Delaware gazette and state journal., 1895-12-19
RUSSIAN ART.
Sophie Trlsaland in tho New York Commercial


TO Siberia in order to weep with him
over the we'll -merited fate of murclerers
and other criminals. | SHOULD also not
advise them to loose much time on a
vieit to Count Tolatoi, who, in his dirty
peasant-clothes and self-made shoes,
has ceased to be interesting. Least
OF all should press the visitor to Rus
sia to conjecture over the future of
the Russian peasant, who--when all is
said and done-is better off than the
degraded pauper- laborer of our Euro
penn nilllon-cities or the poor Hindoo
under proud Britain's scepter
Provided my visitor is interested in
art, and hisinterest in Russian art has
been awakened in the Art Palace at the
Columbian Exposition, should like to
accompany him to the beautiful banks
OF the Neva, to st. Petersburg, the
first capital Of the Czar
Besides the Hermitage, " the world
renowned picture gallery of Russia, and
the different museums, national and
private, it is principally the Academy
OF Art switch will make us acquainted
With some of the works of our great
masters. The Imperial Academy of Arts
is large, gray edifice, in the style of
the time OF Empress Katherine III,
Under whose reign it was built.
On entering the large vestibule, our
eye is first attracted by life size
portrait Of Grand Duke Vladimir, the
president of the Academy. This is an
admirable painting by A. N. Kramskoi,
our best portraitist Kramskoi, like
nearly all our great artists, has sprung
up from Il lower and poorer class of So
cioty. 1t is very rarely that we meet
the name OF an aristocrat among the
number OF artists whose productions
crowd the different annual eypositions
OF art in st. Petersburg and Moscow.
kramskoi was born in 1887, in the
province OF Voronesh, of very poor par
ente. He first went to grammar
school, then to a gymnasium thigh
school), from both of which he gradu-
ate1 with gold medal.
Until he was l6 years old nobody, not
even himself, had ever noticed any
particular talent or inclination for
drawing or painting. But the first line
be ever drew and his first touch of the
brush pronounced him an artist. Still
he had no desire to develop his talent;
his sole ambition was to become stu
Gent at the university-an ambition
that could not be gratified on account
Of his mothers poverty. He became
apprenticed first to village painter,
then to photographer, where he earned
three roubles a month. In 1857 we
find him student at the Academy in
ST. Petersburg, and five years later he
receievd a medal for the picture we
notice as we pass into the gallery of
biblical paintlnga.. picture called
Moses Drawing Water from the
Stone. !"
Kramskoi was the first who, with 13
others, withdrew from the Academy in
ordor, as they said, "to search for new
'truths."
As we walk through the long galleries
Of paintings we have occasion to adj
mire some Of KramsKoi's portraits of
the Imperial family, masterpieces one
and all, that have found their way to
all the great expositions of the world.
This little room, into which we are
shown by a young artist, seems for
some purpose toe have borrowed
number of Mr.. Constantin Makovsky's
pictures, belonging to the Hermitage.
The Feast Of the Bacchantes'' as well
as the Brides Attire" have been seen
at the Worlds Fair, and 1.-THE Last
Hours of Ivan the Terrible'' has been
spoken of in every art Journal
MIR. Makovsky has been called the
Painter with the Enchanted Brush, a"
and indeed as we look at the four
panels before us, representing scenes
From the Greek mythology, we do not
wonder at the name. The figures of
the gods and goddess, of the shep-
herds and ahepherdesses do not seem
to be painted they seem to be thrown
on the canvas by a magic hand. The
critics mostly praise Mr.. Makovsky's
imagination and his coloring, but now
and then we hear reproach as to his
drawing. The fact is, Mr.. NJ. works
too quickly. He is an artist who has
a beautiful, fashionable wife, and he
needs great deal of money. am told
he makes hundred thousand roubles
year, and he spends every copek of it.
A large room decorated with war and
battle pieces introduces us to the pic.
lures OF Mr.. V. G. Vereachagin, one of
our great artists in historical painting.
Mr.. Vereschagin and his works are
nearly as well known across the ocean
rs they arc here. No doubt Mr.. We're
achagin 10 a great artist, but he can
hardly be called, like most of our art
lists national one. As a pupil of
Jerome he has none of the Tendencies
OF the Russian artist; for nearly every
painting of his reminds us Of the pro-
nounced passion of the great French
painter for ethnographical types and
the anecdotical side of the chosen sub
ject. A look at his Oriental paintings
will convince us that Vereschagin also
has concentrated his sole interest on
the reproduction of the ethnographical
type, and the humorous side of his
great picture, "On the Shipka All is
Quiet" has made the Gar frown at
it. Tho artists aim is evidently not
TO represent the famous watch ON the
Shipka Pass in the Russian Turkish
war, but tho tigurative meaning of ii.
He points at the silent, speechless
heroism OF the Russian soldier The
guard, wrapped in his soldiers cloak,
has slowly frozen to death. To avoid
tho slightest doubt as to the meaning
Of this scene, Mr.. V. adds, in his cata-
logue:
Every day hundreds Of our soldiers
were carried off by the bullets of the
enemy and by frost; the regiments di-
mlnished TO almost nothing.
Nearly all the best pictures of Mr..
Vereschagin bear the same melodra-
matte character. Heaps of dead bodies,
vast snowy deserts, human brutality,
destruction, misery and suffering form
the main subject of his paintings
The impression they leave is an un-
pleasant one, and those who have a
preference for historical pictures turn
with pleasure to the productions of
Mr., V. q. Schwartz. Although the
brilliant career of this artist was cut
short by an untimely death, it has un-
doubtedly left indelible traces in Rus
sian art.