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 ot long ago I had the opportunity to visit St. Petersburg, Russia, to see some of the less accessible treasures of 19th Century painting. These Russian works are very much a part of the traditions and achievements of that very fertile artistic period in Western art. The Hermitage Museum on the banks of the Neva River in Petersburg houses a vast collection of some of the greatest names in European painting, but it is the nearby Russian Museum where the finest achievements of Russian painting can be found.
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The Academic style dominated European painting through the majority of the 19th Century. At the Petersburg Academy of Arts, Greek and Roman mythological subjects and Neoclassical style were the standards for artistic beauty, much as they were in Paris. But by the latter part of that century things began to change.
In France, the Impressionists began to move away from academic methods and historical themes and to find artistic possibilities in the world around them. In America, the Hudson River School painters were exploring the character of the American landscape and giving birth to a national style. And in Russia, the artistic talents of the day were exploring subjects with a distinctly Russian character.
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It was the artists who were a part of the Society for Traveling Art Exhibitions or "Itinerants" who embodied and gave creative force to Russian art of the period. Ivan Kramskoi (1837-1887) was one of the founding members of the Itinerants and its ideological leader. Kramskoi was a powerful and highly influential figure in Russian art, both through his paintings and through his art reviews, which he wrote in St. Petersburg. He had attended the Petersburg Academy but he left before graduating in what was to be called "The Rebellion of the Fourteen." Kramskoi was one of the main instigators of the rebellion, which was a reaction to the Academy's insistence to adhere to Academic traditions in not allowing the students to choose the subject of their graduate work.
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Alexander Benois, an art critic, said this of Kramskoi: "It is very likely that were there no Kramskoi, there would not have been the (Rebellion of the Fourteen) on September 9, 1863, nor would there have been the manifestations of the new directions, nor perhaps the very style…Kramskoi's intellect and energy merged them all into a whole, giving their intentions a common, definite purpose."
The Rebellion of the Fourteen coincided with the arrival of Ilya Repin (1844 - 1930) as a fresh new student to the Petersburg Academy. Repin was to become the most significant Russian artist of his time. His picture Barge Haulers on the Volga, begun in his last year as a student, was a departure from the normal Academy subjects in its social commentary. Repin shows great feeling in his depiction of the haggard group of peasants straining against the ropes of the barge. The heat and toil are evident in their postures and in the expressions on their faces.
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The picture garnered the young artist fame and helped launch his career. This kinship with the "simple folk," as depicted in this painting, was the underlying characteristic of Repin and his work. "Now it is the peasant who counts," he said, "it is necessary to represent his interests." Kramskoi and Repin became close friends, exhibiting together with the Itinerants after Repin became a member. Kramskoi once said, "Repin is capable of depicting the Russian peasant exactly as he is. I know many artists who have painted peasants, some very well, but none of them ever approached Repin's portrayal."
Kramskoi's own well-crafted portraits are more austere, far less robust than Repin's and possibly less insightful. They do, however, possess a unique dignified beauty which reflects Kramskoi, the man. One of Kramskoi's masterpieces is his portrait of the great landscape painter Ivan Shishkin, which could rank among the greatest of 19th Century portraits.
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"Repin is capable of depicting the Russian peasant exactly as he is. Many artists have painted peasants, but none of them ever approached Repin's portrayal."
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The standing figure of Shishkin is seen against a simple off-white background filled with light and an interplay of warm and cool colors. The figure stands out as work of the French painter William Bouguereau. The treatment of the hair and beard deserves special comment for its studied form-full of detail, yet overall presenting a very natural effect.
In all of his work, Kramskoi shows himself to be an excellent draftsman who also possesses a unique color sensitivity. Many years later Repin would write of his friend, "His main and his largest works are his portraits…He created many portraits of such seriousness and poise."
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Ivan Shishkin (1832-1898), "The Poet of the Forest," was Russia's premier landscape painter who helped transform the genre into a more naturalistic style capable of expressing Russian character. He studied first at the Moscow School of Painting and Sculpture, then later at the Petersburg Academy, graduating just a few years before the arrival of Repin. Shishkin was not very much influenced by the training at the Academy, but it was there that his artistic outlook was formulated. He nevertheless did win a gold medal and a traveling scholarship that took him to Europe. Upon his return, he was also accepted as a member of the Itinerants with whom he would exhibit regularly for the next 30 years.
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The composition, perspective and atmospheric effect all give testimony to Repin's mastery. Here is a true panoramic depiction of the Russian peasant.
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Like Shishkin, Repin had also won a traveling scholarship and spent three years in Italy and Paris where he saw the first exhibition of the Impressionists in 1876. It is interesting to note that at the time Repin was not strongly in favor of the new French school though some of his work of the period seems to evoke an impressionist look.
In 1876 Repin writes, "I have begun many pictures but they are not at all satisfactory and I feel I have not yet hit upon anything significant." The following year he conceived his grand painting Religious Procession in the Province of Kursk. In this work Repin brings all of his skills to bear in the completion of this monumental canvas.
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Over a six-year period, Repin would work and rework the painting, collecting studies from Moscow and Kursk for the various components. The composition, perspective and atmospheric effect all give testimony to Repin's mastery. Here is a true panoramic depiction of the Russian peasant.
It is in large-scale works such as this that Repin successfully uses an impressionist method of recording a fragment of nature and then incorporates it into a finished work, rather than as an end in itself. Though the idea of preparatory studies is nothing new, in Repin's unique style he finds a pleasing synthesis of the academic and impressionist schools.
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Ivan Shishkin
Portrait of Kramskoi
1880 o/c - 74x69 inches
State Russian Museum,
St. Petersburg
Ivan Shishkin
Stream by a Forest Slope
1880 o/c - 204x138 cm
Museum of Russian Art, Kiev
Ilya Repin
Tolstoy in the Forest
1901 o/c - 207x73 cm
Russian Museum,
St. Petersburg
Ilya Repin
Cossachs writing letter to Turkish Sultan
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