy was at the head of the protesters. An outstanding portrait painter, he was also an outstanding theoretician of realism, approaching in a number of his positions a materialistic understanding of the historical process. In his aesthetic concept, Kramskoy was a follower of Belinsky and Chernyshevsky and a tireless fighter for rallying all the best forces of Russian art under the banner of realism. In the days of the "rebellion" he was still a young man - tall, thin, with a narrow slit of intently looking eyes. But even then, his peers saw in him their true leader. Kramskoy himself later called November 9 "the only honestly lived day." The speech of the Protestants was preceded by an unusual correspondence for the history of the Academy. A few months before the competition, future competitors asked to satisfy their “heartfelt desire” to paint pictures on a subject of their own choice, corresponding to their personal inclinations. It is possible that if such a demand had been made two or three years earlier, when liberal sentiments were strong in the Academy, things would not have come to an explosion. But at the end of 1863 the situation becomes more complicated. Peasant reform, even though it was very limited, the Polish uprising greatly cooled the ardor of the liberals. Therefore, the leadership of the Academy did not consider it possible to meet the request of the academicians.
At the competition in the section of historical painting, a theme from Scandinavian mythology, "Feast in Valhalla", was announced, and detailed plot comments were given to it. But another topic was also proposed - "The Liberation of the Peasants". One must think that not everyone has yet dispelled the illusions about the officially promoted essence of the reform. Young artists, however, who were close to this period of revolutionary democracy, rebelled against the very principle according to which a mandatory theme is imposed - not worn out, not "suffered" by.
Reflecting the struggle for the ideological and creative independence of art, this protest was an important link in the struggle for the democratization of Russian art, a kind of political action, so police supervision was established for the Protestants. The event of November 9 was by no means an isolated act - it was prepared by a whole set of previous events. The fighting spirit of the youth was supported by the radical press, which sharply criticized the Academy system. She called on artistic youth to creative daring and taught them to draw material for their works in reality itself.
After leaving the Academy, the former competitors for the gold medal created the first St. Petersburg Artel of Artists. The soul was Kramskoy, a teacher, an indispensable initiator of political, philosophical, and actually aesthetic disputes. Thundered and the voice of the young hero Shishkin. In the Artel, on its "Thursdays", the spirit of citizenship reigned, which united the artel workers and revealed itself in their disputes, in their creative "greed", in the richness and intensity of their intellectual life.
However, can the creation of the Artel be considered a consequence of the “revolt of the 14”? It is more correct to see in both of these acts the expression of the same tendencies. "Rebellion" could only serve as an impetus that accelerated the labor association of graduates. The idea of the Artel and the household commune, apparently, has long matured among the leaders of the academic youth. It is quite possible that Artel was created by artistic youth even if the Academy had satisfied the requests of competitors.
In addition to the first Artel, in 1864 a second artistic Artel was created, which included V. M. Maksimov, at that time still a student of the Academy, P. Krestosostsev, A. A. Kiselev, N. Koshelev, V. A. Bobrov and others . But it fell apart two years later, since it did not include a single person with a strong organizational grip.
Thus, the idea of the Artel, as they say, was in the air, and the very form of labor and everyday organization adopted by the artists spoke of the proximity of academic youth to the ideas of utopian socialism, common among the democratic intelligentsia. However, the tasks of the first Artel were much broader than the organization of a kind of labor collective. It was a bold and open attempt to create an ideological creative center for progressive art. However, the first Artel did not last long - about ten years, and its combat character was lost earlier, with the departure of Kramskoy. Why did this happen? This question has repeatedly arisen among contemporaries.
The specific reason for Kramskoy's departure from the Artel was the act of Dmitriev-Orenburgsky, who, a few years after the "revolt of 14", submitted an application to the Academy with a request for a business trip abroad. Members of the Artel condemned him for hiding his act from his comrades. However, approaching the problem of the collapse of the Artel from a broader point of view, Kramskoy saw the reason both in the rebirth of some of its members and in the shortcomings of the Artel's form itself. The main weakness of the Artel was that it failed to make exhibitions the central area of its activity, although this was exactly what its organizers dreamed of. Realizing the dangerous limitations of the Artel, Kramskoy was looking for a new form of artistic organization. It remains, however, unclear why the young team of the Artel still did not open their own exhibition. It is possible that the members of the Artel, in the early years beginning artists, yesterday's students, did not dare to come up with a detailed public report. Perhaps the fact of police surveillance also played a certain role. The assumption that there were not enough funds to organize the exhibition should be discarded: after all, the Association of Traveling Exhibitions that arose soon launched its activities without any special appropriations from the outside.
Artel brought a fresh stream into the artistic life of St. Petersburg at that time. Its role was also great in uniting progressive forces, in introducing them not only to aesthetic, but also to vital public interests. The collapse of the Artel showed the historical necessity of finding new ways for the development of independent democratic art. These paths were found in the early 1870s.
§ 2. Organization of the Partnership
By the end of the 60s, the leading artists of Moscow and St. Petersburg came wiser with some experience in social activities. By this time, they are firmly convinced that the time has come to find a form of association that could ensure the personal independence of the artist from official, government-protected institutions and patrons, and make closer direct links between art and the viewer, with the people.
The artel still existed when the idea arose to organize the Association of Traveling Art Exhibitions. The initiator of the creation was in 1869 G. G. Myasoedov. This sharp, hot and direct person throughout his life was convinced of the correctness of his choice of path and passionately fought for the implementation of his artistic ideals. Myasoedov enlisted the assistance of Kramskoy, who rallied under the banner of the Association a lot of the artistic youth of St. Petersburg. Along with Myasoedov and Kramskoy, N. N. Ge invested a lot of love and sincere enthusiasm in the cause of the Partnership, which aroused the sympathy of many artists for a new undertaking. The idea of exhibition activity as a form of collective public performance by the 70s was already widespread. Why, however, did the idea of “mobile” exhibitions triumph? It is possible that the English traveling exhibitions were one of the impetus. But the most significant motive was, no doubt, the wide social and artistic educational opportunities that lie in this new undertaking. The opportunity to acquire an immensely popular audience, more progressively inclined, became real. The desire to bring art closer to the people for the artists of the 60s and 70s was closely connected with ideological and educational tasks. The activity of artists was understood by them as a public service, as a patriotic duty of an artist-citizen. The artist sought to make both the plots and the language of his works accessible to everyone. The progressive Russian artists-democrats were highly characterized by the understanding that their work should be addressed not only to the metropolitan audience, but also to all the peoples of Russia. This was reflected in a wide range of movement, in the nature of pedagogical work, in caring for the opening of local museums, in numerous and friendly relations with artists from Ukraine, the Transcaucasus, and the Baltic states. The goal was quite clear: to create an organization led by the artists themselves - members of the team, united by a common ideological and creative aspirations, independent of official tutelage.
A brief history of the Partnership is drawn in the following lines. As a result of preliminary meetings and correspondence, the initiative group created in Moscow sent a letter on November 23, 1869 addressed to the St. Petersburg Artel. It contained a proposal to unite to organize mobile exhibitions. Attached to the letter was a Draft Charter containing comments on the issues of the artist's creative and material independence, on his freedom from bossy guardianship. It must be emphasized that the desire of future Wanderers for independence, for creative freedom, was least of all individualistic in nature. Clear in its focus is the definition of the goal of the Association, given in the first paragraph of the draft Charter: "The founding of the Association of a mobile exhibition has the goal of giving the inhabitants of the province the opportunity to follow the progress of Russian art." Thus, from the very beginning, the question of a huge expansion of the circle of spectators, the sphere of influence arose with complete clarity for the initiators of the Partnership. Kramskoy, on the other hand, said that the art of the Wanderers should attract sympathy "in that huge mass of society that is still in a state of lulling."
The letter and the draft were read out at one of the "Thursdays" of the Artel. Immediately, many of those present supported the proposals of Muscovites with their signatures. Very soon, Kramskoy, an outstanding thinker, publicist and critic, a man of exceptional moral purity and integrity, becomes the recognized ideological leader of the Wanderers. The statute was drawn up. But it is useless to look for a broad exposition of the tasks and ideas of the Association in its text. The initiators sought to veil their true intentions. Here is a list of founding members from the first Charter, approved on November 2, 1870: V. Perov, G. Myasoedov, A. Savrasov, I. Pryanishnikov, N. Ge, I. Kramskoy, M. K. and M. P. Klodt, I. Shishkin, K. Makovsky, N. Makovsky, V. Jacobi, A. Korzukhin, K. Lemokh. According to their public sympathy, according to the artistic program, the Wanderers - during the period of the creation of the Partnership - acted as the successors of the work of the Artel.
The fact of the wide participation of artists in the preparatory work in the creation of the Partnership proves how timely this idea arose. Reactionary circles sought to denigrate the Partnership, to present it as a commercial enterprise. Their task was to discredit the democratic movement in art. The enemies of the new cause slanderously used the fact that the Association was not only the creative center of democratic artists, but also created the material base necessary for the development of art independent of the Academy and philanthropists. The Wanderers had to specially prepare paintings for each exhibition, but almost all the paintings were sold in St. Petersburg and Moscow, in other cities, as a rule, little was bought. From a commercial point of view, it was far from always expedient to move paintings after the center. Nevertheless, the members of the Association considered it necessary to expand its mobile activities.
Contemporaries perfectly appreciated the great significance of the fact that the Russian democratic artistic environment found strength, determination and courage so that the independent creative community created by it won the authority and recognition of a wide audience. This, however, does not in the least contradict the fact that the Partnership had to defend its existence and its principles in difficult battles in the future.
§ 3. Significance of the first exhibition of the Association
Myasoedov argued that the success of the first performance should largely determine the future fate of the Partnership - and he turned out to be right. The first exhibition opened on November 29, 1871 and closed on January 2, 1872. The exhibition immediately brought recognition, although only sixteen artists performed at it in St. Petersburg, showing forty-seven works. This alone distinguished it from the more extensive academic exhibitions in terms of the number of exhibits, as well as the Parisian salons, sometimes containing up to three thousand works. Here is a list of participants in the exhibition in St. Petersburg: V. F. Amman, S. N. Ammosov, A. P. Bogolyubov, N. N. Ge, K. F. Gun, L. L. Kamenev, F. F. Kamensky (sculptor ), M. K. Klodt, M. P. Klodt, I. N. Kramskoy, V. M. Maksimov, G. G. Myasoedov, V. G. Perov, I. M. Pryanishnikov, A. K. Savrasov, I. I. Shishkin.
How weighty each picture should have sounded for contemporaries, and what integrity of ideological creative aspirations the exhibition as a whole should have been distinguished in order to cause a huge public outcry that accompanied the first public performance of the Wanderers in both capitals and in Ukraine! Why did it happen? There were several reasons that riveted public attention to the first exhibition. It was the first appearance of the first open, public, close-knit creative community in Russia. The exhibition was perceived as a program performance of democratic artists and indeed was. Stasov wrote: “Who could have imagined until recently that there would come ... times when Russian artists no longer want to be limited to one personal business ... that they suddenly leave their holes and want to plunge into the ocean of real life ... ". The Otechestvennye Zapiski magazine, headed by Nekrasov, devoted a special review to the first exhibition, where he welcomed the democratic nature of the association. A wide response in the press was met by the exhibition in Moscow, which was opened on April 24, 1872. In addition to St. Petersburg and Moscow, the exhibition visited Kyiv and Kharkov. Success, keen interest in it confirmed the vitality of the new undertaking. The exhibition contained significant works in all major genres of painting. These were Perov's "Hunters at Rest", Pryanishnikov's "Empties", "Peter I interrogates Tsarevich Alexei in Peterhof" Ge, Savrasov's "Rooks Have Arrived", portraits of Kramskoy and other works. The ideological and artistic level of this exhibition was exceptionally high. It served as the beginning of a strong connection between the Wanderers and P. M. Tretyakov.
The First Traveling Exhibition became a tribune from which the best Russian artists spoke, spokesmen for the advanced social and aesthetic ideas of their time, fighters for national democratic art, a tribune with a wide public audience. Therefore, the Association becomes the ideological and creative center of all democratic Russian art. The exhibition showed that as a result of the previous struggle and searches, a Russian national democratic school of realistic painting was formed, capable of continuing the further struggle for art.
CHAPTER II. YEARS OF GROWTH. GATHERING FORCE. STRUGGLE FOR
INDEPENDENT EXISTENCE
§ 1. Stages of activity of the Partnership
The initial stage of the Association's activities can be conditionally limited to the first 5 exhibitions (1871 - 1878). These were difficult but fruitful years - the years of expanding the scope of public performances of the Partnership, consolidating its ideological and creative positions, attracting the most progressive artistic forces to the association. At this time, in the visual arts, the main patterns inherent in the development of modern Russian culture as a whole were manifested by the Wanderers. In the work of the Wanderers, these processes manifested themselves with sufficient clarity. In the early years, the prerequisites were created for the role that the Partnership played with great success in subsequent stages, when it concentrated in itself the ideological and creative aspirations of not only Russian artists, but also artists of the national outskirts of Russia. From the first years of its existence, the organization became the center of attraction for democratic artistic forces. The partnership attracted V. M. Maksimov, K. A. Savitsky, N. Ya. Yaroshenko, V. M. Vasnetsov, V. E. Makovsky, A. I. Kuindzhi to its ranks.
The success of the Partnership in the implementation of its educational mission is evidenced by the steady expansion of exhibition activities, especially developed after the first two exhibitions. From year to year, the geography of movement is also growing. The second exhibition traveled to Kyiv, Kharkov, Orel, Riga, Vilna, Odessa, Chisinau. The exhibitions generated an extensive press. Review articles were published in such major journals as Otechestvennye Zapiski, Sankt-Peterburgskie Vedomosti and others. Traveling local art exhibitions received a lively response in the press. The greatest attention was attracted by paintings reflecting modern life. They were expected to give answers to exciting life questions, they were approached with the same requirements as they are to modern literature. Are vital events reflected correctly? Are the characteristics of the characters typical and true? It was from this angle that the works of traveling exhibitions were considered by progressive criticism. From these positions, Ge's painting "Peter I interrogates Tsarevich Alexei Petrovich in Peterhof", as well as Repin's "Princess Sophia" was evaluated. The inherent ability of the authors of these canvases to reveal the complex state of mind of the characters was noted.
Yes, the 1870s became an important stage in the formation and expansion of the Partnership's activities. However, the development of this activity did not take place in an idyllic setting. Starting from the very first exhibition, it became clear how difficult it would be to establish a new commonwealth in the face of increasingly aggravated social contradictions. In the period 1870-1878, the leadership belonged to Kramskoy, Myasoedov, Perov, Ge. The partnership had to fight for a genuine, not only organizational unity of the "comrades", but also for the commonality of ideological and artistic tasks, for the establishment of the direction in art, which the Wanderers considered to meet popular demands, for the education of the young generation. This was also a struggle for the preservation of independence, achieved with such great hardships, for the creation of a material foundation on foundations that would not contradict the high self-consciousness of the artist-democrat. Relations between the Partnership and the Academy of Arts are becoming more and more complicated and tense. There were contradictions in the bowels of the association itself. Sometimes the Association accepted into its ranks artists who were ideologically and creatively far from the Wanderers (for example: A. P. Bogolyubov, whose activities were combined with loyal attachment to the reigning house, K. F. Gun, F. A. Bronnikov). When asked by Tretyakov about the reasons for such liberalism, Kramskoy replies: “... this is a difficult question. To answer briefly, I will say this: We are fighters, there are not many of us, however, that is, real ... but we do not want those of whom you are talking about to be against us.
A direct betrayal of the cause of the Partnership was the transfer to the camp of the Academy of one of the organizers and founders of the association - Jacobi, since his ideological rebirth took place, turning into a master of salon, "costume" historical paintings. The paths of Korzukhin and Zhuravlev parted ways with the Partnership. The reasons for their separation from the Association remain unclear. In 1877, Perov left the organization. The reasons for its break with the Partnership of Two Kinds are economic and ideological. He interprets the purpose of the Partnership as purely economic. However, the decisive role in the break with the Partnership was played, of course, by the divergence of ideas. The blow for the Partnership was an ideological turning point in the work of Ge, who entered a period of intense religious quest, trying to completely abandon art, to settle "on the ground."
Despite the difficulties, contradictions within the Partnership, the authority of the association grew all the time. Contemporaries were clearly aware of the fact that this organization really became the focus of living artistic forces. The struggle against salon art, against the penetration of the ideas of liberalism and naturalistic tendencies into the Partnership, which was already evident in the first decade of the Wanderers, continues and becomes especially acute in the 80s - the heyday of the activities of the Association of the Partnership.
§ 2. The ideological image of the Wanderers
During the 1870s, the best part of the youth joined the Association - V. Maksimov, V. Makovsky, V. Vasnetsov, V. Polenov, N. Yaroshenko, M. Antokolsky and other artists.
The development and flourishing of the activities of the Partnership falls on the 70s and 80s. But the foundations of the worldview of the Wanderers were laid earlier, in the late 50s and early 60s, that is, during the period of a general democratic upsurge. It is extremely significant that it was during these years that the ideological formation of Myasoedov, Ge, Kramskoy, Perov, Savrasov, Shishkin, Repin, Savitsky, Maksimov took place.
Leaving their native wilderness, young artists found themselves in an environment of diverse intelligentsia, which from all over Russia flocked to the capital, into an atmosphere of lively social and political life.
The evolution of the young Shishkin's views, the growth of critical, radical statements in his originally patriarchal letters to his parents is instructive to the highest degree. He begins to highly appreciate Saltykov-Shchedrin, attacks bureaucracy and "bureaucratic views", high society and its isolation from the people.
The intense intellectual life that the raznochintsy artists lived in the 60s was also characteristic of the Wanderers. A lively interest in all manifestations of the political and spiritual life of the people, a passionate desire for genuine education, respect for science - all this is connected with the precepts of the best part of the Russian intelligentsia of the 40-60s, who did not think of a writer (or artist) otherwise than a person broad-minded and active public interests.
The literature with which the artists of the 60s and 70s became acquainted was extensive. However, the works of the great revolutionary democrats Belinsky, Chernyshevsky and Dobrolyubov had a decisive influence on the formation of the ideological and aesthetic views of the Wanderers.
The socio-political and aesthetic views of the Wanderers went through a complex and contradictory path of development. The desire to master the advanced social and philosophical thought of his era, to develop his own aesthetic views on its basis, was sincere, deep and fruitful.
Kramskoy, as well as Shishkin and Myasoedov, constantly strived to rise to an atheistic worldview. They sharply opposed the church as an accomplice of the oppressing classes. They strongly criticized the autocratic system. The ideological and creative searches of the Wanderers were filled with a genuine and ardent desire to create for the good of the Motherland. It is extremely significant that all the activities of the Wanderers were permeated with the idea of the ideological and educational purpose of art, of the responsibility of the artist, who is called upon to pose in his works the most important burning questions of modern reality. Myasoedov wrote to Stasov: "... realism should cover everything that exists, and the wider it captures, the more fully it will be expressed." And the Wanderers were by no means limited to portraying only the negative, dramatic aspects of life. On the contrary, they were characterized by social optimism, faith in the moral and spiritual strength of the people. Along with negative and satirical images that exposed representatives of the ruling classes, the Wanderers created a number of positive typical images, beautiful in their spiritual penetration - images of peasants,
working people, revolutionary intelligentsia; portraits of the best figures of science, literature and art; later, images of revolutionary workers.
The truth for the Wanderers is not in external credibility, not in the illusory nature of the image, but in deep penetration into the essence of folk life. Truly beautiful arises from the truth of life. The Wanderers associated the concept of beauty with spiritual beauty, with the richness and richness of the inner world of man. But to be truthful, one must know the life one is reproducing. In the variety of topics and plots that modern reality revealed to the Wanderers, they selected those that expressed the most significant aspects of the life of Russian society of that time. Artists are increasingly striving for the completeness of the socio-psychological characteristics of a person, for the creation of generalized and individually unique images that embody the typical features of representatives of various social classes and groups. They saw the way to the creation of the typical in the generalization of the concrete and most essential facts and phenomena of life.
The presence of a serious idea, the choice of an important topic for modern times, dedicated to folk life, the truthfulness and typicality of images - this set of signs was considered by the Wanderers as an indicator of the nationality and nationality of art. The activities of the Wanderers in the 70s - 80s were marked by internal pathos and creative burning. This often helped them to rise above personal interests, to overcome inevitable frictions and disagreements, to cultivate in themselves noble, truly human traits.
The aesthetic principles underlying the creative activity of the Wanderers were common to their contemporary culture. Therefore, one of the most important creative tasks was the need to find for the embodiment of these creative principles such a range of images, themes, plots, such means of expression that would meet the requirements of realistic art. But how to achieve this?
The preparatory process of working on a painting is increasingly associated with an active exit into the “world”, where artists find concrete manifestations of great social conflicts and the future heroes of their paintings. The image of a person acquires more and more accurate signs of the time, characteristic social and individual differences. The search for ways to deeply penetrate into the very essence of the depicted phenomenon helps to achieve such reliability, in which the event taking place in the picture seems to be taking place in life itself.
The innovation of the Wanderers is clearly manifested in the restructuring of the artist's pictorial language, starting from the general composition of the picture, and ending with the method of applying a brushstroke. Searches in the field of artistic form are connected with the desire to show the event as taking place directly in front of the viewer's eyes, to make its meaning clear and thereby enhance the impact of the picture on the viewer.
The purposefulness of searches, their penetration into all types and genres of painting, their impact on the nature of the preparatory work leading to the picture, the internal, deep restructuring of all the components that make up the picture are the characteristic features of Russian art of the 70s - 80s. In their creative searches, the Wanderers turned to Russian and European sources, highly appreciated Courbet.
Chapter III. HISTORICAL PAINTING IN PARTNERSHIP
§ 1. Creativity of Nikolai Nikolaevich Ge
The processes that took place in the art of democratic realism in the 1960s and 1970s covered all pictorial genres, including historical painting. Already at the first exhibition, a painting appeared that riveted the attention of viewers and critics to the same extent as the most significant canvases on contemporary topics. This is the painting "Peter I interrogates Tsarevich Alexei in Peterhof" (1871) by Nikolai Nikolaevich Ge (1831 - 1894) - a member of the founder of the Association. "Peter and Alexei" - the result of a long creative
artist's path.
The most significant work of Ge's pre-Wandering years is the painting The Last Supper (1863), which raises great moral and philosophical problems. In this picture, the artist seeks to interpret the gospel event as a real-historical one. Ge is familiar with contemporary literary works that subjected the gospel legend to a critical analysis. But he believes in the historical reality of the existence of Christ. The painting shows the artist's desire to show the secret meeting as it could take place in ancient Judea. He depicts a wretched interior, a meager table, the apostles reclining, according to ancient custom, on a couch, a dark curtained window. But Ge's Christ is not a god, and there are no religious and mystical features in the characterization of the characters. The artist brings Christ down from ideally divine heights, depicting him as a living, suffering person, as a bearer of ideas aimed at the good of the people. Judas is not just a greedy man, a traitor, but his moral antipode and ideological opponent. In contrasting Christ and Judas, the artist shows the clash and struggle of two concepts, two social forces. Thus, the idea of the picture acquired a broader and more modern sound. The composition is based on the same method of direct collision of opposite principles, which was widely used in genre paintings of these years. The feeling of ideological confrontation, expressed in the images of Christ and Judas, is emphasized both by the arrangement of figures and by light, the contrasts of which play an important semantic role in Ge's works. Today, the painting retains its significance as an important stage in the development of the Wandering historical painting.
In the 70s, Ge was closest to the aesthetic and socio-political positions of representatives of advanced democratic thought. Then he creates the painting "Peter I interrogates Tsarevich Alexei in Peterhof." Eight years elapsed between The Last Supper and this painting. These were the years when there were significant shifts in the understanding of historical painting. There was a desire to understand and evaluate from the point of view of democratic ideals the role of the people in history, the significance of outstanding historical figures. Heated debates took place during these years on the question of the role of the Petrine reforms in the history of the Russian people.
By the mid-70s, the desire for historical accuracy in the depiction of furnishings and accessories in a painting from past centuries becomes a clearly traceable trend. In this sense, Ge was on a well-trodden path. In addition, he had in the person of his friend, the historian Kostomarov, a highly educated adviser. Perhaps it was Kostomarov who prompted the artist on a theme related to the era of Peter I. The task facing Ge was difficult, since the concept of “historical painting” was only beginning to acquire independence. In search of plots of great civic sound, in addressing specific events in Russian history, the achievements of genre painting helped to embody them. The choice of subject for the painting was not accidental for the artist. He allowed Ge to pose deep problems of both historical and ethical nature in the picture. Its idea is connected with disputes about the historical role of Peter, in which the artist took a progressive position. In the picture, he embodies the significance of the image of Peter, notes his mind, energy and natural simplicity. The forces opposing Peter and doomed to death are personified in the image of Alexei. And this brings into the work not only the feeling of a historical drama unfolding before the viewer, but also expresses the idea of making personal sacrifices in the name of the good of the fatherland.
Having put forward such large and complex tasks and having chosen a plot, Ge is looking for artistic means to solve them. The artist introduces a breath of political passions and social struggle into realistic historical painting. His picture tears off the veil of solemn goodness from royal persons. The democratization of historical painting, manifested in the painting "Peter I interrogates Tsarevich Alexei in Peterhof" includes a number of elements. The plot of the picture is interpreted without splendor, a feeling of isolation of the action inside it is achieved. The trend towards democratization is also reflected in the composition, in the selection and placement of characters. In addition to the father and son, there is no one in it - neither courtiers nor servants. The composition is constructed in such a way as to create the impression of a deep absorption of the characters in what is happening. Neither Peter nor Alexei pose for the audience. The picture not only does not show the external attributes of power, but the details are minimized, indicating that there is an interrogation going on here. Strict and almost dry coloring of the picture. Only the main characters are clearly illuminated. Everything else is blacked out. The figures of Peter and Alexei, located on the sides of the table, are directed towards him in an oncoming movement. The dynamics of the king's posture, the edge of the carpet tablecloth pulled to the floor, a sheet of paper that fell to the floor - all this speaks of the stormy scene that took place. As in the works of genre painting, the meaning of what is happening is revealed in the picture through the psychological characteristics of the characters. In this sense, the gesture of Alexei's left hand is interesting - this is a gesture expressing confusion, characterizing the state of mind of the prince.
In a historical picture, it was difficult to shift the center of gravity to the individualized psychological motivation of the position of the actors. Without resorting to external effects, Ge “charges” the scene with internal dynamics. “Peter the Great,” writes Saltykov-Shchedrin, “is not stretched to his full height, he does not rush, does not shake his arms, does not sparkle with his eyes, Tsarevich Alexei does not kneel, with a face distorted with horror ... and yet the viewer feels himself witnessing one of those amazing dramas that are never erased from memory. A huge role is played here by the exactly found arrangement of actors. The expressiveness of Peter's posture is exceptional for its time. The direction of the chair sharply pushed away from Alexei and the sharp turn of the torso, head, and especially the gaze towards the prince give the movement an almost tangible dynamics. We feel the preceding moment - Peter's angry dissatisfaction with the course of the interrogation (which made him vigorously put down his chair and turn away). We seem to hear a abruptly asked question and tense expectation: glaring at Alexei, Peter is waiting for an answer. From the tense movement of the king's hands, we feel that the prince is slow to respond. The clothes of the heroes and the furnishings of the Monplaisir Palace in Peterhof are historically reliable.
This painting of Ge contains a number of creative findings and marks a big step in the development of the artist. Only the predominance of deaf black tones can be considered vulnerable in it. In the works of Khe of the late 50s and 60s, one of his characteristic features as a painter, an amazing skill in transmitting light, clearly showed. In the painting “Peter I interrogates Tsarevich Alexei in Peterhof”, he takes a noticeable step towards tonal painting, towards the creation of a complex coloristic unity of the whole work, which is typical for the paintings of many of his associates in the association.
“Peter I Interrogates Tsarevich Alexei” was the first picture in which major historical events and their heroes are, as it were, brought closer to the viewer and shown with that natural and deep vitality that has so far been achieved only in the best works of everyday painting.
The historical paintings created by Ge in subsequent years - "Catherine at the coffin of Empress Elizabeth" (1874), "Pushkin in the village of Mikhailovsky" (1875) - did not meet with a response equal to the resonance of the painting "Peter I interrogates Tsarevich Alexei." For the painting "Pushkin in the village of Mikhailovsky" Ge very carefully selected the preparatory material. But, apparently, he was already internally moving away from topical socio-political issues, approaching that spiritual crisis that determined the course of his entire future life. The picture is devoid of that inner significance and depth that are so characteristic of Ge's best canvases.
In 1876, Ge suddenly left St. Petersburg forever and settled on a farm in the Chernigov province. This "escape" speaks of the same thing as the departure from the Perov Association - of a severe internal discord, of a painfully urgent need to rethink one's attitude to reality in a new way.
The turning point in Ge's life, his spiritual drama testify to the strong impact that the contradictions of the period of breaking the patriarchal foundations and the development of capitalism in Russia had on the intelligentsia's worldview, how sharply it reacted to the hardships that fell on the working strata of the population in these years.
After a break, the artist continues to work on paintings on evangelical themes. A great influence on Ge's work is his acquaintance with Tolstoy. Painfully feeling the acute social contradictions of life, the artist saw the social resolution of these conflicts not in active struggle, but in preaching self-sacrifice and moral self-improvement of man. This is connected with Ge's active appeal to the theme of the suffering of Christ, which has received a pointed and extremely expressive expression in his works of recent years. The image of suffering, as if brought to the highest limit, sometimes acquires physiological features in his canvases (“Golgotha”, 1893).
The Wanderers loved and respected Ge throughout his life. They appreciated the impeccable honesty of the artist, the sincerity of his quest, morally supported him during periods of creative failure.
§ 2. The work of V. I. Surikov is the highest stage in the development of Russian
history painting
The fate of Vasily Ivanovich Surikov is related to the fate of most of the Wanderers. Like many of them, he grew up away from the capitals; overcoming great difficulties, he managed to enter the Academy of Arts. Surikov was born in Krasnoyarsk in 1848 to a Cossack family. The artist's great-grandfathers took part in the Krasnoyarsk rebellion of the 18th century, and all of them were proud of these freedom-loving ancestors. The researcher of Surikov's work V. S. Kemenov writes: "Through the Surikov family, he felt himself a participant in the history of the XIV - XVII centuries."
Ya. D. Minchenkov recalled: “A nugget from the wild mountains and taiga of an immense land!”. At the heart of his nature was indestructible Siberian granite, not amenable to any influence ... Originality, unbending will and courage were felt in his stocky figure, strongly outlined features of a high-lying face with an upturned nose, large lips and black, as if glued on mustache and beard.
The artist's childhood and early youth were also fed by other impressions. His father served in the zemstvo court, was a well-read and educated man, musically gifted and drew a little. And close relatives were seriously fond of painting. This makes it possible to understand why the young man's vocation was met with sympathy in his family and why subsequently Surikov so easily passed the necessary exams in general subjects. The talent of the future artist was noticed and supported by the school drawing teacher N. B. Grebnev. The dream of the Academy arises. But its implementation seems impossible for a long time. The family lost their father. Young Surikov, like Kramskoy and many others in his time, was forced to join the struggle for existence early. After several years of life as an ordinary scribe, Surikov, with the support of the philanthropist P. I. Kuznetsov, manages to get to St. Petersburg and devote several years to studying, not caring about earnings. He did not immediately manage to enter the Academy. But in the autumn of 1869 he was accepted. At the Academy, the undeniable talent of the young artist was soon noticed. Her school turned out to be really fruitful for Surikov, developing his exceptional gift for composition. Communication with representatives of the advanced artistic community, apparently, began with Surikov shortly after his arrival in St. Petersburg. The press spoke about his academic works. About the painting "The Apostle Paul explains the dogmas of faith in the presence of King Agrippa", which Surikov graduated from, Prakhov warmly responded. After graduating from the Academy, he refused to travel abroad, and took up commissioning for the execution of paintings depicting the four Ecumenical Councils of the Christian Church for the Cathedral of Christ the Savior under construction in Moscow. They gave Surikov experience in the compositional construction of multi-figured canvases, which was necessary for subsequent work.
The first work in which the bright talent of the artist was revealed was “Morning of the Streltsy Execution” (1881). In it, the principles of the "choral" picture, which were laid down in Russian art of previous decades, received their further development. The plot concept of "The Morning of the Streltsy Execution" is revealed by Surikov through sharp and sharp oppositions. The application of this principle gives the picture a dramatic sound, reaching a genuine tragedy. It contrasts two groups of characters, behind which, as it were, stand historically established social forces: on the left - the archers and the people adjoining them, on the right - Peter with his retinue and the ranks of the troops. These are two different worlds. And each of them is given against the appropriate background, the people - against the backdrop of the grandiose picturesque St. Basil's Cathedral, Peter and the soldiers - against the backdrop of the strict Kremlin wall. The opposition is emphasized by the selection of two figures - an archer bowing to the people before the execution and standing with his back to the king, and Peter on a horse - towering above the crowd. The figure of the archer cannot go unnoticed, since it is placed in the center of the picture (at the intersection of the diagonals). His posture does not cause a feeling of either humility or humiliation. The opposition has been repeated many times. All researchers noted the duel of the views of the red-bearded archer and Peter. Each opposition deepens and enriches the overall idea, makes one feel that the tragic scene of the massacre of the rebellious archers is the inevitable end of the struggle between the old and the new, by the cruel breaking of everything that slows down the course of the historical process. It is impossible not to recall that Surikov painted the picture in the years when a revolutionary situation was being created in Russia, peasant revolts did not stop, and workers' strikes began.
In The Morning of the Streltsy Execution, Surikov creates an extensive gallery of folk images. For the first time in Russian historical painting, not legendary heroes act, but nameless people of a bygone era. Purposefulness, the ability to lay down one's head for one's truth, courage, unbending strength are expressed in the images of archers. They are the "choral" heroes of the picture. Surikov's characters have passed through the ages. The artist created images that seem to have concentrated the features of the national character that have been formed over the centuries, which is one of the reasons for their extraordinary vitality. Let us dwell on the female images of the painting "Morning of the Streltsy Execution". They are deeply human, women's grief is expressed with great force. Unusually eloquent are the poses of old women sitting right on the ground, and a young woman crouching in silent despair to her husband, and another extending her arms after an archer being led away to death, and even a little, deeply shocked girl. Women closely surrounded the convicts and seemed to merge with them. Scenes of family grief and farewell are given a large place in the picture. From this arises the confidence that the archers are representatives of the public interest.
In The Morning of the Streltsy Execution, a more complex interpretation of the role and activities of Peter I is given. Despite the fact that the image of the tsar is outlined more briefly than the images of the archers, he appears before the viewer not as a villain, but as a performer of a heavy historical duty. There is something tragic in his imperious, adamant face. There are no traits of gloating and cruelty in the group on the right. Sympathetically, sadly, the foreigner follows the unfolding dramatic scenes, and the old boyar also froze in mournful expectation.
Surikov showed exceptional maturity in the construction of the picture. “Morning of the Streltsy Execution” is a mass scene in which many people participate. Surikov claimed that he did not understand the actions of individual historical figures without the people, without the crowd, that he needed to "pull them out into the street." Indeed, in the picture, the artist managed to create the impression that there was a huge crowd of thousands in front of the viewer, to achieve naturalness in its construction, avoiding division into separate, deliberately spaced groups, and to cause a feeling of terrible crowding (although about sixty figures are depicted on the canvas). To achieve such an effect, a truly mathematical alignment of each point of the canvas, exceptional ingenuity in the placement of characters was needed. "Morning of the Streltsy Execution" was the highest achievement of Russian painting in the composition of mass scenes.
How did the distant past become so alive and convincing in the picture? During the artist's childhood, corporal punishment and executions took place publicly in the squares. Therefore, the sensations personally experienced, the pain caused to the heart by cruel morals, the moral strength seen in the convict, the suffering experienced by his loved ones - all this was resurrected when the work on the picture was going on. Each of the archers placed in the foreground, their wives, children are painted from a carefully found nature. Moreover, Surikov was looking for a type in a folk environment related to his heroes. However, on the way from sketch to painting, the images of the artist are always spiritually enriched.
During the creation of the picture, Surikov was fascinated by the details that he carefully looked for and painted from life: ornaments on women's clothes and scarves, painted arcs on carts, shafts, wheels and even dirt on them. The color structure of the canvas and the sound of individual spots were also important for the artist. Energetically, juicy, he painted the steep flowery sides of the onions of the cathedral, the patterned scarf on the head of the old woman, the golden fabric on the young wife of the archer. Burning candles in the hands of convicts are not only a fixation of a fact; this creates a solemn mood with the contrast of everyday morning light and the reflections of the hot flame of candles on white shirts. However, Surikov was reproached, and not without reason, for the excessive blackness of the crowded mass of people (on the left side of the picture). Nevertheless, the artist's pictorial language in "The Morning of the Streltsy Execution" can be considered innovative in many respects.
The most remarkable thing was that, surrendering to the pictorial elements, the artist was never distracted from the essence of the picture, from its main mood. The beauty of painting exists here not in itself, but as the only form of expression possible for a given case. No wonder Surikov said that he did not want to convey the horror of death in the picture, but the solemnity of the last minutes before the execution. And all the beauty that was revealed in the souls of these simple people - the courage of the condemned, the sorrow, tenderness and patience of their loved ones - all this could not have sounded in full force, depicted with a rough and hard brush; all this found a worthy expression in Surikov's painting itself.
By 1883, the next significant painting by Surikov, “Menshikov in Beryozov,” belongs. The consciousness of the artist was still captured by the era of Peter. In "The Morning of the Streltsy Execution" - its beginning, in "Menshikov" - the end. In the sad denouement of the fate of the "semi-powerful ruler", who was distinguished by both greed and vanity, but was one of Peter's most gifted and energetic assistants, there is much in common with the fate of Russia at that time. Not only Peter's associates, but all his conquests and plans were under threat. The dark days of reaction were coming, the Bironovshchina was approaching. The power of tragedy achieved by the artist is due to the fact that we have before us not just an illustration of the life of a disgraced nobleman, but something much more. There is a deep subtext in the picture - an understanding of the connection between the fate of the individual and the fate of the country.
“Menshikov in Beryozov” is the most intimate and “silent” of all Surikov’s paintings. Concentrated restrained participants in this drama. Gathered at the table, at which the youngest daughter, Alexandra, is reading a book, each of them thinks about his own. The massive figure of Menshikov reigns over everyone (“if he gets up, he will break the ceiling with his head,” the artist was reproached). In all his appearance - in a hunched, but still strong body, in a hand clenched into a fist, an enormous will is guessed, in a sharp profile - a remarkable mind. Next to Menshikov, the youthful softness of his son, immersed in sad dreams, becomes especially distinct. There is something poignant, doomed in the meek thoughtfulness of the eldest daughter, Maria, withered away in exile. Wrapped in a velvet coat, she sits beside her father, helplessly and trustingly clinging to him. The face of Alexandra, the youngest in the family, who is reading, is touchingly serious. There is something childish in her figure, shrinking from the cold, in the way she hid her chilled hands in the sleeves of her quilted jacket.
As always, Surikov expresses not only the characters, their faces and poses, but also the details. The painting is distinguished by the rare beauty of painting. In a dimly lit hut, with its corners sinking in darkness, a shrine with images illuminated by the light of an icon lamp glows, and beneath it sparkles gold embroidery on a purple tablecloth. Maria's dark fur coat emphasizes the bluish pallor of her face with huge eyes; next to her, the radiance of Alexandra's golden hair is especially acutely perceived. Rich in many shades, temperamental painting responds to the complex experiences of the characters. Rich tones sparkling in the dusk convey the intensity of passions and suffering, suppressed, but bubbling in everyone's soul.
The painting "Menshikov in Beryozov" was one of the most significant historical and psychological dramas created by the Wanderers. But the true masterpiece of Surikov was "Boyar Morozova", written in 1887.
There is reason to believe that the artist began to paint under the impression of the execution of Sofya Perovskaya (in April 1881), more precisely, under the impression of the March 1st march to the place of execution. The fate of a woman, the first in Russia to be executed in a political case, struck the artist’s imagination, and in search of an allegorical response to this event, he turned to the personality of Feodosia Morozova, because she was then regarded in democratic circles as an example of a selfless character, ready to die rather than change her convictions .
When working on the picture, Surikov was concerned with the search for models that corresponded to the type and character of the conceived characters, and especially Morozova herself. For a long time, the search did not bring good luck, until the artist met in the Old Believer environment a clerk who came from the Urals. When Surikov painted her haggard and all-conquering beautiful face, burning with ecstatic conviction, he realized that his search was over. Not only Morozov, but also the secondary characters of the picture were painted from carefully selected prototypes.
The composition of the picture has a special integrity and beauty. It is divided into three parts: in the middle - the disgraced noblewoman herself, sitting in a sledge, on the sides - crowds of people. The middle group occupies a strictly central position, symmetrical not only in relation to the right and left edges of the picture, but also in relation to the top and bottom. The image of the noblewoman is also the semantic center of the picture. The concentration on the right side of the predominantly sympathizers, and on the left side of those who gloat is conditional. But such a contrast in the picture is a happy compositional find: it conveys to the viewer the complex nature and special forms that the social struggle acquired during the reign of Alexei Mikhailovich.
The perception of each of the characters on the right side of the picture is helped by a peculiar visual effect created by the construction of the movement itself. The movement of the sleigh seems fast due to the precisely found angle of inclination, the empty space between them and the edge of the canvas, as well as the running of the boy catching up with them. The movement of the characters, sympathetically looking after Morozova, is perceived, on the contrary, as slow. One gets the impression that they will be watching Morozova sitting in the sledge for a long time to come. And this helps the viewer to peer into each of the characters. A significant role in the growth and dramatic intensity of movement is played by the position of figures, people, the temporal sequence of their postures. The holy fool sits leaning forward; the old woman rises from her knees; the noblewoman is already walking behind the sleigh, this also feels a strict compositional calculation.
Faith in the spiritual forces of the people was expressed in a peculiar way in the special brilliance of Surikov's palette, the pictorial richness of his works. The love of the northern Siberian for the snowy winter, his great gift as a colorist, who managed to embody the magic of reflections and reflections on the shimmering snow, on the clothes and faces of young women, on the rags of the holy fool and the poor old woman, also affected the coloring of Boyar Morozova.
While in Krasnoyarsk, Surikov decided to make a picture on a topic that had long interested him - the conquest of Siberia by Yermak. The plot was the battle near the Isker fortress on the Irtysh, which decided the fate of the campaign. Two elements collided, Surikov said, recalling how the course of the battle seemed to him. "The Conquest of Siberia by Yermak" (1895) reveals the inevitable tragic clashes of peoples in the past. The Russians, freed from Tatar yoke, are fighting the peoples of Siberia, who are dominated by the khans, who incite them to raids. It is no coincidence that Surikov introduces a very important detail into the composition: the Cossacks are overshadowed by the banner, which, according to legend, was worn by Russian soldiers during the battle on the Kulikovo field.
Creating a huge canvas, filling it with dozens of desperately and courageously fighting people, showing the cruel truth of the past, the artist created an epic work in which the masses act, and the leaders of these masses are not specially singled out, but merged with the warriors together. The composition of the picture is built, as it were, from a corner, from a group of surviving brave men from Yermak's squad. They are given in close-up and cut like a wedge into Kuchum's boundless army. Thanks to the peculiarities of the formation, a group of Cossacks does not drown in a huge, many-sided mass of opponents. These two elements are profoundly different. The attackers are dominated by intense concentration, while the defenders - hatred, pain, horror. The formidable mood of the scene, the gloomy landscape correspond to restrained, brown and blackish tones, in which separate bright spots of a copper shield, iron chain mail and a helmet flare up. Polenov believed that the ideal unity between the content and its color expression was found in the picture.
The affirmation of the greatness of the civic feat, the awareness of the drama and greatness of the struggle for the people's truth constitute an important side of the canvases of Vasily Ivanovich Surikov. The artist directed the searchlight of his art into the darkness of past centuries and there illuminated the spontaneous popular movements, the struggle of classes, the heroism of individuals. “Only very rare artists, gifted with an almost prophetic, mystical ability, can travel back to the past, with an eagle eye to see the past life in its dim twilight,” A. Benois said about Surikov. But his intuition and mind could not fail to notice also the social moods of his day, the urgent social demands.
CONCLUSION
The collapse of the ideals of revolutionary populism and the process of the formation of a new stage in the liberation movement led to important changes in many areas of spiritual life. They were committed over a long period of time and did not become apparent immediately. They also affected the fate of the Partnership. At the end of the 80s, the Wanderers suffered heavy losses: those who won him fame began to fail. Kramskoy died, the seriously ill Savrasov stopped working creatively, V. Vasnetsov hardly exhibited, quarreled with his comrades and closed himself in his workshop Kuindzhi. Some artists adapted to the era of reaction, did not feel the fresh trends that emerged in the art of the 80s. Of course, young people came to the Association, but sometimes, unfortunately, the Board showed limitations in selecting the most deserving. Finally, if in the 60s and 70s the Wanderers and the Academy opposed each other, now these boundaries have been erased to some extent. Repin, Makovsky, Shishkin and others even taught at the Academy. A new watershed was formed between the Wanderers and the artists who united around the World of Art magazine and other creative associations. An unexpected blow fell on the Partnership during the suppression of the revolution of 1905. Stasov died. Exhibitions are poor. One by one, representatives of the "old guard" - Myasoedov, Savitsky, Kiselyov - passed away, on whose shoulders, in fact, the whole organization rested. Like any historical phenomenon, the Partnership has gone through its formation, flourishing and decline.
The Association of Traveling Art Exhibitions played an exceptional role in the artistic life of Russia in the 19th century. The initiators of the association: Kramskoy, Ge, Perov, Savrasov, Shishkin - were great artists, devoted to the people, to the Motherland. Together with less gifted, but loyal comrades-in-arms, they created an association that was able to resist the imperial Academy of Artists. Later, the largest Russian artists of the second half of the 19th century - Repin, Surikov, Levitan - entered there.
Historical painting of the second half of the 19th century is one of the most interesting aspects of the activities of the Association. Of great importance is the fact that at the exhibitions instead of paintings of the academic school of mythological and religious content, paintings began to appear on the themes of Russian history. In these works, the emphasis was not on the beauty and splendor of painting, but on the psychological development of images, showing the nature of popular movements. The Wanderers were not afraid to reflect in their canvases all the ulcers of society, openly come out on the side of the oppressed masses. With their creativity, they were able to interest the general public, captivate it. The reason for this, in my opinion, was the truthfulness of their art, because truth has always been the highest value. And the one who was able to see it in ordinary life and was not afraid to openly show it is a great person. That is why the work of the Wanderers is still of interest not only to art critics, but also to a wide audience, including me.
Work on the abstract became interesting and useful for me at the same time. First of all, I got acquainted with interesting works on the emergence and development of the Association of Traveling Art Exhibitions, with monographs. The study of the greatest historical paintings by N. N. Ge and V. I. Surikov became a very exciting activity for me. In connection with the above, I would like to once again visit the Tretyakov Gallery and look at the masterpieces of Russian art of the second half of the 19th century from the point of view of a professional art historian.
The best of the Association created over half a century of life entered the golden fund of national culture, retained a living aesthetic value.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
1. Roginskaya F. S. Association of Traveling Art Exhibitions. Moscow. "Art". 1989
2. E. Gomberg-Verzhbinskaya. Wanderers. Leningrad branch of the publishing house "Art". 1970
3. Minchenkov Ya. D. Memories of the Wanderers. Artist of the RSFSR. Leningrad. 1963
4. Paramonov A. V. Wanderers. "Art". Moscow. 1975
5. Troitsky N. A. Russia in the 19th century (course of lectures). Moscow. "Graduate School". 2003
6. Kramskoy I. N. Letters. Articles. Moscow. 1966
7. Benois A.N. History of Russian painting in the 19th century. Moscow. Publishing house "Republic". 1995
APPLICATION
(ILLUSTRATIONS)
Kramskoy I. N. Letters. Articles. Moscow. 1966, p. 15
Roginskaya F.S. Association of Traveling Art Exhibitions Moscow. "Art". 1989, p. 20
Roginskaya F. S. Association of Traveling Art Exhibitions. Moscow. "Art". 1989, p. 25
Kramskoy I. N. Letters. Articles. Moscow. 1966, p. 17.
Roginskaya F.S. Association of Traveling Art Exhibitions. Moscow. "Art". 1989, p. 46
Roginskaya F. S. Association of Traveling Art Exhibitions. Moscow. "Art". 1989, p. 126.
Roginskaya F.S. Association of Traveling Art Exhibitions. Moscow. "Art". 1989, p. 253
Minchenkov Ya. D. Memories of the Wanderers. Artist of the RSFSR. Leningrad. 1963, p.284
A. Benois. History of Russian painting in the 19th century. Moscow. Publishing house "Republic". 1995, p.346
The largest progressive democratic association "Association of Traveling Art Exhibitions", which existed in Russia for more than half a century - from 1870 to 1923, was created by Russian painters and sculptors of a realistic direction.
In November 1863, 14 best students of the Academy of Arts, admitted to the competition for the first gold medal, applied to the Academy Council with a request to replace the competition task (painting a picture based on a given plot from the Scandinavian mythology “The Feast of the God Odin in Valhalla”) with a task with a free theme. At the refusal of the Council, all 14 people left the Academy, this event went down in history as the "Riot of the Fourteen". Later, these students who left the Academy organized the St. Petersburg Artel of Artists, which in 1870 was transformed into the Association of Traveling Art Exhibitions.
The emergence of "Partnership" was largely due to the crisis of the salon academic art and the general rise of democratic culture in the second half of the 19th century. The work of the Wanderers was characterized by a heightened psychologism, social and class orientation, high mastery of typification, realism bordering on naturalism, and a generally tragic view of reality. The main merit of the participants of the "Partnership" is the organization of independent exhibitions and their movement around the cities of Russia. The "Wanderers", as the members of the "Partnership" began to be called, set themselves the task of the widest propaganda of art and the social and aesthetic education of the masses.
The composition of the Wanderers at different times included I. E. Repin, V. I. Surikov, N. N. Dubovskoy, V. E. Makovsky, I. M. Pryanishnikov, A. K. Savrasov, I. I. Shishkin, P I. Kelin, V. D. Polenov, N. A. Yaroshenko, R. S. Levitsky, I. I. Levitan, V. A. Serov, A. M. Korin, V. M. Maksimov, K. A Savitsky, A. M. and V. M. Vasnetsov, A. I. Kuindzhi, A. E. Arkhipov, V. A. Surenyants, Byalynitsky-Birulya V. K., Moravov A. V. and other artists.
Let us consider in more detail the work of individual artists, the most prominent representatives of the "Association of Traveling Art Exhibitions" - I. E. Repin, V. G. Perov, V. I. Surikov.
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I. E. Repin. Self-portrait. 1878 |
Ilya Repin was one of the most active members of the Association of the Wanderers. Paphos and protest were combined in his works, historical images were saturated with powerful emotional force, Repin's portraits are sharp and psychological.
Already in his youth, Ilya Repin made a sensation by painting "Barge Haulers on the Volga", which impresses with both the vivid expressiveness of nature and the formidable force of protest ripening in the lower strata of society.
I. E. Repin.
Barge Haulers on the Volga. 1872-1873
The composition of the painting is constructed in a frieze-like manner so that a string of barge haulers moves from the depths towards the viewer, while the figures do not obscure each other. Each character is an independent portrait individuality, Repin masterfully combines the conventions of the picture form with amazing natural persuasiveness.
The artist breaks barge haulers into separate groups, comparing different characters, temperaments and human types. At the head of the gang, Repin depicted a trio of “roots”: in the center, Kanin’s barge hauler, with a face resembling an ancient philosopher, to his right, a shaggy bearded man, personifying primeval dense forces, to the right, Ilka the sailor, staring with an angry look directly at the viewer. Calm, wise, with a somewhat sly squint, Kanin is, as it were, a middle character between these two opposites. Other characters are also characteristic: a tall, phlegmatic old man filling his pipe; a young man trying to free himself from the strap, a black-haired stern "Greek", who turned around, as if to call out to his comrade - the last, lonely barge hauler, ready to collapse on the sand. The painting "Barge haulers on the Volga" can be called a textbook example of critical realism, turning into naturalism.
In terms of the strength of the emotional impact on the viewer, it is incomparable with any other painting by Repin "Ivan the Terrible and his son Ivan on November 16, 1581" (also known as "Ivan the Terrible kills his son").
Ilya Repin took a historical event as the plot for the picture - on November 16, 1581, Ivan the Terrible, in a fit of rage, hit his temple with a rod and killed his eldest son, Tsarevich Ivan. A stream of blood flows from the prince's head, blood on the floor and on the caftan, in the blood of the king's hand. Ivan the Terrible convulsively grabbed his son, trying to clamp his wound. Terrible human grief in the eyes of the father, who realized what he had done. The face of the prince, on the contrary, is calm and beautiful, with a kind smile, the son seems to forgive his father this bloody atrocity.
By the mastery of execution, by the power, by the strength of the psychological disclosure of the characters of people, by the harmony of colors, by the beauty of the details, this picture can be called one of Repin's best paintings. In the history of this painting, there is also a dramatic attempt on it - in January 1913, the Old Believer icon painter Abram Balashov cut the painting “Ivan the Terrible” with a knife, Ilya Efimovich himself restored the canvas with the help of artists D.F. Bogoslovsky and I. Grabar.
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I. E. Repin. 1883-85 |
The painting “Ivan the Terrible and his son Ivan on November 16, 1581” not only strikes with the depth of psychological characteristics, Repin denounces the despotism and tyranny of the kings in it, this was the social significance of the picture. No wonder the philanthropist Tretyakov, who bought the painting, received a secret order from the Moscow chief police officer, in which Alexander III forbade it to be allowed for public exhibitions (such permission was received later).
One of the most famous historical paintings by Repin can be called the painting "Cossacks" (also known as "Cossacks writing a letter to the Turkish Sultan"). The plot of the picture was a legendary episode from the life of the Zaporizhzhya Sich: in 1675, in response to the proposal of Sultan Mahmud IV to become subordinate to him, the Cossacks sent a letter of refusal strewn with strong words in response. The main idea of the "Zaporozhtsy" was the idea of expressing the free spirit of people who are fighting together and having fun together. The exclusivity of the picture lies in the fact that Repin brilliantly managed to convey laughing faces in all shades of fun: the Cossacks roll and grab their sides with laughter, grin, bare their teeth, cackle, giggle and burst into tears.
I. E. Repin. Cossacks. 1880-1891
The composition of the picture is dynamic and at the same time strictly balanced. It combines horizontal and vertical rhythms, circular movement, movement into the depth, and, on the contrary, from the depth. Juicy, bright spots of local colors are consonant with the plot of the picture with their major.
Among the models who posed for Repin for the picture were many famous personalities: historian Dmitry Yavornitsky posed for the character of a clerk, journalist and writer Vladimir Gilyarovsky for a laughing Cossack in a white cap, and Kiev Governor-General Mikhail Dragomirov himself for ataman Sirko.
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V. G. PEROV self-portrait |
V. G. Perov graduated with awards from the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, where he studied with M. I. Scotti, A. N. Mokritsky and S. K. Zaryanko.
The early paintings of the artist are imbued with an anecdotally "accusatory" mood, representing picturesque caricatures, including those of the clergy, Perov carefully writes out the characters and the setting, striving for a moralizing effect.
In the painting Tea Party in Mytishchi, a seemingly ordinary scene acquires an accusatory, sharply social character. A table turned at an angle to the viewer with a samovar standing on it bisects a canvas close in format to a square and divides the world of the characters in the picture: on one side there is a fat, well-fed priest, on the other - a beggar old man and a boy, the impression of social drama is enhanced by the Order of the Hero of the Crimean War on the chest old man.In the more mature period of Perov's work, the satirical mood weakens, giving way to dramatic expression. The picturesque coloring of Perov gained sharp tonal expressiveness in such paintings as “Seeing the Dead Man” and “Troika. Apprentice artisans carry water”; a peasant funeral and an episode from the life of apprentice children appear before the viewer as a drama of the “humiliated and offended”.
Among the works of Perov devoted to the children's theme, "Troika", or, as the author himself called this picture, "Apprentices-artisans carry water", is one of the most famous. The plot of the picture is dramatic and highly social: apprentice children pull a large barrel of water, thus trying to earn miserable pennies to feed their family. Perov painted the picture "Troika" in twilight brown-gray tones, reinforcing the feeling of dullness and meanness of what is happening. The children in the picture are compared to a trio of harnessed horses, whose labor is also ruthlessly used by the wealthy sections of society. The main goal of this painting by Perov is to open people's eyes to reality, to awaken compassion and eradicate human soullessness.
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V. G. PEROV Troika. Apprentice craftsmen carry water. 1866 |
V. G. PEROV Hunters at rest. 1871
Perov's genre paintings of the 1870s ("Birdcatcher", "Hunters at rest", "Fisherman") are imbued with soft humor. In depicting ordinary people in everyday everyday situations, Perov, in terms of the power of descriptive skill, approaches literary essays and short stories by N. S. Leskov.
In the late period of his work, Perov strives to create grandiose, generalizing images of national history. However, Perov's completed historical paintings of this period ("Pugachev's Court", "Nikita Pustosvyat. Dispute about Faith") do not belong to the artist's masterpieces, since they failed to achieve a monumental generalization to the required extent.
V. G. Perov also made a great contribution to the development of the Russian portrait genre. The painter created deep psychological images of famous figures of Russian culture in the portraits of A. N. Ostrovsky, V. I. Dahl, M. P. Pogodin.
Perov's characters, whether it is a portrait of the peasant Fomushka-sych or the merchant I. S. Kamynin, are full of special inner significance, regardless of their social position and cultural status; bright individuality is combined in them with the tension of spiritual life, sometimes on the verge of painful tragedy, as in the portrait of the writer F. M. Dostoevsky.
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V. G. PEROV Portrait of F. M. Dostoevsky. 1872 |
Dostoevsky is depicted deep in thought, in a moment of creative tension, this is emphasized by the tense muscles of the inspired face, and the writer's nervously clasped hands.
V. G. Perov was also a talented teacher; for more than ten years he taught at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture from 1871 to 1882. Among his students were N. A. Kasatkin, S. A. Korovin, M. V. Nesterov, A. P. Ryabushkin and other famous artists.
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V. I. Surikov. Self-portrait. |
The painting "Morning of the Streltsy Execution" was Surikov's first large canvas on the theme of Russian history. Choosing the tragic outcome of the first Streltsy rebellion in 1698 - the execution of rebels on Red Square under the personal supervision of Peter I, as the plot of the picture, Surikov essentially showed the conflict between the Russian Middle Ages and the New Age, in which neither side can win.
V. I. Surikov.
Morning of the archery execution. 1881
Surikov does not show the moment of the execution itself, but focuses on the state of mind of those sentenced in the last minutes of their lives. Compositionally, two main characters stand out on the canvas - the young Peter I, sitting on a horse near the Kremlin walls, and the red-haired archer, angrily looking at the king and representing the emotional center of the composition. Between the figures of the archer and Peter, a diagonal line is read, emphasizing the opposition of these characters.
The deep tragedy of the moment enhances the dark color of the picture. Surikov chose the time of the image of the execution - a gray dank foggy morning, when it was just beginning to get light, in this state, among the dark crowd, the white shirts of the convicts and the flickering lights of their candles stand out as bright spots. In order to achieve the effect of a huge crowd of people, in reality depicting only a few dozen characters, Surikov uses the compositional technique of rapprochement of plans, reducing the distance between the Execution Ground, St. Basil's Cathedral and the Kremlin wall. The relationship between the architectural background of the painting and its heroes is also traced - the heads of St. Basil's Cathedral correspond to the figures of archers, and the Kremlin tower - to the figure of Peter I on horseback.
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V. I. Surikov. Menshikov in Berezov. 1883 |
In the picture, the exiled Menshikov, once a powerful associate of Peter I, is depicted with children, symbolizing the change of generations. All the characters in the picture are immersed in thoughts about the past. Menshikov himself appears in the picture as a bright historical figure, a tragic reminder of the era of autocracy and upheavals. The powerful figure of Menshikov is constrained by the space of the picture, which enhances the contrast of the past and present of this hero. The children of Menshikov are masterfully painted - the eldest daughter Maria with a sad face, clinging to her father and deeply thinking about something far away, the son mechanically removing wax from the candlestick, and only the gentle image of the youngest daughter, in a stream of light falling from the window, introduces life-affirming into the composition Start.
V. I. Surikov. Boyar Morozova. 1887
The plot of the painting by V. I. Surikov “Boyar Morozova” was also a well-known historical event - the removal to prison of the Old Believer associate of Archpriest Avvakum, the supreme palace noblewoman Theodosia Morozova. For adherence to the "old faith" Morozova was arrested, deprived of her estate and exiled to the Pafnutyevo-Borovsky monastery, where she was imprisoned in the monastery prison and died of starvation.
The figure of Morozova is a single compositional center on the canvas. Surikov gave the image of the noblewoman a frantic drama: a hand raised in the Old Believer two-fingered addition in an appeal to the people to stand for the old faith, a bloodless fanatical face, severe farewell words to the crowd. Morozova appears in the picture unbroken, ready to go to the end for her convictions, the people look at her with reverence, the holy fool blesses her.
To convey the movement of the cart, Surikov builds the composition of the picture diagonally and introduces the figure of a running boy next to the cart.
V. I. Surikov. Capture of the snow town. 1891
Historical paintings by Surikov are not inferior to the painting "The Capture of the Snow Town", dedicated entirely to modern folk life. The plot of the picture was the Maslenitsa game, presented as a cheerful and at the same time crushingly formidable element.
Surikov's subsequent multi-figured canvases - "The Conquest of Siberia by Yermak", "Suvorov's Crossing the Alps", "Stepan Razin" - although they were written with virtuosity, but already without that complex and polyphonic drama that distinguishes the best works of the artist.
Wanderers in the workshop of I. Repin
The idea of the Partnership originated with the Moscow artist Myasoedov and met with a sympathetic attitude from a number of other Moscow artists - Perov, Savrasov and others, who, having discussed this idea, developed a draft Charter of the new organization. In November 1869, the project was sent to St. Petersburg artists. There, Kramskoy and Ge became his ardent adherents. After discussing the project, it was signed by Kramskoy, Ge, Korzukhin, Jacobi, Shishkin, Repin, Vasiliev and other well-known artists of St. Petersburg - and in total 15 artists signed it.
November 2, 1870 Charter of the Association of Traveling Art Exhibitions was approved by the government. The statute read: "The partnership aims to organize, with proper permission, in all cities of the empire, traveling art exhibitions, in the form of: A) deliveries to residents of the provinces V Opportunities to learn Russian art and follow its progress; b) development of love for art in society."
The partnership turned out to be a very viable organization, having existed before 1923 and having arranged during this time 48 main exhibitions and several parallel ones.
Speaking about the significance of the Association of the Wanderers, it should be noted that before its appearance, all exhibition activity was mainly concentrated in the hands of the Academy of Arts, the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, and the exhibitions organized by them were not available to the general public. And the province was completely far from art.
The association also organized exhibitions for the general public. The first exhibition of the Wanderers visited 4 cities, and the 15th exhibition has already traveled to 14 cities.
The Wanderers were the bearers of the new, democratic art. For the first time in the history of Russian art, these artists turned to the common man, and all aspects of folk life were reflected in their works: the customs of the people, their beliefs, their position in modern Russia.
Based on the understanding of the social and educational role of art, the Wanderers made high demands on artists. According to Kramskoy, artists should be among the most educated and developed people of their time. They must know not only at what point the development of art is now standing, but also to have an opinion on all questions that concern the best representatives of society.
The Association of the Wanderers enjoyed wide public recognition. Their exhibitions became an event of artistic life. The history of the Association of Traveling Exhibitions is essentially the history of Russian realistic art in the second half of the 19th and early 20th centuries.
Museums section publications
Rebels from painting
From legends and myths - to everyday images, whether they are peasants, the Central Russian landscape or outstanding people of the country. Realism versus academicism. Inspired by the ideas of populism and tired of the framework of the Academy of Arts, at the end of the 19th century, painters united in a creative community and traveled around the country with their paintings. Let's remember the history of the Wanderers together with Natalia Letnikova.
picturesque riot. Fourteen of the best graduates of the Imperial Academy of Arts preferred the freedom of creativity to the Big Gold Medal. They refused to paint a picture on the German-Scandinavian story about a feast in Valhalla, considering the proposed topic too far from reality. The rebels asked for a free topic. Having received a refusal, they left the audience, which disrupted the competition for the 100th anniversary of the Academy. The artists sent a request to issue diplomas corresponding to the medals already received.
Illarion Moshkov. View of the Imperial Academy of Arts. OK. 1800
Group of artists of the Association of Traveling Art Exhibitions. 1885
Ivan Kramskoy. Collection of the Artel of Artists. 1860s
"Artel of Artists". In 1863, young painters led by Ivan Kramskoy created the first creative association in the history of Russian art. The main idea proclaimed realism and social orientation. Instead of theatricality and mythology. Sofya Prokhorova, Kramskoy's wife, led a common household in a house on Vasilyevsky Island. Artel workers took orders, gave drawing lessons, and on Thursdays discussed the problems of contemporary art. The idea of a "commune" was undermined by the financial issue and the resumption of cooperation with the Academy by some artels. Outraged, Kramskoy left the Artel, and the community fell into decline.
Wandering artists. Seven years after the formation of the Artel, the Association of Traveling Art Exhibitions replaced it. Inspired by the idea of populism, Moscow and St. Petersburg painters united and took up educational work and the organization of exhibitions. The Wanderers opposed their work to academicism. The famous critic Vladimir Stasov warmly welcomed the free community in Russian art. “A very remarkable phenomenon for Russian art,” Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin called the undertaking of the Wanderers.
Kramskoy and the best of the best. Vasily Perov, Alexei Savrasov, Ivan Shishkin, Ilya Repin, Nikolai Ge, Vasily Polenov, Viktor and Apollinary Vasnetsov, Vasily Surikov, Arkhip Kuindzhi, Isaac Levitan, Vladimir and Konstantin Makovsky, Valentin Serov ... Portrait painters, representatives of everyday and classical genre, masters of quiet landscapes and historians from painting, theater artists and muralists. Wanderers - the color of Russian fine art of the late nineteenth century.
Joseph Volkov. Portrait of A.K. Savrasov. 1884. State Tretyakov Gallery
Viktor Vasnetsov. Self-portrait. 1873. State Tretyakov Gallery
Ilya Repin. Self-portrait. 1887. State Tretyakov Gallery
Ilya Repin. Portrait of V.D. Polenov. 1877. State Tretyakov Gallery
Vasily Surikov. Self-portrait. 1879. State Tretyakov Gallery
Charter - for the benefit of the people. The organization of traveling art exhibitions in all cities of the empire became the main task of the community. The charter of the community was approved in 1870. The Wanderers went with their works and ideas about painting "to the people." The artists wanted to acquaint the inhabitants of the province with modern Russian art, and at the same time sell their paintings. Thus, the paintings left St. Petersburg, the walls of the Academy of Arts and went beyond the galleries.
First exhibition. “The exhibition is amazing not only because of its beautiful intention - it is also amazing because of its excellent implementation ... These are people with the same talent as before, but only their heads are different”- wrote Vladimir Stasov. In 1871, the exhibition opened in St. Petersburg and traveled to Moscow, Kyiv and Kharkov in two months. Half of the 46 paintings and drawings were purchased before the exposition began. Vernissage had not only public outcry, but also financial success.
Ivan Kramskoy. Portrait of I.I. Shishkin. 1880. Timing
Valentin Serov. Self-portrait. 1880s Private collection
Nikolay Yaroshenko. Portrait of N.N. Ge. 1890. Timing
Ivan Kramskoy. Portrait of A.I. Kuindzhi. 1872. State Tretyakov Gallery
Ivan Kramskoy. Portrait of V.G. Perov. 1881. Timing
Art cooperative. The democratic solution of pressing issues by voting and the general budget are the main organizing principles of the Wanderers. Already after the first exhibition, four thousand rubles were divided among the participants of the partnership. Unheard of business. Prior to this, the income from the exhibitions of the Academy of Arts, which barely reached five thousand rubles a year, went to the state treasury. The artists themselves did not receive any compensation. And according to the charter of the Wanderers, only 5% of the cost of the picture and the money for tickets went to the general box office. The rest is fees.
Exhibition cruises. "People's exhibitions" toured many cities. "For the development of love for art in society." Yaroslavl, Tula, Saratov, Voronezh, Riga, Chisinau, Kazan, Odessa, Kyiv... In total, during the existence of the Wanderers community, artists organized about fifty exhibitions. The paintings that were not sold at the main exhibitions were sent further - on a trip around the country. Only the first parallel exhibition visited 12 cities of Russia. So artists gained fame in remote corners and financial well-being.
Generation conflict. Members of the partnership - venerable, honored founding fathers and budding artists - exhibitors. For example, among the latter was the author of the famous painting "The Apotheosis of War" Ivan Kramskoy. Unknown. 1883. State Tretyakov Gallery
Paintings from an exhibition. “A close circle of the best artists and good people, diligence and complete freedom and independence - this is grace!”- Pavel Tretyakov wrote to Kramskoy. Pavel Mikhailovich supported the creative association, and this is confirmed by the canvases of the Wanderers in the collection of the famous patron. For example, the opening of the first exhibition - a painting by Alexei Savrasov "The Rooks Have Arrived" - was bought by the collector here. “Sold” was also indicated on the painting by Nikolai Ge “Peter I interrogates Tsarevich Alexei Petrovich in Peterhof”, and on many other paintings that now make up a significant part of the Tretyakov Gallery collection.
The Wanderers is an abbreviated name for the Association of Traveling Art Exhibitions, an association of Russian artists that existed in the last third of the 19th century. The founders of the Association were Ivan Kramskoy, Grigory Myasoedov, Nikolai Ge and Vasily Perov.
“Peter I interrogates Tsarevich Alexei Petrovich in Peterhof”, Nikolai Ge, 1871. Photo: Public Domain
What was the purpose of the society?
On November 2, 1870, the charter of the Wanderers was approved. It proclaimed the goal of the "Partnership" - the organization of traveling art exhibitions in all cities of the empire to provide residents of the provinces with the opportunity to get acquainted with Russian art, develop a love for art in society, and make it easier for artists to sell their works. The charter determined that the affairs of the Partnership were managed by the general meeting of its members, and all issues were resolved by voting.
In what style did the Wanderers write?
Members of the society worked in various artistic directions. However, they were united by the fact that they were inspired by the ideas of populism and purposefully opposed their work to representatives of official academism.
“The Rooks Have Arrived”, Alexei Savrasov, 1879. Photo: Public Domain
Who was part of the Wanderers?
At various times, the association of the Wanderers included Ilya Repin, Vasily Surikov, Alexei Savrasov, Ivan Shishkin, Viktor Vasnetsov, Vasily Polenov, Isaac Levitan, Valentin Serov, Ivan Kramskoy, Vasily Perov and other artists who later became famous. An important material and moral support for the artists was provided by a collector and patron of arts Pavel Tretyakov, acquiring their paintings for his gallery.
When did the first exhibition take place?
The first exhibition of the Association was opened in St. Petersburg on December 11, 1871 in the building of the Academy of Arts. It featured the work of 16 artists. Particularly successful at the exhibition were "The Rooks Have Arrived" by Alexei Savrasov, the painting by Nikolai Ge "Peter I interrogates Tsarevich Alexei Petrovich in Peterhof", sculpture Mark Antokolsky"Ivan groznyj". After St. Petersburg, the exhibition was exhibited in Moscow, Kyiv and Kharkov. For half a century of its existence, the Partnership has held 47 traveling exhibitions.
Ivan the Terrible, Mark Antokolsky, 1870. Photo: Creative commons/ shakko
Populism is an ideological movement of the raznochintsy intelligentsia in Russia in 1860-1900. The movement received its name due to its postulate - "the rapprochement of the intelligentsia with the people." Nineteenth-century populism in Russia began with a proposed A. Herzen and developed N. Chernyshevsky theories of communal socialism.
Academism (from French academisme) is a trend in European painting of the 17th-19th centuries that followed the aesthetics of classical art.
