Society of Traveling Exhibitions

In 1870, young artists created the “Association of Traveling Art Exhibitions”, headed by the portrait painter Ivan Nikolaevich Kramskoy. Members of this organization annually organized exhibitions in different cities of Russia. The first traveling exhibition opened on November 29, 1871 in St. Petersburg, and then on April 18, 1872 in Moscow. “Stars of the first magnitude” on them were the paintings “Peter I interrogates Tsarevich Alexei Petrovich in Peterhof” by NN Ge, “The Rooks Have Arrived” by AK Savrasov and “Hunters at Rest” by VG Perov. The writer M.E.Saltykov-Shchedrin, who visited the exhibition, said about it:

“From now on, works of Russian art, hitherto confined in one Petersburg, within the walls of the Academy of Arts, will become available to all inhabitants of the Russian Empire. Art ceases to be a secret, ceases to distinguish the invited from the uninvited, recognizes everyone and recognizes everyone’s right to judge the deeds he has accomplished. “

The Itinerant artists turned their gaze to the difficult fate of the common man. In the portrait gallery of Ivan Nikolaevich Kramskoy, there are many wonderful peasant types, which express faith in the people, their spiritual strength, intelligence, talent and kindness. The best paintings of the artist on this topic are “Woodland Man” (“A Man in a Hat Shot Through”) and “Mina Moiseev” (“A Peasant with a Bridle”).

An interesting portrait “Mina Moiseev”, which depicts an old man leaning on a long stick. Illuminated by the bright sun, he carefully looks into the distance. In a slight grin of squinting eyes, the artist managed to convey the mind and warmth of a person, wise by life experience. In his appearance, one does not feel humiliation and downturn, on the contrary, he is characterized by inner calmness and dignity. In the stooped figure of this tall old man with a wrinkled and weathered face, with strained and strong hands, there is not at all gone strength. If he straightens up, straightens his shoulders, rises to his full height – there is not enough space on the canvas, it will break out of the upper edge of the picture. In those days it was not customary to indicate the names of peasants on portraits, but Kramskoy violates the established tradition.The name of the unknown peasant Mina Moiseev here sounds dignified and respectful. The outer garment, falling from the shoulders, resembles a robe, and the stick in the hands is represented as a staff.

The painting by Nikolai Alexandrovich Yaroshenko “Fireman” is considered the first depiction of a working man in Russian art. Under the low, smoky vaults of the boiler room, illuminated by the bright flame of the furnace, stands a stoker. He only interrupted his hard work for a minute and now looks tiredly at the viewer. Worked, sinewy hands. The head with matted hair seemed to have grown into the shoulders. A wrinkled forehead, a hunched-over figure with a sunken chest speak of the hard, exhausting work that befell this person. From year to year he has to breathe black coal dust. A ray of the sun never peeks into a room immersed in darkness, so he hardly sees daylight.

The color scheme of the picture (dark brown color with crimson reflections of fire on the hands and face of the stoker) enhances the drama of the image. Before the viewer appears not a worker crushed by fate, but a person in whom discontent and protest begin to awaken.

A significant contribution to the development of everyday painting was made by the artists V.G. Perov (1834-1882), I.E. Repin (1844-1930), V.E.Makovsky (1846-1920), G.G. Myasoedov (1834-1911 ), I. M. Pryanishnikov (1840-1894), K. A. Savitsky (1844-1905), V. M. Maksimov (1844-1911).

The artist Vasily Grigorievich Perov believed that it is impossible to work “without knowing either the people, or their way of life, or character, without knowing the types of folk, which is the basis of the genre.” He owns many portraits of peasants (“Fomushka the Owl”, “Wanderer”), in which he expressed a sympathetic attitude towards representatives of the most powerless and unprotected class. The artist was particularly successful in his canvases depicting everyday scenes of folk life: Sermon in the Village, Tea Party in Mytishchi, Troika, Drowned Woman, The Last Tavern at the Outpost, Rural Procession at Easter.

One of the most expressive is the painting “Seeing the Dead”. Written upon Perov’s return from abroad, where he studied painting, it brought him the first prize of the Society for the Encouragement of Artists. A skinny horse slowly and dejectedly drags along the hill towards the gusts of wind. In the sleigh there is a roughly knitted coffin, covered with matting and tied with ropes. On either side of him were children on a sled. The girl looks sadly. Opposite – a boy in a huge fur hat sliding over his eyes. He shrinks from the cold, wrapping himself in his father’s big sheepskin coat. Next to the sleigh, seeing off the owner’s last journey, a dog runs, emphasizing even more expressively the loneliness and homelessness of an orphaned peasant family. We do not see the mother’s face, but how eloquent are her bowed head and drooping shoulders! No one is aroundno one accompanies them to the last journey of the sole breadwinner of a peasant family. And because they have no sympathizers, the tragedy of what is happening is felt even more. This impression is reinforced by a bleak, dull landscape: fields covered with snow, deepening twilight, low-hanging gloomy, leaden clouds. Around a cold silence and endless, painful silence …

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A significant contribution to the development of the genre of realistic landscape was made by Russian artists: A.K.Savrasov (1830-1897), I.I.Shishkin (1832-1898), A.I. Kuindzhi (1841-1910), V.D. Polenov ( 1844-1927) and I. I. Levitan (1860-1900).

The power, scope and grandeur of Russian nature was especially appreciated by Ivan Ivanovich Shishkin, who is rightfully called the “singer of the Russian forest”. In the history of world painting, there is hardly another artist who would so clearly, calmly and majestically show the intimate beauty of the vast forest spaces. Before Shishkin, the motive of the heroic power of the Russian forest, its qualities, surprisingly consonant with the character of the Russian person, had never sounded so brightly in painting.

A poetic image of a forest, trees of any species in their various combinations, in groups and one by one, at different times of the year: barely touched by the first greenery, luxurious in their summer decoration, sternly and dully rustling in autumn, covered with heavy and lush caps of snow in winter – this is what has become the main and favorite theme of this artist’s work.

Measuredly, like the waves of the sea, the tops of pine forests sway, running away into the blue distance of the horizon in the painting “Forest Distances”. The majestic panorama of forests is shown as if from a bird’s eye view. On the right, leaning slightly, there is a lone pine tree, next to two boulders. Having scanned a small sunny glade, we plunge into the deep jungle of a dense pine forest. Somewhere in the distance, among the dark greenery, a forest lake or bend of a river turns blue. In the high sky, light clouds float and melt, reflecting in the mirror and sparkling surface of the water. It seems that the artist here expressed all his love for the Motherland.

In the works of Isaac Ilyich Levitan, lyrical landscapes sometimes acquired a pronounced social sound. In them, the author often rose to deep ideological and artistic generalizations, touched upon the problems of a great civilian sound. Thus, the painting “Vladimirka” masterfully reveals the mournful theme of the people’s suffering. At first glance, nothing but the name reminds of this. Cold and gray day. Deserted. Only the lonely figure of the wanderer was lost in this endless space, over which a gloomy sky with clouds creeping over each other hung.

The main artistic image of the picture is a broken country road stretching into the distance. Somewhere on the very horizon, she is lost. Fields stretch on both sides of it, and in the depths the forest darkens. Once upon a time, people sentenced to hard labor went to Siberia along this road, clinking with shackles.

The sun descends behind the steppes,
Feather grass is gilded in the distance, – Ringing
chains of Kolodnikov
Sweep up the road dust …
… The day fades more and more, – and the chains
Sweep and sweep the road …

/AND. K. Tolstoy. “Kolodniki” /

Levitan’s image of the road becomes a symbol of national grief. It seems that it has crossed the long-suffering Russia from edge to edge, that people have walked along and across it. That is why, looking at this picture, you will certainly experience a feeling of nagging melancholy. The muted, gloomy coloring of the painting also helps to convey the mood of loneliness and anxiety.

Great successes were achieved by Russian masters of historical painting: N.N. Ge (1831-1894), V.V. Vereshchagin (1842-1904), V.M. Vasnetsov (1848-1926), I.E. Repin (1844-1930 ) and V.I.Surikov (1848-1916). Their works are distinguished by a deep interest in national history, the fate of outstanding historical personalities, an understanding of the role of the people as the main driving force, an appeal to the most important turning points, the ability to truthfully reveal them in their entirety and complexity, a desire for a psychological interpretation of images.