With the radicalism of the 1860s there is also a realignment among artists-- perviously people worked for the Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg. Painters survive by getting commissions from the royal family or from others of the nobility. They tended to dictate the content of the painting. Lots of Russianizations of European renaissance and neoclassical art.

Starting in 1863 a group of artists started a walk out against the academy. They wanted to paint their own subjects, subjects from Russian life, issues for Russians, They start an artel (to exhibit paintings, catalogues, sell paintings-- mutual support society). In the 1870s, this will turn into the Association of Traveling Art Exhibits, whose first exhibit is in 1871.

Most of the founders of this artel and Association are going to come from the lower classes-- sons of peasants, merchants, the petty bourgeoisie-- so they all feel a class distinction between themselves and their patrons. The idea of traveling exhibits (peredvizhniki) is to get art out of the capitals, encourage art education in the provinces, to make a school of art national. While they shared these goals, they did not all paint the same way (although they tend to work in a realistic, representational art) nor do they all work on the same subjects, or even do they all share the same political outlooks, philosophy. Very diverse group.

Two people who are not artists that did a lot to shape the art of the peredvizhniki -- Vladimir Stasov (1824-1906, art critic) and the other Pavel Tretiakov (1832-98, rich industrialist and art collector).

• Stasov was interested in developing the idea of a Russian national art ( so that one could look at a painting and say that it was Russian, the same way that others could look at a painting and say it was French or Italian).
• Tretiakov was interested in collecting paintings that reflected Russian national existence (himself from the Old Believers). Tretiakov collects 1,757 paintings between 1856-1893; sets up permanent exhibition hall in 1874, which he donates to the city of Moscow in 1893. 1st public art museum in Moscow. Special benefit: because he was merchant, he looked for a good deal; took chances on beginning artists who worked for less. Unique collection.

• Vasilii Perov (1834-1882; illegitimate son of noble)
• Ivan Kramskoi (1837-1887; led the walk out from the Academy of Arts in 1863)
• Ilya Repin (1844-1930; son of a serf)
• Grigorii Miasoedov (1835-1911)
• Ilya Levitan (1860-1900)

Painting List (shown in class on October 25, 2000)

1. Perov. Troika. 1866.
2. Perov. Easter Procession. 1861
3. Prianishnikov. The Jokers. 1865
4. Pukirev, 1862, Unequal Marriage. Commentary on the place of women in society; criticism of marriage as an institution without love.
5. Yaroshenko. The Female Student. 1883. The strict, focused woman, in black. no frills-- like a heroine of Chernyshevskii novel
6. Ivan Kramskoi Christ in the Desert (1872)
7. Ilya Repin. They didn’t expect him. 1884-8
8. Ivan Kramskoi. Portrait of Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoi. 1873
9. Vasilii Perov. Portrait of Fedor Mikhailovich Dostoevskii. 1872
10. Grigorii Miasoedov. The Zemstvo Eats Lunch. 1872
11. Miasoedov. The Mowers. 1887.
12. Savitskii. Showing the Icon. 1878
13. Ilya Repin. The Volga Boatmen. 1873
14. Shishkin. Rye. 1878
15. Polenov. The Moscow Courtyard. 1878
16. Yaroshenko. The Stoker. 1878
17. Sergei Makovskii. On the Boulevard. 1886-7
18. Ilya Levitan. Golden Fall. 1895
19. Levitan. Over Eternal Peace. 1891
20. Nikolai Ge. (1831-1894) Golgotha. 1893
21. Mikhail Vrubel. The Demon (sitting). 1890