Peredvizhniki - WikiHQ

thumb|300px|[[Ilya Repin, Barge Haulers on the Volga, 1870–1873]]

thumb|300px|[[Ivan Shishkin and Konstantin Savitsky, Morning in a Pine Forest, 1878]]

Peredvizhniki (, ), often called The Wanderers or The Itinerants in English, were a group of Russian realist artists who formed an artists' cooperative in protest of academic restrictions; it evolved into the Society for Travelling Art Exhibitions, in short Peredvizhniks, in 1870.

History

In 1863, a group of fourteen students decided to leave the Imperial Academy of Arts in Saint Petersburg. The students found the rules of the Academy constraining; the teachers were conservative and there was a strict separation between high and low art. In an effort to bring art to the people, the students formed an independent artistic society; The Petersburg Cooperative of Artists (Artel). In 1870, this organization was largely succeeded by the Association of Travelling Art Exhibits (Peredvizhniki) to give people from the provinces a chance to follow the achievements of Russian Art, and to teach people to appreciate art. The society maintained independence from state support and brought the art, which illustrated the contemporary life of the people from Moscow and Saint Petersburg, to the provinces.

From 1871 to 1923, the society arranged 48 mobile exhibitions in St. Petersburg and Moscow, after which they were shown in Kiev, Kharkov, Kazan, Oryol, Riga, Odessa and other cities.

Influence of literary critics

Peredvizhniki were influenced by the public views of the literary critics Vissarion Belinsky and Nikolai Chernyshevsky, both of whom espoused liberal ideas. Belinsky thought that literature and art should attribute a social and moral responsibility. Like most Slavophiles, Chernyshevsky ardently supported the emancipation of serfs, which was finally realized in the reform of 1861. He viewed press censorship, serfdom, and capital punishment as Western influences. Because of his political activism, officials prohibited publication of any of his writing, including his dissertation; but it eventually found its way to the art world of nineteenth-century Russia. In 1863, almost immediately after the emancipation of serfs, Chernyshevsky's goals were realized with the help of Peredvizhniki, who took the pervasive Slavophile-populist idea that Russia had a distinguishable, modest, inner beauty of its own and worked out how to display it on canvas.

Subjects of the paintings

Peredvizhniki portrayed the many-sided aspects of social life, often critical of inequities and injustices. But their art showed not only poverty but also the beauty of the folk way of life; not only suffering but also fortitude and strength of characters. Peredvizhniki condemned the Russian aristocratic orders and autocratic government in their humanistic art. They portrayed the emancipation movement of Russian people with empathy (for example, The Arrest of a Propagandist, Refusal of Confession, and They Did Not Expect Him by Ilya Yefimovich Repin). They portrayed social-urban life, and later used historic art to depict the common people (The Morning of the Streltsy Execution by Vasily Surikov).

During their blossoming (1870–1890), the Peredvizhniki society developed an increasingly wider scope, with more natural and free images. In contrast to the traditional dark palette of the time, they chose a lighter palette, with a freer manner in their technique. They worked for naturalness in their images, and the depiction of people's relationship with their surroundings. The society united most of the highly talented artists of the country. Among Peredvizhniki there were artists of Ukraine, Latvia, and Armenia. The society also showed the work of Mark Antokolski, Vasili Vereshchagin, and Andrei Ryabushkin. The work of the critic and democrat Vladimir Stasov was important for the development of Peredvizhniki's art.

Landscape as the most popular genre of Peredvizhniki

Landscape painting flourished in the 1870s and 1880s. Peredvizhniki painted mainly landscapes; some, like Polenov, used plein air technique. Two painters, Ivan Shishkin and Isaak Levitan, painted only landscapes of Russia. Shishkin is still considered to be the Russian "Singer of forest", while Levitan's landscapes are famous for their intense moods. The Russian landscape gained importance as a national icon after Peredvizhniki.

Peredvizhniki painted landscapes to explore the beauty of their own country and encourage ordinary people to love and preserve it. Levitan once said, "I imagine such a gracefulness in our Russian land – overflowing rivers bringing everything back to life. There is no country more beautiful than Russia! There can be a true landscapist only in Russia". Peredvizhniki gave a national character to landscapes, so people of other nations could recognize Russian landscape. The landscapes of Peredvizhniki are the symbolic embodiments of Russian nationality.

Gallery

File:Konstantin Apollonowitsch Sawizkij 001.jpg|Konstantin Savitsky, Repairing the Railroad, 1874

File:Procesión de Pascua en la región de Kursk, por Iliá Repin.jpg|Ilya Repin, Religious Procession in Kursk Province, 1880–1883

File:Vladimir Makovsky - Bankruptcy.JPG|Vladimir Makovsky, Bankruptcy, 1881

File:Grigorij Grigorjewitsch Mjassojedow 003.jpg|Grigoriy Myasoyedov, Busy Time for the Mowers 1887

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File:RooksBackOfSavrasov.jpg|Alexei Savrasov, The Rooks Have Returned, 1871

File:Ivan Shishkin - Рожь - Google Art Project.jpg|Ivan Shishkin, A Rye Field, 1878

File:Arkhip Kuindzhi - Ночь на Днепре - Google Art Project.jpg|Arkhip Kuindzhi, Moonlit Night on the Dnieper, 1882

File:Levitan nad vech pok28.jpg|Isaac Levitan, Over Eternal Peace, 1894

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File:Vasily Perov - Портрет Ф.М.Достоевского - Google Art Project.jpg|Vasily Perov, Portrait of Fyodor Dostoevsky, 1872

File:Kramskoy Portrait of a Woman.jpg|Ivan Kramskoi, Portrait of an Unknown Woman, 1883

File:Serov devochka s persikami.jpg|Valentin Serov, The girl with peaches, 1887

File:Vladimir Solovyov 1892 by Nikolay Yarochenko.jpg|Nikolai Yaroshenko, Portrait of Vladimir Solovyov, 1892

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File:Illarion Michajlowitsch Prjanischnikow 002.jpg|Illarion Pryanishnikov, Jokers. Gostiny Dvor in Moscow, 1865

File:Wassili Grigorjewitsch Perow - Hunters resting.jpg|Vasily Perov, The Hunters at Rest, 1871

File: Moscow Courtyard (Polenov, 1878).jpg|Vasily Polenov, Moscow Courtyard, 1878

File:Maximov Everything In the Past.jpg|Vassily Maximov, Everything In the Past, 1889

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File:Peter the Great Interrogating the Tsarevich Alexei Petrovich.jpg|Nikolai Ge, Peter the Great Interrogating the Tsarevich Alexei Petrovich at Peterhof, 1871

File:Surikov streltsi.jpg|Vasily Surikov, The Morning of the Streltsy Execution, 1881

File:Ilja Jefimowitsch Repin - Reply of the Zaporozhian Cossacks - Yorck.jpg|Ilya Repin, Reply of the Zaporozhian Cossacks, 1880–1891

File:Tsar boyar duma.jpg|Andrei Ryabushkin, Session of Tsar Michael I with Boyar Duma, 1893

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File:Iwan Nikolajewitsch Kramskoj 002.jpg|Ivan Kramskoi, The Mermaids, 1871

File:Ilya Repin - Sadko - Google Art Project levels adjustment 2.jpg|Ilya Repin, Sadko, 1876

File:Vasnetsov samolet.jpg|Viktor Vasnetsov, The Flying Carpet, 1890

File:Viktor Vasnetsov - Богатыри - Google Art Project.jpg|Viktor Vasnetsov, The Bogatyrs, 1898

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File:Christ in the Wilderness - Ivan Kramskoy - Google Cultural Institute.jpg|Ivan Kramskoi, Christ in the Desert, 1872

File:What-is-truth02.jpg|Nikolai Ge, What is Truth?, 1890

File:Vasnetsov Bapt Vladimir.jpg|Viktor Vasnetsov, Baptism of Saint Prince Vladimir, 1890

File:Mikhail Nesterov 001.jpg|Mikhail Nesterov, The Vision to the Youth Bartholomew, 1890

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Members

thumb|350px|Artel of Artists (1863–1864) (from left to right): [[Bogdan Wenig, Firs Zhuravlev, Alexander Ivanovich Morozov, Kirill Lemokh, Ivan Kramskoi, Alexander Litovchenko, Konstantin Makovsky, Nikolai Dmitriev-Orenburgsky, Nikolai Petrovich Petrov, Vasily Kreitan, Mikhail Peskov, Nikolay Shustov, Alexei Korzukhin, ]]

thumb|350px|The Peredvizhniki (1885) (from left to right): [[Grigoriy Myasoyedov, Konstantin Savitsky, Vasily Polenov, , Alexander Kiselyov, Yefim Volkov, Nikolai Nevrev, Vasily Surikov, Vladimir Makovsky, Alexander Litovchenko, Ivan Shishkin, Kirill Lemokh, Ivan Kramskoi, Nikolai Yaroshenko, Ilya Repin, Pavel Brullov, (manager of Peredvizhniki cooperative), Nikolay Makovsky, Alexander Beggrov]]

Peredvizhniki artists included: