# Peredvizhniki

Peredvizhniki (Russian: Передви́жники, IPA:), 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. Pavel Mikhailovich Tretyakov showed the work of these artists in his gallery and gave them important material and moral support.

## 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.

## Reproduction of works

Even though the number of travelling exhibition visitors from the provinces was increasing during the years, the main audience was the urban elite. Local photographers created the first reproductions of Peredvizhniki's paintings, which helped popularize the works and could be bought at exhibitions. Niva magazine also published illustrated articles about the exhibitions. Since 1898, the landscapes of the society have been used in the postcard industry. Various books of poems were published with the illustrations of landscapes. Ordinary Russian people at that time could not afford to go to Moscow or Saint Petersburg, so popularization of Russian art made them familiar with a number of Russian art masterpieces. Even now publishers use the reproductions in textbooks as a visual icon of national identity.

## Decline of creativity

As the authority and public influence of the society steadily grew, government officials had to stop their efforts to repress the members. Attempts were made to subordinate their activity, and raise the falling value of Academy of Arts-sanctioned works. By the 1890s, the Academy of Arts structure was including Peredvizhniki art in its classes and history, and the influence of the artists showed in national art schools.

## Gallery

* Social realism
* Konstantin Savitsky, Repairing the Railroad, 1874
* Ilya Repin, Religious Procession in Kursk Province, 1880–1883
* Vladimir Makovsky, Bankruptcy, 1881
* Grigoriy Myasoyedov, Busy Time for the Mowers 1887
* Landscapes
* Alexei Savrasov, The Rooks Have Returned, 1871
* Ivan Shishkin, A Rye Field, 1878
* Arkhip Kuindzhi, Moonlit Night on the Dnieper, 1882
* Isaac Levitan, Over Eternal Peace, 1894
* Portraits
* Vasily Perov, Portrait of Fyodor Dostoyevsky, 1872
* Ivan Kramskoi, Portrait of an Unknown Woman, 1883
* Valentin Serov, The girl with peaches, 1887
* Nikolai Yaroshenko, Portrait of Vladimir Solovyov, 1892
* Genre paintings
* Illarion Pryanishnikov, Jokers. Gostiny Dvor in Moscow, 1865
* Vasily Perov, The Hunters at Rest, 1871
* Vasily Polenov, Moscow Courtyard, 1878
* Vassily Maximov, Everything In the Past, 1889
* History paintings
* Nikolai Ge, Peter the Great Interrogating the Tsarevich Alexei Petrovich at Peterhof, 1871
* Vasily Surikov, The Morning of the Streltsy Execution, 1881
* Ilya Repin, Reply of the Zaporozhian Cossacks, 1880–1891
* Andrei Ryabushkin, Session of Tsar Michael I with Boyar Duma, 1893
* Fantasy paintings
* Ivan Kramskoi, The Mermaids, 1871
* Ilya Repin, Sadko, 1876
* Viktor Vasnetsov, The Flying Carpet, 1890
* Viktor Vasnetsov, The Bogatyrs, 1898
* Religious paintings
* Ivan Kramskoi, Christ in the Desert, 1872
* Nikolai Ge, What is Truth?, 1890
* Viktor Vasnetsov, Baptism of Saint Prince Vladimir, 1890
* Mikhail Nesterov, The Vision to the Youth Bartholomew, 1890

## Members

Peredvizhniki artists included:
* Abram Arkhipov
* Ivan Bogdanov
* Nikolay Bogdanov-Belsky
* Alexey Bogolyubov
* Pavel Brullov
* Nikolai Ge
* Kārlis Hūns
* Nikolay Kasatkin
* Alexander Kiselyov
* Ivan Kramskoi
* Arkhip Kuindzhi
* Nikolai Kuznetsov
* Isaac Levitan
* Rafail Levitsky
* Alexander Litovchenko
* Vladimir Makovsky
* Vassily Maximov
* Grigoriy Myasoyedov
* Leonid Pasternak
* Vasily Perov
* Konstantin Pervukhin
* Vasily Polenov
* Illarion Pryanishnikov
* Ilya Repin
* Andrei Ryabushkin
* Antonina Rzhevskaya
* Konstantin Savitsky
* Alexei Savrasov
* Valentin Serov
* Emily Shanks
* Ivan Shishkin
* Alexei Stepanov
* Vasily Surikov
* Vitaly Tikhov
* Apollinary Vasnetsov
* Viktor Vasnetsov
* Yefim Volkov
* Nikolai Yaroshenko
* Nikolai Zagorsky