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The Immortal Itinerants (Peredvizhniki) - Part I

By the end of the first half of the 19th paintings.The Date is particularly
Century, Russian intellectuals supported remarkable. When viewing the painting,
the need for reform in Russia. Russia had you can sense the same strain and
entered the age of capital development. emotional disconnect that you find in On
Influenced by the liberal ideas of the Boulevard. At first glance nothing
Chernyshevsky and Belinski, the Itinerant seems askance in either painting. You
movement established the first Free sense nothing amiss due to the lack of
Society of Artists in Russia. The action or covert tension. You see two
founding of the Itinerant's movement was people sitting on a bench - one of them a
a measure calculated to express the need young woman with a child, newly arrived
for rejection of the social order in from the village to visit her husband.
Tsarist Russia. The objectives of the Her husband sitting beside her has become
Itinerants were: a foreigner to his family and apparently
- the enlightenment of the people by has been so for sometime. The more you
affording them the opportunity to learn look the more you see of a tragedy slowly
about the new Russian art; unfolding before your very eyes. The
- the aesthetic objective of forming a viewer becomes aware of the contrast
new artistic sense and taste; between the interplay of the people and
- the economic objective of attracting the surrounding beauty of an August day
new buyers in order to have a market for on an old Moscow street, oblivious to the
the new art. Itinerants (Peredvizhniki) tragedy between the husband and wife.The
List: I.Shishkin, N.Ghe (Gay), V.Perov, oldest artist among the itinerants was
I.Kramskoi, I.Repin, V.Surikov, Vasiliy Perov. His creativity played a
G.Myasoedov, Kamenev, A.Savrasov, Amosov, special role in the establishment of
Ammon, M.P.Klodt, M.K.Klodt, Russian realism. In his painting
Pryanishnikov, A. Bogolyubov, Gun (Huns), Religious Procession on Easter that
V.Makovskiy, N.Makovskiy, K.Makovskiy, belongs to his early period, we can find
V.Maksimov, K.Bryullov, K.Savitskiy, a critical tendency, a typical feature of
A.Kuindji, Bronnikov, V.Vasnetsov, early realism. He criticizes priests that
A.Vasnetsov, Litovchenko, Lemokh, are to bring the faith to the people but
V.Polenov, Volkov, Leman, Nevrev, actually do not deserve to be the Lord's
Kharlamov, Kuznetsov, Bodarevskiy, pupils. Following a period of creativity,
N.Dubovskoy, Svetoslavskiy, N.Shil'der, Perov tried to avoid a rude unmasking of
Arkhipov, I.Levitan, I.Ostrouhov, people's sins and defects. He starts
Zagorskiy, Lebedev, Stepanov, Pozen, telling a sad story of contemporary
Kasatkin, Miloradovich, Shanks, V.Serov, reality. Seeing -off the Deceased is a
Bogdanov-Bel'skiy, I.Bogdanov, A.Korin, story in art in which we can see the
Endogurov, Nesterov, Baksheev, Orlov, image of a peasant woman free from
Kostandi.With the onset of the itinerant idealization. Her fate gains the sympathy
movement, new terms to describe Russian and compassion of the viewer. The
art began to be heard. Phrases such as landscape in an artist's paintings starts
"enlightening," "aesthetic objective," playing a specific role in setting the
"economic objective," "new," "fresh," mood of the whole painting. In the 1870s,
"for the first time" were heard all over Perov changed from sad and tragic
the country. This was the first time in subjects. He started depicting common
the history of the Russian world of art people happy with their simple human joy
that the subject matter was rich and and hobbies. He depicted fishermen,
expansive. The method used by these hunters on the holt, and bemused duck
artists was to conduct traveling art hunters.The creative heritage of Ilya
exhibits in Moscow, St. Petersburg, and Repin plays a special role in genre
other large cities throughout Russia. painting and in Russian art as a whole.
This set the Itinerants on a collision He is considered to be the most talented
course with the forces of the Academy and and famous Russian painter. His interests
set the stage for an entirely new type of in painting were pointed mainly to
art. Russian art has never looked back. contemporary subjects. He was interested
Everyone in Russia became involved in the in all aspects of Russian reality, but
conflict. Critics, artists, academics, his talent was more fully revealed in
newspapers, politicians, and even the genre and portrait painting. His works
common people could not let the matter can be considered as an encyclopedia of
rest. Exhibition halls became Russian life with its heroes and events.
battlegrounds between the new and the His first famous painting, Barge Haulers
old. Today it is difficult to understand on the Volga, painted while he was a
that the emotion of the times and the student of the Academy of Fine Arts,
results of the movement clearly shook the showed his talent and characteristic
forces of empire to their very depths.The manner of work. Unlike the artists who
itinerant artists themselves were from had treated this subject before, Repin
all walks of life and age. Some were was much more interested in the
peasants, and some were of the nobility, participants of the scene. He wanted the
but all were united in a single goal. viewers to see their fates and
That goal was to depict life in Russia as personalities more than the hard labor
it really was. The difference between they were forced to perform. He was the
this path and Classicism and Romanticism first in the history of art who tried to
was that for the first time painting was peer into people's faces to understand
focused on present day reality. The who they were. For the first time a
artist's hand was freed from the common Russian man was depicted as a hero
restrictions of lofty ideals. Painting of artistic work. He didn't idealize his
reflected events and the contradictions heroes but tried to demonstrate their
of Russian society. The lives of common personality. For the first time people
Russian people including their struggles could see a group portrait of miserable
against oppression were revealed through and humiliated Russian people.Such an
art. The love of the Russian people for artist's aspiration to concentrate
their country and its nature was deified, attention on the psychology of the
and for the first time, paintings were bargemen was always Repin's
free of social prejudice. One must be characteristic feature. Another
aware that all the while Russia, unlike illustration of this was his painting
other Western European countries, was a Religious Procession in Kursk Province.
land where the political freedom to This painting is very typical of Repin
express oneself was strictly prohibited. and is remarkable for its characteristic
Free expression was prohibited almost to details of that time. Being a talented
the point of non-understanding in this artist he had a wonderfully keen feeling
country. It was only in the field of the of the main idea that needed to be
arts (painting, literature, music, expressed. One of the features of art of
theater, etc.) that there was any the 1870-80s was the tendency to create
possibility self expression. This led the big monumental works whereby a person
Itinerants to feel as if they were given viewing the one life depicted on the
a special responsibility to effect canvas could analyze present day reality
change. The artists willingly took on and see the whole historical epoch of the
this mission as a sacred duty. The great Russian people. This technique
Ilya Repin wrote that artists come from illustrated that genre painting proved to
the people and that the people expect art be as powerful and as important as
that reflects a clear understanding of historical painting. Genre paintings
conditions and nature.This generation of illustrated the life of the Russian
Itinerants tried to analyze and determine province, in both events and in human
what art was and what role it played in portraits. The action in Religious
social life. The great Russian art critic Procession in Kursk Province takes place
Vladimir Stasov defined this aspiration in a province famous for its dense
as follows: "The artists striving to forests, but in the picture we can see
unite to setup their own society were not only stumps left after the trees had been
doing it for the purpose of creating cut down. Modern man's activity resulted
beautiful paintings and statues for the in the destruction of nature. We see
sole purpose of earning money. They were crowds of people marching along the dusty
striving to create something for the road.The composition was arranged in such
minds and feelings of the people." This a way that we almost feel the crowd
is why arguments that arose at the moving forward, about to crush the
exhibition halls were concerned with far spectator. Real religious faith can be
more than pure artistic arguments. The read on the faces of heroes depicted on
artists themselves were of varying the left of the canvas and especially in
talent, and different painting genres, the face of the hunchback on the
but as members of the Society became foreground. Note that he is pushed aside
"Universal Artists," who worked in by the policeman riding a horse because
different forms of art. For example, the this poor cripple might disturb rich
most talented of the Itinerants (Repin, people proceeding along the road. (Didn't
shishkin, and others) worked in both Christ say we are all equal before him?)
painting and drawing. As a result of The painting shows us two extremes:
their efforts, easel drawing stopped superficial, cold, hypocritical religious
being merely preparatory work for future feelings on the right half and true
paintings and developed into an believers in God in the left half of the
independent form of art.Other examples of painting. These people are rejected by
multi-talented artists include artists this insincere society on the left part
such as Vasiliy Polenov and Victor of the painting. By paying such attention
Vasnetsov. These two Itinerants worked, to the individuality of a person, Repin
not only as easel painters, but each also displays the great variety of types and
devoted a great deal of time in reviving characters of his heroes. In the
theater scenery painting thus laying the foreground we see a rich merchant woman
foundation for the tradition of Russian avidly holding a icon. She is drawn into
theater decor that reached its peak at arrogance, clearly breaking a main tenet
the turn of the 19th and 20th Centuries. of Christianity. We can spend hours
This effort was done in conjunction with examining the painting whereby the motley
artists of another artistic society, the crowd is represented as an integral part
World of Art. Vasnetsov, among others, of the Russian people.Painting present
also created many mural paintings for day reality, Repin managed to reveal a
churches. Being universal artists, many new social phenomena by using new
Itinerants worked successfully in other participants. He was an artist forever
genres. Ivan Kramskoi, Nikolai Ghe, Ilya seeking new subjects, themes, images and
Repin, and Vasiliy Surikov were fine means of expression. Many times in his
portraitists and history theme painters. paintings he addressed new social and
Polenov was an historical painter as well political moods and, of course,
as a landscapist. Nikolai Yaroshenko revolutionary events. The policy of
worked in portrait, landscape, and genre terror carried out by several
painting. In spite of multi-talented revolutionary organizations entailed
artists that worked in many genres, one cruel murders of some prominent
must not forget, subjects and heroes, the politicians and the assassination of
images of Russian nature and human Emperor Alexander II in 1881. This
destiny always remained the main themes consequently resulted in extremely strict
of their creativity. While working on and bloody responses by the Government.
these motifs each artist revealed his own As the country became more and more
understanding of the fundamental problems submerged in the blood of innocent
of human existence.In order to comprehend victims, the attitude towards
the work of the Itinerants more fully, revolutionaries gradually changed in the
one must examine some of the new society. Art in this matter absorbed and
tendencies brought by the Itinerants to reflected all topical ideas. Initially
Russian art. Genre painting was the revolutionary activity was often compared
primary method of bringing realism to with the excruciating life and death of
Russian art though it was not new for the saints of the Gospel who sacrificed
Russian art in the whole. The range of their lives for faith. Repin was affected
themes represented here was extremely by these ideas, and he painted his
wide, embracing studio works depicting Refusal to Confess which glorified
everyday life in the city and peasant fanatical ideas of the day.Afterwards he
life in the country. In some instances conceived the idea of another work They
huge paintings were created in order to did not expect him, a story about the
accomplish these goals.Before serfdom was return of an exiled convict. The
abolished by the reform act of 1861, interesting thing is that originally
peasants had belonged to a landlord. The Repin planned for a woman to be the main
liberation of the serfs entailed many new actor in the painting, as women were
problems in society. The serfs were freed fighting for these new ideas next to men.
but were not given the right to own land. Later the artist gave up this idea having
Therefore, they had no means of support. considered that it would add some
Many serfs fled to the cities and into sentimental aspect to the painting.
the arms of a miserable existence. They Besides, he realized that the question of
were no longer peasants but they did not the main hero was not so relevant
find acceptance in the cities. They were compared to the subject itself.
no longer able to always maintain the Terrorists were ready to die for the sake
ties that had previously bound them to of the idea and for the sake of their
their families. The villages they left loved ones. Did these loved ones want
behind had also changed. Customary ways such a sacrifice to be made? How did
of making a living were changed forever, relatives meet these returning anarchists
and again family relations were affected. after being separated for decades?
The peasantry became very heterogeneous Repin's contemporaries usually associated
and in some cases were able to engage in this painting with the parable of the
cottage industry that changed their return of the prodigal son. None of the
relationship with the local nobility. A artists expressed an opinion, thus making
classic painting by Maximov, The Division the viewer decide the destiny of the
of the Family Property is a sterling hero.Bloody events of reality had not
example of this change in Russian always been reflected directly in genre
lifestyles. painting. The background of Repin's Ivan
Vladimir Makovskiy, a very prolific the Terrible and his son Ivan was an
artist dedicated his creative works to a expression of the artist's feeling of the
reflection of urban life. His paintings atmosphere and smell of spilled blood in
The Date and On the Boulevard are perhaps the room where Ivan the Terrible is
his two best works. By depicting ordinary holding the head of his son. A son he had
life he managed to reflect the deepest just struck in the head with a stave and
tragedies of contemporary society. The murdered in a fit of temper. Another
poverty of the most vulnerable members of painting Nicholas from Mirl, calls for
society children and their miserable love and forgiveness and shows us how the
existence, mothers being doomed to the main hero, Saint Nikolai, intervenes at
worst, the estrangement of sons totally an execution and saves the lives of
exhausted by backbreaking labor were people sentenced to death.Continue in
clearly recognizable in these two Part IIMichael E.




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