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