Kramskoy, Ivan Nikolaevich
Artist, b. May 27, 1837, d. March 25, 1887 “I was born,” wrote I. N. Kramskoy in his autobiography, “in the provincial town of Ostrogozhsk, Voronezh province, in the suburban settlement of Novaya Sotnya, from parents assigned to the local philistinism. At 12 years old I lost my father , a very stern man, as far as I remember. My father served in the city council, if I’m not mistaken, as a journalist, but my grandfather, according to stories, was a so-called military resident and, it seems, was also some kind of clerk in Ukraine. My genealogy goes no further. rises. I studied first with a literate neighbor, and then at the Ostrogozh district school, where I graduated from the course with various honors, certificates of merit, with grades “5” in all subjects, as the first student, as my certificate testifies to; I was only 12 years old, and my mother left me for one more year in the senior class, since I was too young. The next year they gave me the same certificate, with the same grades, only with a change of year, without having the means to transfer me to Voronezh. gymnasium, which I really wanted to go to, they left me in hometown, and I began to practice calligraphy in the same city council, where my father’s place was then occupied by my older brother (15 years older than me). Then he served for some time with an amicable land surveyor. I don’t know how early I developed an attraction to painting. I only remember that when I was 7 years old I sculpted Cossacks out of clay, and then upon leaving school I drew everything I came across, but at school I didn’t excel in this area, it was boring.” In a letter to A.S. Suvorin, Kramskoy recalls about drawing at school: “In the second grade we were given a lot of originals to choose from, and I remember choosing a lithograph of St. Families; the figures had legs. I started, but never finished, and I remember that the teacher called me a lazy person for burying my talent in the ground; what this meant was an insoluble mystery for me then, but I was glad that the teacher did not insist on drawing." Not liking drawing in class, he drew a lot at home and upon leaving school, Kramskoy’s desire to learn to draw was so great that he persistently pestered his relatives, asking to send him to study with some painter; but no one wanted to hear about it. Only two years later Kramskoy managed to insist on his own and he was sent to study with some Voronezh icon painter. Kramskoy happily went. to this icon painter, but what was his chagrin when he saw that they didn’t let him get close to his work, didn’t give him brushes or pencils, and only forced him to rub paints, run around on parcels, carry water from the river or wash barrels and trough! It is clear that he did not stay with such a teacher for long and, at the first opportunity, returned back to Ostrogozhsk. Here he met one passionate lover of painting, later a prominent figure in the field of photography, M. B. Tulinov, and spent whole days drawing, using advice. and the drawing supplies of his new acquaintance, who willingly supplied him with them.
Meanwhile, Ostrogozhsk revived: the Sevastopol campaign began, Ostrogozhsk was on the path of military corps, and various regiments came and went. Among the newcomers was the Kharkov photographer Ya. P. Danilevsky. Before the campaign, the officers rushed to order their portraits, and Danilevsky had so much work that he had to turn to Tulinov for some photographic supplies; they met and when Danilevsky’s retoucher left, he again turned to Tulinov and invited him to take the retoucher’s place. Tulinov flatly refused, but remembering his friend Kramskoy, he promised Danilevsky to find a retoucher. Kramskoy was extremely happy with Tulinov’s proposal, under his leadership he quickly learned the science of retouching and agreed to the conditions that Danilevsky presented to him. For a long time, Kramskoy’s mother did not agree that her son should join “the Jew” (Danilevsky was a baptized Jew), and even left with him God knows where. Only after much effort was it possible to convince the old woman not to oppose her son’s three-year apprenticeship with a photographer. “It was a harsh school,” says Kramskoy about life with Danilevsky and adds: “the photographer was a Jew!” While working hard for his master, Kramskoy at the same time read a lot and diligently; From early youth he became addicted to reading and devoured everything printed that came his way; he thought about what he read for a long time, trying to understand what he did not understand; He listened with deep interest and attention from his few acquaintances about artists, art, and the Academy. He longed with all his heart to go to St. Petersburg to higher school; Kramskoy considered the academy to be some kind of temple, “believing to find there the same inspired teachers and great painters that he had read about, teaching with fiery speeches to the young men who reverently listened to them,” as he says in one letter. After serving with Danilevsky for the agreed three years, he immediately moved to St. Petersburg and entered the Academy, fortunately then (1857) no verbal exams were required for admission. As I. N. Kramskoy said more than once, due to the fact that the photographic pavilions in most cases were very bad, the portraits came out extremely weak and only thanks to the retoucher did they begin to resemble the originals. For greater success in his work, Kramskoy had to remember the faces of customers and for this, according to him, he owes a lot to the fact that he was used to so amazingly capturing the features of faces and transferring them to canvas or paper. Receiving 2 rubles from Danilevsky. 50 kopecks per month, I. N. Kramskoy, having arrived in St. Petersburg, was soon left penniless, and since he “never received a penny from anyone, neither from his brother, nor from his mother, nor from any benefactor,” then I became a retoucher for the photographer Aleksandrovsky. From Alexandrovsky, Kramskoy moved on to Denyer and, thanks to his retouching talent (Kramsky was nicknamed the “god of retouching”), this photograph was made the first in the capital. Denyer's work as a retoucher was paid relatively well, and Kramskoy's financial situation improved so much that he had the opportunity to move to a small three-room apartment somewhere on Vasilyevsky Island. Here at Kramskoy’s, his Academy comrades gathered almost every day and, while working, had endless debates about art, and the soul of these evenings was always the owner himself. This group of students played a significant role during Kramskoy's entire stay at the Academy. Both Kramskoy and his friends soon had to become bitterly disappointed in academic professors: instead of the expected practical advice, instructions and explanations, they only heard completely meaningless remarks - “this is long, and this is short, this is good, and this is bad,” but why did it turn out this way - there was no way to achieve it, and “only camaraderie, says Kramskoy, moved the masses forward, gave at least some knowledge, developed at least some techniques and helped them cope with their tasks...”.
Kramskoy was deeply impressed by Ivanov’s painting, “The Appearance of Christ to the People,” which appeared in 1858. “This is not a picture, but a word,” said Kramskoy. In the article “A Look at Historical Painting,” Kramskoy speaks of Ivanov’s painting in the following way: “Your painting will be a school in which other figures will become stronger, and it will also show many of them younger generation their purpose. Hour old historical painting struck, and in front of your picture is not one of young artists will sincerely pray and sincerely cry in the depths of the spirit about the loss of faith in people, and not one of them will utter a terrifying cry about the emptiness and barrenness of the human heart, and not one of them will feel the gigantic power to represent all the ugliness and desolation of the human race and all that what humanity has come to with its selfishness, unbelief and knowledge. Yes, your painting is for artists!" This is what the twenty-year-old self-taught man wrote! Kramskoy was very interested in Ivanov, “his position, his fate...” and the untimely death of the great artist struck him like a thunderbolt. In the depth and strength of his artistic talent, Kramskoy had much in common with Ivanov, but what brings him even closer to this artist is the same search for truth, the same deep and thoughtful attitude to art, to painting, to artists, like Ivanov... Kramskoy writes about himself to Repin - “Every plot, every thought, every the picture was disintegrating without a trace from the merciless analysis."
Meanwhile, Kramskoy’s classes at the Academy were very successful. In 1860, his first painting appeared, the first experience of his own composition: “The Mortally Wounded Lensky” based on Pushkin’s poem; for this work he received a second silver medal. A year later, at an academic exhibition, in addition to Kramskoy’s painting “Moses’ Prayer after the Israelites Crossed the Red Sea,” seven more portraits of his work appeared. In 1862, an unfinished program work for the 2nd gold medal “Oleg’s Campaign to Constantinople” came out of his workshop, two large copies: from the painting by Y. Kapkov “The Font of Siloam” for the academic church and from the painting by P. Petrovsky “An Angel Brings to the Shepherds” news of the Nativity of Christ", as well as a number of portraits.
In 1862, Kramskoy became a teacher at the drawing school of the Imperial Society for the Encouragement of the Arts, which was then under the direction of M. P. Dyakonov. Kramskoy reacted eagerly and enthusiastically to the new business for him. His teaching at school is a striking contrast to the system that Kramskoy encountered at the Academy of Arts. At school, he “found - as one of his students, E.P. Mikhaltseva, recalls - students who ardently wanted to learn, but did not have the proper preparation; we made large compositions without knowing anatomy, not even knowing how to draw an eye or nose correctly and correctly ". Kramskoy immediately pointed out to the students their shortcomings and many, convinced of the correctness of his words and who had almost imagined performing at exhibitions the day before, courageously went back to drawing body parts from plaster models." Seeing complete ignorance of anatomy, Kramskoy began reading a short course on this science. He He took the successes of his students so close to his heart that he never refused to look at their work at home, promoting the success of their work with his practical advice. To unite both teachers and students, he organized drawing evenings where students could work, having artists such as them around them. Köhler, Korzukhin, M.P. Klodt, Benzeman, Kramskoy himself and others. In a word, Kramskoy revived the school with his attitude and brought great benefit to it, and from his then students many young girls and boys came out who devoted themselves to art and justified themselves. the hopes that Kramskoy placed on them. E. M. Bem, I. E. Repin, N. A. Yaroshenko remember with gratitude the time when they worked under Kramskoy’s leadership, and believe that they owe much of their success to him. In 1863, Kramskoy completed the program work for the 2nd gold medal, “Moses Brings Water Out of a Stone,” and was awarded the desired award, and last year’s work was also credited to him. In addition, in the same year he executed several portraits and 45 drawings, 8 cardboards depicting God of Hosts with the Holy Spirit, two hands, Christ and 4 apostles for the dome of the Cathedral of Christ in Moscow, partly based on a sketch by A. Markov. It still remained to fulfill the program for receiving the 1st gold medal, which provides such a wide path for the development of talent and financial support for a trip abroad as a government pensioner.
But then an event occurred that dramatically affected the rest of the artist’s life. The fact is that in 1863, the Academy Council decreed new rules for seekers of the 1st gold medal, which were so difficult for competitors, so constraining for them to work freely, that they filed petitions for their cancellation or at least for an accurate interpretation. There was no response to either the first request or the second. Then the competitors chose a deputation to speak personally with members of the academic council; Kramskoy was among the deputies. With the exception of only one, all members of the council received the deputation very coldly, expressing to the deputies their complete lack of sympathy and condemnation of their undertaking, and only F. Bruni instilled in them some hope for a happy outcome of the matter... But this weak hope was not destined to come true, and advice to all He dictated one program to 14 competitors - “A Feast in Valhalla.” Here everyone asked to be released from participation in the competition and only to be given diplomas for the title of artist, and left the walls of the Academy forever.
This event, according to Kramskoy, made him wake up, because the life of a student did not provide the opportunity to develop correctly. "And suddenly, a jolt... I woke up... 1963, November 9, when 14 people abandoned the program. The only good day in my life, honestly and well lived. This is the only day that I remember with pure and sincere joy " writes Kramskoy in a letter to Repin in January 1874. Upon leaving the Academy, all former competitors decided not to disperse, but to join together and work, forming an artistic artel. Kramskoy became the soul of this enterprise.
He worked hard to implement this idea and, closer than all other members of the artel, took all its affairs to heart - he sincerely rejoiced at its successes, his heart ached at failures, or when he noticed that a spark of discord broke out among the members. He strictly and vigilantly ensured that the members of the artel regularly paid the agreed percentage of the work performed and, without hesitation, contributed 3,000 rubles in 1869. percent of the fee received for painting the dome of the Cathedral of Christ in Moscow, together with Wenig and N. Koshelev. The artel refused to accept this percentage, but he insisted on his own. Nevertheless, the artel soon disintegrated; after a few years, it became noticeable that the moral bond that united the members of the artel was beginning to weaken; one member of the artel began to work hard to be sent abroad by the Academy of Arts at public expense.... Kramskoy was indignant at this, and even more so because the other members of the artel did not see anything particularly reprehensible in the act of the artel renegade. This story ended with Kramskoy leaving the artel. And the artistic artel, having completely disintegrated, soon ceased to exist completely.
But this artistic artel was replaced by something larger - a “association of traveling exhibitions” arose. And everything that was best in the art artel, headed by Kramskoy, passed into the ranks of the members of the new partnership, the idea of the emergence of which was conceived back in 1868 by artel member artist G. G. Myasoedov - it had to come true only two years later.
All this time Kramskoy worked tirelessly; he begins to achieve fame for his magnificent portraits, for example I. I. Shishkin (1869), Prince. E. A. Vasilchikova (1867), gr. D. A. Tolstoy (1869) - for his last portraits he received the title of academician, prince. Vasilchikova (1867) and some. etc. In 1869, he went abroad briefly for the first time. In Dresden he was greatly impressed by the Sistine Madonna. In a letter to his wife dated November 19, 1869 we read: “No book, no description, nothing else can tell the human physiognomy as completely as its image.” “Raphael’s Madonna,” he writes in another place, is truly a great work and truly eternal, even when humanity ceases to believe, when scientific research (as far as science is able to do this) will reveal the actual historical features of both of these persons.”
The most brilliant period of Kramskoy’s activity was the seventies. During them, he gave a number of magnificent portraits: the Grand Dukes Paul and Sergius Alexandrovich (1870), F. Vasilyev, M. Antokolsky, T. G. Shevchenko (1871), I. Ya. Shishkin, gr. P. Valuev (1873), Goncharov, N. Yaroshenko (1874), Y. Polonsky (1875), D. V. Grigorovich, Melnikov, heir to Tsarevich Alexander Alexandrovich (1876), Nekrasov, S. . T. Aksakova, A. D. Litovchenko, Lavrovskaya on the stage, Yu. F. Samarina (1877-1878), M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin, S.P. Botkin, I.I. Shishkin, Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich, Empress Maria Alexandrovna and many others; these works cemented his fame forever outstanding artist portrait painting. The brightest and most striking portrait in terms of expression, technique and color is the portrait of A. D. Litovchenko: “Litovchenko’s face lives, his eyes sparkle,” according to V. V. Stasov, “in the portrait of Litovchenko one can feel inspiration, a powerful impulse, creation by one in one fell swoop, an uncontrollable passion." It is impossible to say otherwise about this amazing work by Kramskoy. In addition, from general group Among his brilliant portraits are the portrait of the writer D. V. Grigorovich, the portrait of E. Lavrovskaya, originally presented on the stage, A. S. Suvorin, I. I. Shishkin and Vladimir Solovyov. In addition to portraits, during the seventies, several paintings appeared - “May Night”, “Hunter in Pull”, “Beekeeper”, “Christ in the Desert”, “Moonlit Night” and half-painting, half-portrait - “The Contemplator” and the most magnificent sketches - “Forester” ", "The Insulted Jewish Boy" ( amazing work by strength of expression), "Melnik"; There were few such paintings and sketches; the overwhelming majority were portraits. Kramskoy says in his autobiography - “then (from 1870) there were portraits, portraits and portraits, both with pencil, and paints, and whatever came into play.”
It has already been noted how deeply impressed Kramskoy was by Ivanov’s painting “The Appearance of the Messiah,” and the idea of creating “his own” Christ never left him, and when Kramskoy’s painting “Christ in the Desert” appeared in 1872, the public greeted this picture enthusiastically, critics sympathetically. In a letter to A.D. Chirkin, dated December 27, 1873, Kramskoy wrote: “When the idea of writing It came to me for the first time, I went, having already worked for a year, abroad in 1869 to see everything that had been done in this way and to expand the scope of the plot, enriched by acquaintance with the galleries." “I saw,” he writes further, this strange figure was watching her, I saw her as if alive, and one day I suddenly almost stumbled upon her: she was sitting right there, with her hands folded, her head bowed. He didn’t notice me, and I quietly I tiptoed away so as not to disturb her, and then I could no longer forget her..." This is how he created his Christ - quiet, calm, thoughtful, majestic!
During the seventies, Kramskoy's best and most interesting letters were written; - his correspondence was subsequently published and constitutes one of the most interesting books in Russian fiction. Especially in letters to I. E. Repin and to the young untimely deceased landscape artist F. A. Vasiliev, Kramskoy’s deep and inquisitive mind was clearly captured. These letters are a series of magnificent articles about art, amazing characteristics of contemporary artists and their works; these letters are living and brilliant pages in the history of Russian art... In April 1876, Kramskoy went abroad for the second time and first traveled to Rome. “Italy (and Rome in particular), writes Kramskoy to P.M. Tretyakov in April 1876, did not make any impression on me.” From Rome he went to Naples, then to Pompeii and worked a lot here. Having then moved to Paris, Kramskoy, in addition to working on paintings, began to create a large etching - a portrait of Tsarevich Alexander Alexandrovich. Kramskoy returned from his trip in December of the same year. The reason for such a quick return was, on the one hand, family circumstances, and on the other, “I saw everything, or almost everything that, due to the political conditions in Europe, I saw,” he wrote to P. M. Tretyakov shortly before leaving Paris. When Kramskoy finished his “Christ in the Wilderness”, he wrote in the already quoted letter to A.D. Chirkin in December 1873 - “I am once again thinking of returning to Christ, this is the beginning” “... but what do you say, He writes further, for example, about the following scene: when He was being judged, the soldiers in the courtyard, bored with inaction, mocked Him in every possible way, and suddenly they came up with the happy idea of dressing this humble man as a king; now the whole clownish costume was ready; Now they report to the gentlemen so that they deign to take a look; everything in the courtyard, in the house, on the balconies and galleries burst into loud laughter, and some nobles clap their hands favorably. Meanwhile, he stands calm, mute, pale as a sheet. , and only the bloody hand burns on the cheek from the slap in the face. The fires are barely beginning to dawn, everything is as it is said.” In another letter to I. Repin dated January 6, 1874, Kramskoy wrote, “After all, I must return to Christ once again.” And further: “I have to do this, I can’t move on to what’s next in line without getting rid of it!” Kramskoy worked hard and hard on this painting; all the figures that were supposed to be in it were sculpted from clay - (up to 150 pieces) to make it easier for the artist to arrange groups. Kramskoy worked on it for about five years. But “Christ in the Desert” was incomparably more successful and stronger than this picture: “Hail, King of the Jews!”
During the eighties, a lot more came out of his brush portrait works; they give in the best portraits, which were written by Kramskoy in the seventies, but still remain exceptional in their amazing merits. Portraits of: Emperor Alexander Alexandrovich - subsequently donated to the Museum of Emperor Alexander III by A. A. Polovtsov, - I. I. Shishkin, S. P. Botkin, V. V. Samoilov, Lemokh, A. I. Sokolov, unfinished portrait of V. V. Vereshchagin, himself and his daughter, Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich, - written for A. A. Polovtsov, - A. S. Suvorin, A. S. Koltsov, A. G. Rubinstein at the piano - these are the most remarkable of those written Kramskoy in the eighties. In addition to these portraits, Kramskoy wrote many sketches, a large number of drawings “Unknown” (a richly dressed beauty in a wheelchair) and two most magnificent paintings: - “Moonlit Night” and “Inconsolable Grief”; the last picture is a whole poem in colors; The woman's face at the coffin is amazingly full of grief...
Kramskoy also worked with love on engravings with strong vodka (etching) and already in 1872, as can be seen from Kramskoy’s letter to F.A. Vasiliev dated February 22, 1872, he had his own etching workshop. Most of Kramskoy's etchings are excellent; they are juicy, pleasant and effective. The best of them include a very large portrait of Tsarevich Alexander Alexandrovich, a half-length portrait of Empress Maria Alexandrovna on her deathbed; one 3/4 to the left, the other in profile (only 25 copies were printed); portrait of the artist A. I. Ivanov; a chest-length portrait of Taras Shevchenko in a fur coat and fur hat, “Christ in the Desert” from his own painting; sketches for the painting "May Night" (two prints).
Kramskoy worked tirelessly in the last years of his life... But a serious illness undermined him more and more; the cough choked and tormented him. The constant malaise, so difficult to treat, greatly changed Kramskoy’s character; he became extremely irritable; his views on Russian painting and Russian artists changed and became pessimistic. Life was fading away in Kramskoy, but his talent, his artistic power were still strong in him. The death that followed from the aneurysm was instantaneous. Kramskoy fell while working at his easel on a portrait of Dr. Rauchfuss, with brushes in his hands, in an animated conversation. And this unfinished portrait of Rauchfuss is a bright and brilliant evidence of the artistic power of Kramskoy before last moment his life. - In the person of Kramskoy, Russian art and Russian society had an outstanding artist, a sensitive critic and an inspired fighter for everything fresh, good and talented, a tireless fighter against routine, against any kind of brakes that delayed the development of his native art, dear to his heart. Many of his critical articles will remain deeply important for many years to come for everyone and especially for young artists - they will find in these articles a number of living, bright ideas, truthful and correct views on contemporary art.
V.V. Stasov, "Iv. Nikol. Kramskoy". SPb. 1887"; "Iv. Nikol. Kramskoy, his life, correspondence and art-critical articles. SPb. 1888"; N. Sobko, "Illustrated catalog of paintings, drawings and engravings by I. N. Kramskoy. 1887 St. Petersburg."; V. Stasov, "Northern. Vestn." 1888 Book V. "Kramskoy and Russian Artists" volumes I and II of the complete works. V. V. Stasov, "Bulletin of Europe" 1887 Art. V. Stasov; I. E. Repin. "Memoirs" pp. 1-76.
Iv. Lazarevsky.
(Polovtsov)
Kramskoy, Ivan Nikolaevich
Famous painter (1837-1887). Born in Ostrogozhsk, into a poor middle-class family, he received his initial education at a district school. Since childhood, he has been self-taught in drawing, and then, with the help of the advice of one drawing lover, he began to work in watercolors. At the age of sixteen, he became a retoucher for a Kharkov photographer. Having moved to St. Petersburg in 1856, he continued to do the same with the best photographers in the capital. The next year I decided to enter the academy. arts, where he soon made rapid progress in drawing and painting. As a student of Prof. A. T. Markov, received a small silver medal for drawing from life (in 1858), the same medal for the painting “The Dying Lensky” (in 1860), and a large silver medal. a medal for a sketch from life (in 1861) and a small gold medal for the painting painted according to the program: “Moses pours out water from a stone.” K. was supposed to compete for a big gold medal, but at this time doubts arose and ripened among the young academic artists about the correctness of academic teaching, and they submitted a petition to the academy council that they be allowed to choose a theme for each painting according to their inclinations to compete for a big gold medal. The Academy reacted unfavorably to the proposed innovation [One of the academy professors, architect Ton, even characterized the attempt of the young artists this way: “in the old days you would have been given up as a soldier for this.”], as a result of which 14 young artists, led by K., refused , in 1863, to write on the topic assigned by the academy - “A Feast in Valhalla” and left the academy. First, to find a means of living, they formed an artistic artel, and in 1870, some of them, joining young Moscow artists, headed by Myasoedov, founded a partnership of traveling exhibitions (see). K. became a portrait painter. In his further artistic activity , K. constantly showed a desire for paintings - works of imagination and willingly surrendered to it when everyday circumstances allowed it. While still an academician, he brought great benefit to his professor Markov, spending a year drawing cardboards for the ceiling in the Church of the Savior (in Moscow), according to Markov’s sketches. Subsequently, K. had to write on these cardboards, in community with his comrades at the academy, B. Wenig, Zhuravlev and Koshelev, the very ceiling, which remained unfinished due to Markov’s disagreement with I. Makarov, to whom he initially entrusted this work. The best works of non-portrait painting by K. include: “May Night” (according to Gogol), “Lady on a Moonlit Night”, “Inconsolable Grief”, “Forester”, “The Contemplator”, “Christ in the Desert” and some others. He put a lot of work into composing the painting “Jesus Christ, ridiculed as the king of the Jews” - a painting that he called “Laughter”, and he hoped a lot for it. But he was unable to provide for himself in such a way as to completely devote himself to this work, which remained far from finished. He drew portraits (so-called “sauce”, see Drawing) and wrote a lot; Of these, portraits of S.P. Botkin, I.I. Shishkin, Grigorovich, Mrs. Vogau, the family (female portraits) of the Gunzburgs, a Jewish boy, A.S. Suvorin, unknown, gr. L. N. Tolstoy, gr. Litke, gr. D. A. Tolstoy, Goncharov and many others. They are distinguished by their complete similarity and talented characterization of the person from whom the portrait was painted; the above-mentioned painting “Inconsolable Grief” is actually a portrait, which has all the qualities and advantages of the painting. But not all of his works are of equal strength, which he himself admitted without hesitation; sometimes he was not interested in the person from whom he had to write, and then he became only a conscientious recorder. K. also understood the landscape, and although he did not paint a single picture of this kind, in “May Night,” as well as in the other “Night,” he excellently conveyed the moonlight not only of human figures, but also of the landscape setting. Painting technique K. was a subtle completeness, which was sometimes considered by some to be unnecessary or excessive. Nevertheless, K. wrote quickly and confidently: in a few hours the portrait acquired a resemblance: in this regard, the portrait of Dr. Rauchfus, K.’s last dying work, is remarkable. [The portrait was painted one morning, but remained unfinished, since K. was at work on this died.]. Many of K.’s works are in the famous Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow [Incidentally, the paintings “Inconsolable Grief”, “Christ in the Desert” and “May Night”; portraits of P. M. Tretyakova, gr. L. N. Tolstoy, D. V. Grigorovich, N. A. Nekrasov, P. I. Melnikov, V. V. Samoilov, M. E. Saltykov and others, drawings: “Near the Lukomorye green oak” (ink and white pencil), portrait of V. Vasistov (ink), N. Yaroshenko (watercolor), etc.]. K. was also engaged in engraving on copper with strong vodka; Among the etchings he executed, the best were portraits of Emperor Alexander III, when he was his heir-tsarevich, Peter the Great and T. Shevchenko. It is difficult to say whether K. would have become a major historical painter. His rationality prevailed over his imagination, as he himself admitted both in an intimate conversation and in correspondence, placing I. E. Repin above himself in terms of talent. In general, K. was very demanding of artists, which earned himself a lot of detractors, but at the same time he was strict with himself and strived for self-improvement. His comments and opinions about art did not have the character of only personal conviction, but were usually demonstrative, as far as this is generally possible in matters of aesthetics. Its main requirement is content and nationality works of art, their poetry; but no less than that, he demanded good painting itself. In this regard, he should be noted, and this can be seen by reading his correspondence, published by A. Suvorin according to the thoughts and edited by V. V. Stasov ["Ivan Nikolaevich K., his life, correspondence and artistic critical articles"( St. Petersburg, 1888).]. It cannot be said that he judged correctly based on first impressions, but he always more or less motivated a change of opinion. Sometimes his opinions remained wavering for a long time until he found a compromise. K. did not have much education, he always regretted it and made up for this deficiency with constant serious reading and community intelligent people, as a result of which he himself was a useful interlocutor for artists [K. He is also known for his teaching activities, as a teacher since 1862 at the drawing school of the Society for the Encouragement of Artists. See the memoirs of his students E.K. Gauger and E.N. Mikhaltseva in the above-mentioned book by V. Stasov.]. He left a significant mark on himself with his anti-academic activities, which began in 1863, from the time he and his comrades left the academy; he constantly campaigned in favor of the principles of free artistic development young people. Although in the last years of his life he seemed inclined to reconcile with the academy, this is explained by the fact that he thought and hoped to wait for the possibility of its transformation in accordance with his basic views. From this it is clear that he was not an agitator out of love for agitation, which he was ready to stop as soon as he believed that his cherished goal could be achieved in a different way. In general, the significance of K. in the history of Russian art is twofold; as an artist and as a public figure.
F. Petrushevsky.
(Brockhaus)
Kramskoy, Ivan Nikolaevich
(Kramskoi), painter - engraver and portraitist; genus. 1837, d. 1887; academician since 1869; belonged to the Society of Itinerants and that is the only reason why he did not receive the title of professor. - I was also involved in lithography.
His etchings:
1. Image of the sitter Ak. thin peasant Ignatius Pirogov, in a wide caftan and bast shoes; full length, 3/4 true. Without a signature.
2. Bust-length portrait of Academician Ruprecht. Sub.: "I. Kramskoy".
3. Bust-length portrait of Taras Shevchenko, wearing a lambskin hat. Sub.: "I. Kramskoy 1871. - T. Shevchenko." Placed in the album: "The first experiments of Russian aquafortists. 1871."
4. Bust-length portrait of Emperor Peter I, 3/4 to the right, from a painting belonging to Count P.S. Strogonov. Sub.: "I. Kramskoy 1875". Placed in the album: "In memory of Peter the Great. St. Petersburg. 1872." Large leaf. First impressions before signature.
5-8. Four sheets for the Illustrated catalog of the second traveling exhibition of 1873, namely: 5. Title page, with the inscription: "Second | traveling | exhibition. | 1873." View of the exhibition with Kramskoy's painting: Savior in the Desert, in the background. Without a signature.
6. Savior in the desert. Without a signature.
7. Two heads from sketches (of peasant types) by Kramskoy and portraits of Dostoevsky, Turgenev, Pogodin and Dahl, from originals by V. Perov. Also without a signature.
8. On one sheet are portraits of: Nekrasov, Shchedrin and Maykov, the first two from paintings by Ge, and Maykov from paintings by V. Perov; below is an etching by M.K. Klodt from his painting: "Arable land". This sheet remained unpublished.
9. Five etchings on one sheet in the album of the third traveling exhibition of 1874, representing Kramskoy’s sketches and paintings at this exhibition, namely: “The Beekeeper” - a portrait of P.A. Valueva; full-length portrait of I.I. Shishkina; sketch of a man's head in a hat and "The Insulted Jewish Boy". All, with the exception of the last one, are signed: “Kramskoy”.
10. Sketch for the painting: "May Night. | Kramskoy | 1874." Adj. to the album "Skladchina", 1875 with censorship permission April 23, 1874 and address Exp. zagot. state b. First impressions before signature.
11. Full-length portrait of Emperor Alexander Alexandrovich (heir). From a painting by Kramskoy, which was on the front. Exhibition 1876 No. 21.
I type. Unfinished, until the session (for the head) in the Anichkov Palace.
II. Finished, before signature, on yellow paper.
III. With the signature: "I. Kramskoy", in Chinese. paper. Sold by subscription for 100 rubles.
IV. With the signature: "H.I.V. Sovereign. Tsarevich Alexander Alexandrovich. Engraved. I.N. Kramskoy." With Kadar's address in Paris, on a special plaque.
12-13. Two etchings for the book by M.P. Botkin: "A.A. Ivanov, his life and correspondence. St. Petersburg. 1880", namely: 12. Portrait of Ivanov, almost in profile, to the left; from a drawing made in Rome in 1846 by his brother, architect Sergei Andr. Ivanov and 13. Christ announces the second coming to his disciples. From a painting by Ivanov.
14. Empress Maria Alexandrovna on her deathbed. The image is half-length, 3/4 to the left. Subp. "I. Kramskoy."
15. She is the same; half-length image; profile to the left, without signature. Both were not for sale.
b. Lithographs.
1-2. Roman baths, from maps. prof. Bronnikova, and Francesca da Rimini and Paolo da Paolento, from maps. Myasoedova; These lithographs are placed in Khudozh. Autograph 1869
3. Wanderer, from a painting by V. Perov; room in Hood. Autograph 1870. Ed. Sob. Arteli Hood.
Ivan Kramskoy (May 27, 1837, Ostrogozhsk - March 24, 1887, St. Petersburg) - Russian painter and draftsman, master of genre, historical and portrait painting; art critic.
Biography of Ivan Kramskoy
Kramskoy was born on May 27 (June 8, new style) 1837 in the city of Ostrogozhsk, Voronezh province, in the family of a clerk.
After graduating from the Ostrogozh district school, Kramskoy was a clerk in the Ostrogozh Duma. In 1853 he began retouching photographs.
Kramskoy’s fellow countryman M.B. Tulinov taught him in several techniques “to finish photographic portraits with watercolors and retouching,” then the future artist worked for the Kharkov photographer Yakov Petrovich Danilevsky. In 1856, I. N. Kramskoy came to St. Petersburg, where he was engaged in retouching in Aleksandrovsky’s famous photographs at that time.
In 1857, Kramskoy entered the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts as a student of Professor Markov.
Kramskoy's creativity
In 1865, Markov invited him to help paint the dome of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow. Due to Markov's illness, the entire main painting of the dome was done by Kramskoy, together with the artists Wenig and Koshelev.
In 1863-1868 he taught at the Drawing School of the Society for the Encouragement of Artists. In 1869, Kramskoy received the title of academician.
In 1870, the “Association of Traveling Art Exhibitions” was formed, one of the main organizers and ideologists of which was Kramskoy. Under the influence of the ideas of Russian democratic revolutionaries, Kramskoy defended the view of the high social role of the artist, the principles of realism, the moral essence and nationality of art.
Ivan Nikolaevich Kramskoy created a number of portraits of outstanding Russian writers, artists and public figures (such as: Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy, 1873; I. I. Shishkin, 1873; Pavel Mikhailovich Tretyakov, 1876; M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin, 1879 - all are in the Tretyakov Gallery; portrait of S. P. Botkin (1880) - State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg).
One of famous works Kramskoy - “Christ in the Desert” (1872, Tretyakov Gallery).
A successor to the humanistic traditions of Alexander Ivanov, Kramskoy created a religious turning point in moral and philosophical thinking. He gave the dramatic experiences of Jesus Christ a deeply psychological life interpretation (the idea of heroic self-sacrifice). The influence of ideology is noticeable in portraits and thematic paintings - “N. A. Nekrasov during the period of “The Last Songs,” 1877-1878; "Unknown", 1883; “Inconsolable Grief”, 1884 - all in the Tretyakov Gallery.
The democratic orientation of Kramskoy's works, his critical insightful judgments about art, and persistent research into objective criteria for assessing the characteristics of art and their influence on it, developed democratic art and a worldview on art in Russia in the last third of the 19th century.
In 1863, the Academy of Arts awarded him a small gold medal for his painting “Moses Bringing Out Water from a Rock.”
Before finishing his studies at the Academy, all that remained was to write a program for a big medal and receive a pension abroad. The Academy Council proposed a theme from the Scandinavian sagas “A Feast in Valhalla” to the students for the competition. All fourteen graduates refused to develop this topic, and petitioned to be allowed to each choose a topic of their own choosing.
Subsequent events went down in the history of Russian art as the “Revolt of the Fourteen.”
The Academy Council refused them, and Professor Tone noted: “If this had happened before, then all of you would have been soldiers!”
On November 9, 1863, Kramskoy, on behalf of his comrades, told the council that they, “not daring to think about changing academic regulations, humbly ask the council to exempt them from participating in the competition.”
Among these fourteen artists were: I. N. Kramskoy, B. B. Wenig, N. D. Dmitriev-Orenburgsky, A. D. Litovchenko, A. I. Korzukhin, N. S. Shustov, A. I. Morozov , K. E. Makovsky, F. S. Zhuravlev, K. V. Lemokh, A. K. Grigoriev, M. I. Peskov, V. P. Kreitan and N. V. Petrov.
On the page are the most famous paintings of Ivan Nikolaevich Kramskoy.
Kramskoy is one of the founders and main ideologist of the Wanderers association.
The main event of the first exhibition of the Wanderers was Kramskoy’s painting “Christ in the Desert”. But the most famous and popular painting later became the painting “Unknown”.
Kramskoy, like no one else, left us a lot of portraits of great figures of his time.
Self-portrait of Kramskoy.
Unknown. Kramskoy.
The most mysterious and intriguing painting by Kramskoy. And the most famous.
But the prototype, the woman with whom the artist painted, is completely unknown. The face immediately catches your eye. The woman has a cold and arrogant look, dressed in the latest fashion. Sitting in a stroller against the backdrop of winter St. Petersburg with its Alexandrinsky Theater.
The photo shows the painting “Bouquet of Flowers. Phloxes." Kramskoy. A rare still life for Kramskoy.
Kramskoy's paintings almost always depict people.
A girl with a loose braid. Kramskoy.
What a sad face the girl has, what a sad look!
Surely Kramskoy himself experienced disappointment in life, emptiness and torment. It is no coincidence that the painting was without spectators for many years, being in the artist’s studio.
A girl sits and her gaze is turned to nowhere, to emptiness.
Portrait of Sofia Nikolaevna Kramskoy, the artist’s wife. She is reading a book enthusiastically.
Herodias. Kramskoy.
There is a religious plot here. Herodias is guilty of the death of John the Baptist, who openly condemned her marriage to her uncle.
And after the murder of John, Herodias wished to look at his severed head and enjoy the long-awaited victory over the enemy. In the picture there is a poisonous red color all around, the color of blood and murder! And this is not so much a religious plot as a moral one, or more precisely a plot of immorality.
Peasant with a bridle. Kramskoy. Epic peasant!
Kramskoy's paintings often depict ordinary people, people of the people! And this picture is a kind of summation of numerous portraits of peasants. The model was a real peasant Mina Moiseev. Wise calm and good humor on his face!
Forest path. Kramskoy.
A rare landscape for Kramskoy without people. Kramskoy's paintings are almost always with people!
Moonlight night. Kramskoy.
The original title of the painting was “Magic Night”.
And indeed the night is magical, but it’s the magical moon that makes it so! The moon illuminated many details in the night with its bright light. In the center, a beautiful and thoughtful girl in a chic white dress sits on a bench.
In front of her is a pond with water lilies. Behind her is a park with mighty trees! The picture is filled with lyricism and mystery!
Moses' prayer after the Israelites crossed the Red Sea.
Nekrasov during the period of the Last Songs.
At the head of the dying Nekrasov, Kramskoy placed a portrait of Dobrolyubov and a bust of Belinsky. So he depicted in the name of what the poet lived and worked!
Offended Jewish Boy
In the photo is “Beekeeper”. Kramskoy.
Kramskoy's paintings often depict a simple Russian peasant.
Forest worker. Kramskoy.
Polesovshchik is an old word meaning forester.
Other titles of the painting are “A Man with a Club” and “A Man in a Shot-Cut Hat.”
Kramskoy wrote such a formidable and strong forester.
Kramskoy also commented on this portrait with the words that it is from such men that the popular uprisings of Razin and Pugachev are formed.
Portrait of Alexander III
This is no longer a hero of the people, but a hero above the people. However, the king was the best, but he drank a lot.
Portrait of Anatoly Ivanovich Kramskoy, the artist’s son.
Portrait of Vera Nikolaevna Tretyakova
Wonderful portraits by Kramskoy!
Portrait of the great Doctor Botkin
Portrait of I. I. Shishkin. Kramskoy.
Most famous portrait Shishkina!
And this is Shishkin against the backdrop of nature. Surely Shishkin admires the trees.
Kramskoy himself hardly separated portraits from paintings. And on this canvas, the powerful and uninhibited Shishkin is depicted against the backdrop of a sunny forest clearing. Kramskoy's portraits and paintings are magnificent!
Portrait of the great Tretyakov
Portrait of Goncharov. Kramskoy.
Throughout his life, Ivan Nikolaevich Kramskoy tried to turn art face to face with life, so that it would become an effective tool for its active knowledge. An outstanding artist, who played a huge role in the formation of the national school of painting, led the famous “revolt of the fourteen,” stood at the head of the Artel of Artists and the Association of the Wanderers, and was one of those whose life and work invariably served to strengthen the most revolutionary, most advanced ideas of his time.
Paintings by Ivan Kramskoy
Heightened sense of life
Ivan Nikolaevich wrote in his biography: “I was born in 1837, May 27 (according to the old art.-V.R.), in the district town of Ostrogozhsk, Voronezh province, in the suburban settlement of Novaya Sotna, from parents assigned to the local philistinism. When I was 12 years old, I lost my father, a very stern man, as far as I remember. My father served in the city duma, if I’m not mistaken, as a journalist (i.e., a clerk - V.R.); My grandfather, according to stories... was also some kind of clerk in Ukraine. My genealogy does not rise any further.”
In his declining years, the artist ironically noted that he “turned out to be something like a ‘person’.” In his autobiography, one can feel some bitterness, but at the same time the legitimate pride of a man who escaped from the “bottom” and stood alongside the most outstanding figures of his time. The painter wrote about how he had strived all his life to get an education, but he only managed to graduate from the Ostrogozhsk district school, although he became the “first student” there. “...I have never envied anyone so much... as a truly educated person,” notes Kramskoy, mentioning that after training he became the same clerk in the city duma as his father was.
The young man became interested in art early, but the first person to notice and support this was the local amateur artist and photographer Mikhail Borisovich Tulinov, to whom Kramskoy was grateful all his life. For some time he studied icon painting, then, at the age of sixteen, he “had the opportunity to escape from the provincial town with a Kharkov photographer.” The future artist traveled with him “a large half of Russia for three years, as a retoucher and watercolorist. It was a harsh school...” But this “severe school” brought Kramskoy considerable benefit, strengthened his will and formed a persistent character, only strengthening his desire to become an artist.
Judging by his diary entries, young Ivan Kramskoy was an enthusiastic young man, but in 1857 a man arrived in St. Petersburg who knew exactly what he wanted and how to achieve it. The beginning of the independent path of the future painter came at a difficult time for all of Russia. The Crimean War has just ended, marking a crushing military and political defeat of the autocracy, awakening at the same time public consciousness, How advanced people, and the general public.
Monolith of the Imperial Academy
The abolition of the hated serfdom was just around the corner, and progressive Russia not only lived in anticipation of the coming changes, but also contributed to them in every possible way. The alarm of Herzen’s “Bell” sounded powerfully, young raznochintsy revolutionaries, led by N. G. Chernyshevsky, prepared themselves for the struggle for the liberation of the people. And even the sphere of “high” art, so far from practical life, succumbed to the charm of the wind of change.
If serfdom was the main brake on the development of all aspects of social life, then the citadel of conservatism in the field of art was the Imperial Academy of Arts, created in the middle of the 18th century. Being a purveyor of official doctrines and already outdated aesthetic principles, she did not allow the area of “beauty” to have anything in common with reality. But her students in the second half of the 50s and early 60s increasingly felt that life made completely different demands on art. Significant words N.G. Chernyshevsky’s “beautiful is life” became the programmatic setting for the entire progressive Russian intelligentsia and young figures of the emerging Russian democratic art. They brought new social sentiments to the Academy of Arts, established close ties with students of the University, the Medical-Surgical Academy, where the heroes of Chernyshevsky’s novel “What is to be done?” studied. Dmitry Lopukhov and Alexander Kirsanov, both are typical commoners, peers of I. Kramskoy.
Arriving in St. Petersburg, Ivan Nikolaevich already enjoyed the reputation of an excellent retoucher, which opened the doors to him in the studio of the best capital photographers I. F. Aleksandrovsky and A. I. Denyer. But the career of a successful artisan could not satisfy him. Kramskoy thought more and more persistently about entering the Academy of Arts.
Kramskoy's drawings immediately received approval from the Academy Council, and in the fall of 1857 he already became a student of Professor A. T. Markov. Thus his cherished dream came true, and it must be said that Kramskoy studied very diligently, worked hard on drawing, the culture of which was very high at the Academy, successfully worked on sketches on historical and mythological subjects, receiving all the required awards.
But the young painter did not feel true satisfaction. A thoughtful, well-read man, he more and more definitely felt the fundamental discord between the old artistic doctrines and real life. Just a few months after Kramskoy entered the Academy, A. A. Ivanov’s work “The Appearance of Christ to the People” was brought to St. Petersburg from Italy. The artist's return to Russia after almost thirty years of absence, his subsequent sudden death, the impression that the painting made on his contemporaries, which became the main work of the great master’s life, played a huge role in shaping the consciousness of the emerging advanced part of the Russian intelligentsia.
"Riot of the Fourteen"
Ivan Nikolaevich Kramskoy himself spoke best about the riot of the 14 in his letter to his old friend M. B. Tulinov: “My dear Mikhail Borisovich! Attention! On November 9th, that is, last Saturday, the following circumstance happened at the Academy: 14 students submitted a request to be issued diplomas for the title of class artists. At first glance, there is nothing surprising here.
Free people, free students, can leave classes whenever they want. But the fact of the matter is that these 14 are not ordinary students, but people who have their hearts set on their first gold medal. It was like this: a month before, we submitted a request for permission to free choice plots, but our request was refused... and they decided to give one plot to historians and a plot to genre writers, who from time immemorial chose their plots. On the day of the competition, November 9th, we went to the office and decided to go all together to the Council and find out what the Council decided. And therefore, to the inspector’s question: which of us are historians and which are genre writers? In order to all enter the conference room together, we answered that we were all historians. Finally, they are called in front of the Council to listen to the task. Let's go in. F. F. Lvov read us the plot: “A Feast in Valhalla” - from Scandinavian mythology, where heroes knights fight forever, where the god Odin presides, two ravens sit on his shoulders, and two wolves at his feet, and finally, there, somewhere in the sky, between the columns, there is a month, driven by a monster in the form of a wolf, and a lot of other nonsense. After that, Bruni stood up and came up to us to explain the plot, as is always the case. But one of us, namely Kramskoy, separates and says the following: “We ask permission in front of the Council to say a few words” (silence, and everyone’s eyes fixed on the speaker). “We submitted a petition twice, but the Council did not find it possible to fulfill our request; We, not considering ourselves in the right to insist any longer and not daring to think about changing academic regulations, we humbly ask you to release us from participation in the competition and issue us diplomas for the title of artists.”
There is silence for a few moments. Finally, Gagarin and Ton make sounds: “everything?” We answer: “everything,” and leave, and in the next room we give petitions to the case manager... And on the same day, Gagarin asked in a letter to Dolgorukov that nothing should appear in the literature without first reviewing him (Gagarin). In a word, we were put in a difficult situation. So, we have cut off our own retreat and do not want to return, and may the Academy be healthy for its centenary. Everywhere we meet sympathy for our action, so one, sent from the writers, asked me to tell him the words I said in the Council for publication. But we are silent for now. And since we had held hands tightly until now, so that we would not fall into ruin, we decided to hold on further in order to form an artistic association, that is, to work together and live together. I ask you to tell me your advice and considerations regarding the practical design and general rules, suitable for our society... And now it seems to us that this is possible. Our range of activities includes: portraits, iconostases, copies, original paintings, drawings for publications and lithographs, drawings on wood, in a word, everything related to our specialty... Here is a program that is far from clear, as you can see... "
In this letter, the artist not only reveals the vicissitudes of the confrontation between young artists and the Academy, but also sees prospects for the future, which are not yet completely clear, but very bold and not limited by the selfish goals of their own survival. After this incident, secret police surveillance was established over Kramskoy and his comrades, which lasted for many years. Here are the names of the fourteen participants in the “revolt”: painters I. Kramskoy, A. Morozov, F. Zhuravlev, M. Peskov, B. Wenig, P. Zabolotsky, N. Shustov, A. Litovchenko, N. Dmitriev, A. Korzukhin, A . Grigoriev, N. Petrov, K. Lemokh and sculptor V. Kreitan.
All of them were ordered to urgently vacate the workshops, but the youth, left without a means of subsistence, still won a major victory, the significance of which at that time they could hardly understand. This was the first conquest of Russian democratic realistic art. Soon Kramskoy, together with like-minded people, began to put into practice the idea he had - the creation of the first independent “art association” - the Artel of Artists.
Kramskoy through the eyes of Repin
After being expelled from the Academy, Kramskoy gets a job teaching at the school of the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, among whose students “was a talented young man who had just arrived in St. Petersburg from Ukraine,” just like Kramskoy himself once dreamed of entering the Academy of Arts - Ilya Repin.
Ilya Efimovich himself describes his first meeting with Kramskoy: “It’s Sunday, twelve o’clock in the afternoon. There is lively excitement in the class, Kramskoy is not yet there. We are drawing from the head of Milon of Croton... The class is noisy... Suddenly there was complete silence... And I saw a thin man in a black frock coat walking with a firm gait into the class. I thought it was someone else: I imagined Kramskoy differently. Instead of a beautiful pale profile, this one had a thin, high-cheekboned face and smooth black hair instead of shoulder-length brown curls, and such a ragged thin beard only appears on students and teachers. - Who is this? - I whisper to my friend. - Kramskoy! Don't you know? - he is surprised. So that’s what he is like!.. Now he looked at me; seems to have noticed. What eyes! You can’t hide, even though they are small and sit deep in the sunken orbits; gray, glowing... What a serious face! But his voice is pleasant, sincere, he speaks with excitement... But they also listen to him! They even abandoned their work and stood around with their mouths agape; It’s clear that they are trying to remember every word.”
Repin, like many Russian artists (Kramskoy himself wrote magnificently, just like Perov), Repin turned out to be a talented writer. In his essay “Ivan Nikolaevich Kramskoy (In Memory of a Teacher)”, with his characteristic impulsiveness, he creates a very lively, expressive literary portrait. “Kramskoy on Repin’s pages is all in motion, in struggle, he is not a frozen wax figure of a panopticon, he is precisely the hero of a fascinating story, rich in episodes,” K. Chukovsky later wrote.
Repin created an image that coincides almost down to the last detail with the “Self-Portrait” painted by Kramskoy in 1867 and which was distinguished by its unusually objective characteristics. In the picture, nothing distracts us from the main thing - the hero’s face, with the stern, penetrating gaze of gray eyes. Intelligence, will, restraint - these are the main personality traits of the artist, which are clearly visible in the canvas. A proud sense of self-worth is shown without showing off or posing. Everything is simple and natural in appearance painter and in his own way harmonious in the inner. The coloring of the portrait is almost monochrome, the brushstroke is dynamic, and before us is the recognized head of the first St. Petersburg Artel of Artists.
Creation of Artel
On the facade of house number 2/10, located on the corner of Mayorova Avenue and Admiralteysky Avenue in St. Petersburg, there is a memorial plaque with the inscription: “In this house from 1866 to 1870, the great Russian artist Ivan Nikolaevich Kramskoy lived and worked. The Artel he organized, which united the leading realist artists of the 60s, was located here.” But in reality, the Artel of Artists did not immediately acquire premises in the center of the capital, not far from Palace Square.
It all started much more modestly. Recalling the organization of the Artel, Kramskoy wrote to Stasov before his death: “... then it was necessary, first of all, to eat, to eat, since all 14 people had two chairs and one three-legged table. Those who had at least something immediately fell away.” “After much deliberation,” wrote Repin, “they came to the conclusion that it was necessary to organize, with the permission of the government, an Artel of Artists - something like an art firm, workshop and office, accepting orders from the street, with a sign and an approved charter. They rented a large apartment in the Seventeenth Line of Vasilievsky Island and moved (mostly) there to live together. And then they immediately came to life and became cheerful. A common large, bright hall, comfortable offices for everyone, their own household run by Kramskoy’s wife - all this encouraged them. Life became more fun, and some orders appeared. Society is power." This is how the first association of artists, organized by Kramskoy, appeared. It allowed many talented artists not only to survive, but to achieve success, recognition and financial independence, which ultimately caused the complete collapse of the organization.
Personal life and interest in psychology
Ivan Nikolaevich was always sure that his chosen one would be his faithful friend and would share with him all the hardships of an artist’s life. Sofya Nikolaevna, who became his wife, fully embodied his dreams of personal happiness. In one of the artist’s letters to his wife, we read: “...not only do you not prevent me from being an artist and a comrade of my comrades, but it’s even as if you yourself have become a true artel worker...”. Kramskoy repeatedly painted portraits of Sofia Nikolaevna. And although it would be too bold to call her the artist’s “muse,” she undoubtedly was the ideal woman for him. The best for that confirmation is her images created in portraits of the 60s. The common features of all the paintings are the integrity, independence and pride of their heroine, which allows us to see in her a “new woman”, who at the same time has not lost her true femininity, poetry and softness.
These qualities are especially noticeable in her graphic portrait, which belongs to the Tretyakov Gallery (1860s). A young, charming and gentle woman with a strong-willed character, as evidenced by her energetic turn of the head and stern but open gaze.
Painting “Reading. Portrait of S. N. Kramskoy,” painted in 1863, reminds us of the lyrical female portraits of the early 19th century. The coloring of the painting is based on a combination of shades of light green, lilac and other delicate colors. Big role The canvas features a landscape and a few carefully selected accessories that help convey the obvious attractiveness of the heroine of the portrait. The young Kramskoy couple was photographed in 1865 by their mutual friend, “artel worker” N.A. Koshelev. In the painting “Kramskoy with his wife” we see a lyrical scene: Sofya Nikolaevna plays the piano, while Ivan Nikolaevich is lost in thought to the accompaniment of her music.
In the 60s, Kramskoy created many graphic portraits of his friends: N. A. Koshelev, the Dmitriev-Orenburgsky spouses, M. B. Tulinov, I. I. Shishkin, increasingly strengthening their psychologism. True, photography, which was rapidly developing at that time, seemed to begin to displace artistic graphic and expensive painting portraits. It seemed that absolutely everything was available to the camera, that it could not only accurately capture the appearance of the person posing, but also advantageously emphasize the necessary details of the costume, rich furnishings, jewelry, etc. But, as time has shown, there was one thing he couldn’t do - look inside a person, give him a certain social and psychological assessment. This remained achievable only in a portrait created by the artist.
This is exactly what many masters were doing - improving the psychological portrait - including N.N. Ge, V.G. Perov and I.N. Kramskoy. The powerful rise of Russian realistic portraits coincided with the beginning of the era of the Wanderers and the end of the Artel era, which lost its original meaning in time.
Association of Itinerants
The wonderful idea of creating TPHV, which played a big role in the life of Russian art, belonged to a group of prominent Moscow and St. Petersburg artists, and the direct initiator of the initiative was the famous genre artist G. G. Myasoedov. He addressed a letter to Artel, finding support there only from individual members, primarily I.N. Kramskoy.
In 1870, an organization was created that was capable of liberating Russian democratic art from state tutelage and rallying advanced artists around an association based on the principle of personal material interest of all its members. The main goal of the Partnership was the development of art. The practice of traveling exhibitions opened up the possibility of direct communication between artists and a wide audience, while raising the most pressing issues of our time.
Over the course of several decades, P.M. acquired many of the best works of the Itinerants into his collection. Tretyakov. On November 28 (December 12, new style), 1871, the first exhibition of the Partnership took place in St. Petersburg. It should be noted that it was Kramskoy, a man of extremely strong principles and convictions, who owed the created Association of Traveling Art Exhibitions the fact that it very soon outgrew the tasks of an exhibition organization and became a genuine school of advanced Russian art.
Ivan Nikolaevich himself, by organizing the Partnership and directing its creative life, found in it that “nutrient medium” that allowed him to achieve his own artistic heights. The heyday of the activities of the Association of Itinerants coincided with the heyday of Kramskoy’s creativity, both as a painter and as a critic-publicist, the author of a number of very serious articles in which he expressed his thoughts on the fate of art and its high social purpose.
In numerous letters to a variety of people one can read many interesting remarks by Kramskoy about the great masters of the past and contemporary Russian and European artists. The most remarkable point in the artist’s critical reflections was that he wrote them not so much to instruct others, but to express the enormous and continuous inner work that was carried out within himself.
Kramskoy, in his aesthetic views, was a consistent supporter of the teachings of the great democrats V.G. Belinsky and N.G. Chernyshevsky. He wrote, believing that only life itself can be the basis of artistic creativity: “It’s a bad thing when art becomes a legislator!.. The serious interests of the people must always go ahead of the less significant ones.”
Kramskoy argued that “art cannot be anything other than national. Nowhere and never has there been any other art, and if so-called universal art exists, it is only because it was expressed by a nation that was ahead of universal human development. And if someday in the distant future Russia is destined to occupy such a position among nations, then Russian art, being deeply national, will become universal.”
Image of Christ
During the heyday of the Impressionist art in France, Repin, who visited Paris and admired their work, wrote that “we”, i.e. Russians, “a completely different people, in addition, in development (artistic - V.R.) we are in an earlier phase.” In response to Kramskoy’s remark that Russian artists must finally “move towards the light, towards the colors,” Repin says: “... our task is content. The face, the soul of a person, the drama of life, the impressions of nature, its life and meaning, the spirit of history - these are our themes... our colors are a tool, they must express our thoughts, our coloring is not elegant spots, it must express to us the mood of the picture , her soul, it must position and capture the entire viewer, like a chord in music.”
It should be noted that similar ideas were expressed at that time by many figures of Russian culture from F.M. Dostoevsky to M.P. Mussorgsky. They were also directly embodied in the works of I.N. Kramskoy.
The most important work in the artist’s work was the painting “Christ in the Desert” (1872), shown at the second exhibition of the Wanderers Association, the idea of which he had long ago. The artist said that it became a repository of the most important ideas for him: “Under the influence of a number of impressions, a very difficult feeling about life settled in me. I see clearly that there is one moment in the life of every person, more or less created in the image and likeness of God, when he thinks about whether to go right or left?.. We all know how such hesitation usually ends. Expanding the thought further, embracing humanity in general, I, from my own experience, from my little original, and only from him alone, can guess about the terrible drama that played out during historical crises. And now I have a terrible need to tell others what I think. But how to tell? How, in what way can I be understood? By nature, the language of hieroglyphs is most accessible to me. And then one day I... saw a figure sitting in deep thought... His thought was so serious and deep that I constantly found him in the same position... It became clear to me that he was busy with an issue that was important to him, so important that he is insensitive to terrible physical fatigue... Who was it? I don't know. In all likelihood it was a hallucination; I don't think I actually saw him. It seemed to me that this best suited what I wanted to tell. Here I didn’t even have to invent anything, I just tried to copy. And when he finished, he gave it a cheeky name. But if I could write it at the time when I observed him, is this Christ? Don't know...".
We can judge how long and hard the artist worked to create that “correct” image by the huge number of drawings and sketches made in preparation for the main work. The significance of this painting for Kramskoy can be judged by the fact that he continued to complete his work even after it was hung in the Tretyakov Gallery.
The artist depicted Christ sitting on gray cold stones, the desert soil is dead, it seems that Jesus wandered where no human foot has gone before. A subtle balance of the horizon level, dividing the work space in half, His figure simultaneously dominates the space of the canvas, drawn against the sky as a clear silhouette, and is in harmony with the earthly world depicted on the canvas. This only helps the artist deepen the inner drama of his hero. There is no action in the picture, but the viewer seems to feel the life of the spirit, the work of thought of the son of God, deciding for himself some important issue.
His feet are wounded by sharp stones, his figure is bent, his hands are painfully clenched. Meanwhile, the emaciated face of Jesus not only conveys his suffering, but, despite everything, expresses enormous power will, boundless loyalty to the idea to which He subordinated his entire life.
“He sat down like this while the sun was still in front of him, he sat down tired, exhausted, at first he followed the sun with his eyes, then he did not notice the night, and at dawn, when the sun should rise behind him, he continued to sit motionless. And it cannot be said that he was completely insensitive to sensations: no, under the influence of the oncoming morning cold, he instinctively pressed his elbows closer to his body, and only, however, his lips seemed to have dried up, stuck together from a long silence, and only his eyes betrayed his inner feelings. work, although we didn’t see anything...”
The author addresses his contemporaries, raising in this work large and eternal universal problems, raising before them the difficult question of choosing a life path. In Russia at that time there were many people who were ready to sacrifice themselves for the sake of truth, goodness and justice. Young revolutionaries who would soon become heroes of many works of democratic literature and painting were preparing to “go among the people.” Close connection between Kramskoy’s paintings and life was obvious, but the artist wanted to create a work-program: “And so, this is not Christ, that is, I don’t know who it is. This is an expression of my personal thoughts. Which moment? Transition. What follows? To be continued in the next book." That very “next book” was supposed to be the canvas “Laughter” (“Hail, King of the Jews!”, 1877-1882).
In 1872, Kramskoy wrote to F.A. Vasiliev: “We need to write another “Christ”, we definitely need to, that is, not him himself, but that crowd that laughs at the top of its lungs, with all the strength of its huge animal lungs... This laughter It's been haunting me for years now. It’s not that it’s hard that it’s hard, but that it’s hard that they laugh.” Christ is in front of the crowd, ridiculed, spat upon, but “he is calm as a statue, pale as a sheet.” “As long as we are not seriously chatting about goodness, about honesty, we are in harmony with everyone, try to seriously implement Christian ideas, see what laughter rises all around. This laughter follows me everywhere, wherever I go, I hear it everywhere.”
“Seriously pursuing Christian ideas” for the artist did not at all mean affirming the dogmas of official Orthodoxy, it was a desire to stand up for genuine morality and humanity. The main character of “Laughter” was the personification not only of the ideas of Kramskoy himself, he generally reflected the thoughts of many honest-minded representatives of that time, for whom, a direct encounter with rudeness, all-destructive cynicism, and greed clearly proved that abstract good is simply not able to defeat real real evil. .
Lyrics
In Kramskoy’s life, in the middle of his life, a certain drama took place, similar to the one that Ivanov experienced at the end of his journey. It began to seem to the artist that the creative failure that befell him (the work “Laughter” was never completed) was a consequence of the error of his chosen ideological position generally. These doubts were generated by the utopian maximalism characteristic of many of the best representatives of the Russian intelligentsia. The artist managed to solve a difficult task, which he tried in vain to realize in the form of a series of works about Christ, in his magnificent portraits of the 70-80s, embodying his idea of personalities of high moral character in a large gallery of images of advanced Russian writers, scientists, artists and stage figures. appearance
In the same 70s, Kramskoy wrote a number of lyrical works that were previously unusual for him, a shining example which can be represented by the painting “Inspection of an Old House” (1873), which tells the story of an abandoned and crumbling “noble nest” to which its owner returned after many years of absence. “An old thoroughbred gentleman, a bachelor,” finally “arrives at his family estate after a long, very long time and finds the estate in ruins: the ceiling has collapsed in one place, cobwebs and mold are everywhere, there are a number of portraits of ancestors on the walls. He is led by the arms of two female personalities... Behind them is the buyer - a fat merchant...”
We see an elderly man slowly moving through a suite of rooms in an abandoned family estate. So he entered the living room, hung with portraits of his ancestors, darkened by time, saw antique furniture in gray canvas covers, it seems that even the air in this old house is painted in smoky and dusty tones, time has stopped here, and the timid light from the windows is unable to dispel this darkness of the past.
As N.A. mentioned in his letters. Mudrogel is one of the oldest employees of the Tretyakov Gallery; most likely, “Kramskoy portrayed himself in the painting “Inspection of an Old House.” The testimony of a contemporary is of undoubted interest, although even if this is true, the artist did not simply try on this sad and lyrical situation. Kramskoy invested broad poetic and deep social meaning into the image he created.
As you know, the painting remained unfinished. Perhaps Kramskoy, as an active, active, purely “social” person, simply did not allow himself to relax, go into the lyrical channel, overcoming this weakness in himself in order to work on works of a completely different social significance, more important, in his opinion, in conditions of the complex social and artistic situation in Russia in the 1870s. “I, in essence, never liked portraits, and if I did them tolerably, it was only because I loved and love the human physiognomy... I became a portrait painter out of necessity,” wrote Ivan Nikolaevich. It is obvious, however, that “necessity” alone could not make it outstanding master portrait.
Portrait of Tolstoy
The need to prove that, according to Chernyshevsky’s ideas, “ human personality there is the highest beauty in the world, accessible to our senses,” awakened in Kramskoy a keen interest in “human physiognomy.” Thanks to the artist’s interest in reflecting the human soul, the portraits created by the master in this era were an invaluable contribution to Russian fine art of the 1860-80s.
“The portraits that you have now,” I. E. Repin wrote to him in 1881, “represent the faces of the dear nation, its best sons, who brought positive benefits with their selfless activities, for the benefit and prosperity native land, who believed in its better future and fought for this idea...” Ivan Nikolaevich Kramskoy became one of the founders of the portrait gallery, thanks to which we can now see the faces of people who played a huge role in the history and art of Russia. Among the first of them was Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy, whose first portraits were painted by Kramskoy.
Getting a portrait of the great Russian writer into the collection was Tretyakov’s cherished dream, but so far no one has been able to persuade Lev Nikolayevich to pose. On the other hand, there was Kramskoy, who tried to persuade the collector to help the young talented artist F. Vasiliev, who was dying of consumption in Crimea. As a result, in 1873, Kramskoy, in order to pay Vasiliev’s debt to Tretyakov, persuaded Tolstoy to sit for two portraits: one was intended for a collector, the second for the writer’s house in Yasnaya Polyana.
Ivan Nikolaevich worked on both canvases in parallel, while trying to avoid absolute identity. As a result, the writer’s family chose a portrait with a more intimate interpretation of Lev Nikolaevich, in which he is absorbed in himself. Tretyakov received a portrait in which the writer seems to be addressing the viewer. Thus, the artist managed to simultaneously create two fundamentally different artistic images.
Both portraits have a number of common features. Firstly, a neutral background, thanks to which the location of the figure in space ceases to play any role. Secondly, the model’s hands are depicted only in general outline. Thirdly, the artist deliberately avoided expressive picturesque coloring. Such restraint of the plastic solution made it possible to shift all attention to the face of forty-five-year-old Tolstoy - open, simple, framed by a thick beard and manly-cut hair.
The main thing in the created portraits is the eyes of the writer, expressing the hard work of thought of an intelligent and educated person. From Kramskoy’s painting, Tolstoy looks at us “unyieldingly and sternly, even coldly... not allowing himself to forget for a moment about his task of observation and analysis. He becomes a scientist, and his subject is the human soul,” this is how the prominent Soviet art critic D.V. Sarabyanov described his impression. It was the comprehension of Tolstoy’s powerful intellect that became the main goal and, of course, represented the main difficulty that the artist faced in this work.
Portraits of the greats
Kramskoy painted many portraits commissioned by Tretyakov, paying tribute to this extraordinary man. So in 1871, the artist painted a portrait of the great Ukrainian poet Taras Grigorievich Shevchenko from a photograph. And in the winter of 1876, Ivan Nikolaevich became especially close to the collector’s family, working on portraits of Tretyakov’s wife Vera Nikolaevna, and Pavel Mikhailovich himself, in whom he always saw not a merchant, but an intellectual and a true patriot of the Russian national culture, who firmly believed that “the Russian school of painting will not be the last.” In a small portrait of 1876, distinguished by a certain “intimacy” of artistic design, Kramskoy tried to express the social significance of the personality of the person being portrayed.
By order of Tretyakov, the artist created two images of the great Russian poet-democrat N.A. Nekrasov (1877-1878), the first of them is a portrait of Nikolai Alekseevich, the second is the painting “Nekrasov during the period of the Last Songs”. Work on these works was complicated by the poet’s serious illness. The artist managed to paint it sometimes for only ten to fifteen minutes a day, but by March 30, 1877, the portrait of N. A. Nekrasov was completed.
But it is not he who is of greatest value, but the painting “Nekrasov during the period of the Last Songs,” in which the selection of everyday details helped to create an accurate image of the poet. Pale, dressed in all white, seriously ill Nekrasov sits on his bed, completely immersed in his thoughts. And the photographs of N. A. Dobrolyubov and I. S. Turgenev, hung on the walls of his office, as well as the bust of V. G. Belinsky, Nekrasov’s ideological mentor and great friend, convey the atmosphere of a rich, intense creative life, making one feel that the great poet immortal.
Interestingly, if you look closely at the surface of the painting’s canvas, it is easy to notice that several seams intersect it. The image of the poet’s head is made on a separate fragment, the original position of which is easy to establish. Apparently, at first the master depicted the terminally ill poet lying down, then rearranging the composition for greater expressiveness. Nekrasov appreciated Kramskoy’s talent, giving him a copy of his book “Last Songs,” on the title page of which he wrote: “As a keepsake for Kramskoy. N. Nekrasov April 3.”
Kramskoy’s work on the images of the outstanding satirist M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin turned out to be even more complex, stretching over several years. One of the two portraits created by the artist was also intended for the Tretyakov collection and was created from 1877 to 1879, undergoing endless alterations. Having completed the painting, Kramskoy writes to Tretyakov that this portrait “came out really very similar,” speaking about its artistic features, the master especially emphasizes: “The painting... came out murugaya, and imagine - with intention.”
As in the portrait of Tolstoy, the coloring of the work is very dull and gloomy. Thus, the artist puts Shchedrin’s face in the center of attention, his high forehead, mournfully lowered corners of his lips, and, most importantly, his demanding, questioning gaze. A large role in creating the image of a satirical writer is played by the hands - closed, with thin intertwined fingers, they are emphatically aristocratic, but not at all lordly.
The unifying idea for the portraits of L.N. Tolstoy, N.A. Nekrasov, M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin, P.M. Tretyakov, became the idea of high citizenship. In them Kramskoy saw the spiritual leaders of the nation, the progressive people of their time. This left its mark on the manner in which those portrayed were depicted. The artist deliberately “narrowed” the boundaries of their personality to emphasize their social significance. Nothing, according to Kramskoy, should have distracted the viewer from the main thing - the spiritual component of the heroes of his portraits, which is why the color of the canvases is so dull.
When the artist painted portraits of writers, artists, who, in his opinion, did not so powerfully accumulate the “spiritual charge” of the era, he made the pictorial and plastic solution of the works freer, more relaxed, which made the images of the people he depicted alive and spontaneous. Works of this kind include the portrait of Ivan Ivanovich Shishkin, executed by the painter in 1873. This work, like the painting “Nekrasov during the period of “The Last Songs”, belongs to the category of portrait paintings, since it combines two principles into a harmonious whole - portrait and landscape.
The image of nature created in this work is not just a natural background for the image of the landscape master, but the element in which he lived and worked. A lyrical and at the same time majestic landscape (clear blue sky with light clouds floating over it, the mysterious silhouette of the forest and tall grasses at Shishkin’s feet), not so much recreates the appearance of a specific area, but rather represents a generalized expression of Russian nature, the way it was depicted in the 70s, including I. I. Shishkin.
The artist sought to emphasize his indissoluble unity with the surrounding world. The slender but powerful figure of the landscape painter, his strong-willed open face, the external simplicity and at the same time the undeniable grandeur of his appearance, the way he calmly and economically peers into the endless distances, all this accurately conveys Kramskoy’s idea of Shishkin as a “man-school,” “a milestone in the development of the Russian landscape.”
Later, in 1880, Kramskoy would paint another portrait of the great singer of Russian nature. In it, the artist will again be amazed by his physical power, noting that with age, Shishkin’s personality became richer and more complex.
An extraordinary gift of a portrait painter
Among the many portraits of Russian writers and artists painted in the 70s, most of which Kramskoy painted at the request of P. M. Tretyakov, there were images of I.A. Goncharova, I.E. Repina, Ya.P. Polonsky, P.I. Melnikov-Pechersky, M.M. Antokolsky, S.T. Aksakova, F.A. Vasilyeva, M.K. Klodt and many others.
Two portraits can be particularly highlighted - the writer Dmitry Vasilyevich Grigorovich (1876) and the painter Alexander Dmitrievich Litovchenko (1878).
Creating a portrait of the author of the then popular story “Anton the Miserable,” the master keenly noticed the usual lordly bearing of Grigorovich and a certain condescension and complacency in his gaze, characteristic of a person not accustomed to delving into the complexity of the life around him. The gesture of the hand with a gold-framed pince-nez clutched between thin fingers is emphatically theatrical. “This is not a portrait, but just a scene, a drama!.. So Grigorovich sits in front of you with all his lies, French feuilletonism, boasting and ridiculousness,” V.V. Stasov enthusiastically wrote to Kramskoy. Although the artist himself, who a few years later wrote a letter to the famous publisher A.S. Suvorin, tried to deflect the accusation of obvious bias, assuring that he did not want to “do anything funny, other than a completely natural fascination with a visible characteristic form, without emphasis.” How true this is, we will probably never know, but one thing is absolutely clear - today we are attracted to the portrait of D. V. Grigorovich precisely by the artist’s passion for the “visible characteristic form”, which was the key to creating a surprisingly bright and living human image.
This is expressed even more strongly in the large-format portrait of A. D. Litovchenko. Dressed in a thick dark brown coat, the artist is depicted against a light gray-greenish background. By slightly “blurring” the moving contour outlining the figure, Kramskoy emphasized the natural ease of his model. Litovchenko’s pose is unusually expressive, his right hand is laid behind his back with a free movement, and left hand gracefully holds a cigar with a familiar gesture. The fingers are not drawn, only outlined with several precise, dynamic strokes. It was no accident that Kramskoy “smeared” the edge of the sleeve framing this arm and made it deliberately unclear. So he convincingly conveyed the natural immediacy of the gesture, exactly corresponding to the lively, changeable expression of the face of the hero of the portrait, framed by a lush beard. One can only guess about the design of the lips, but the coal-black eyes of the person being portrayed look so piercingly sharp, the best way expressing all the spontaneity of his nature, that the entire image of Litovchenko is perceived “as if alive.” The artist uses sparse, but extremely expressive details with amazing precision: the conical-shaped cap, with its outlines, perfectly completes the silhouette of the artist’s figure as a whole, just as the light yellow gloves, casually peeking out of Litovchenko’s coat pocket, complete his image.
The portrait of A. D. Litovchenko is, without a doubt, one of the largest creative success Kramskoy. His image turned out to be so lively and brightly individual thanks to the high pictorial merits of this painting, “in terms of fire, passion and vitality of quick execution, similar to impromptu” (V. Stasov).
Ivan Nikolaevich no longer “paints” with a brush, as was the case in many of his paintings, but rather writes, broadly, temperamentally, building a plastic form with color, anticipating the best portrait paintings of I.E. Repina. Struck by his powerful expression, M.P. Mussorgsky will respond to his work in the following way: “Approaching the portrait of Litovchenko, I jumped back...,” he wrote to V.V. Stasov. - What a miraculous Kramskoy! This is not a canvas - this is life, art, power, what is sought in creativity!”
We can see what the artist himself had become by this time, thanks to his “Self-Portrait” of 1874. The painting is small in format and was clearly painted “for myself.” A rich dark red background helps create an atmosphere of emphasized concentration in the portrait. Kramskoy, peering into his own face, shows how his composure and perseverance, developed by a difficult life and constant work, have increased over the years. His gaze became much deeper and sadder than in the self-portrait of 1867, in which the master seemed to publicly declare his chosen position as an artist-fighter. Now, without retreating a single step from the chosen path, he admits to himself how enormous mental strength this perseverance and courage require.
“Until now, Mr. Kramskoy has only succeeded in male portraits“, - wrote one of the observers of the seventh mobile magazine, “but the current exhibition has shown that a female portrait, which presents incomparably more difficulties, is equally accessible to him.”
A correct remark, especially considering that before Kramskoy such a democratic type of female portrait, the credit for the development of which belongs entirely to him, did not exist in Russian painting.
The image of the Russian people
Kramskoy often wrote that, living in St. Petersburg, he felt the full burden of the oppressive social atmosphere; he even said that the “St. Petersburg climate,” which he always tried to resist, “is killing Russian art and artists.” In this feeling, he had many like-minded people. Let us remember A. S. Pushkin, who said that the North was “harmful” to him, K. P. Bryullov, who, having returned from Italy, basked in the glory, but wrote that he was “moping” because he was “afraid of the climate and captivity.”
“It’s pulling me out of St. Petersburg,” wrote Kramskoy, “I’m sick of it!” Where does it pull you, why do you feel sick?.. Where is the peace? And this would be nothing if it weren’t for the rich and unimaginably enormous material lying outside the cities, there, in the depths of swamps, forests and impassable roads. What faces, what figures! Yes, the waters of Baden-Baden help another, Paris and France help another, and the third... sum and freedom! Quickly responding to the emerging “going to the people,” the artist wrote that “sitting in the center... you begin to lose the nerve of a broad, free life; The outskirts are too far away, and the people have so much to give! My God, what a huge spring! Just have ears to hear and eyes to see... It’s pulling me out, that’s how it’s pulling me!” It was in the people that Kramskoy saw the main force of life, discovering in them a new source of creative inspiration.
The images of peasants in the works of I. N. Kramskoy are very diverse. This is “The Contemplator” (1876, Kiev Museum of Russian Art), a philosophizing man, a seeker of eternal truth, and a beekeeper living a life united with nature (“Beekeeper”, 1872), and “A Little Man with a Stick” (1872, Tallinn art museum) is a downtrodden old peasant who has lived a long, joyless century. There are other images, such as the hero of the painting “Village Headman” (Melnik, 1873), full of inner dignity, or the powerful, stern man in the 1874 canvas “Head of a Peasant” (Penza Art Gallery K.A. Savitsky).
But the most significant work on a folk theme was the 1874 painting “The Forester.” Regarding her, Kramskoy writes to P. M. Tretyakov: “...my sketch in a bullet-ridden hat, according to the plan, should depict one of those types (they exist among the Russian people) who have much of the social and political system They understand people's life with their own minds, and in whom there is a deep-rooted displeasure bordering on hatred. From such people, in difficult moments, the Stenka Razins and Pugachevs gather their gangs, and in ordinary times they act alone, wherever and however necessary, but they never make peace. He’s an unattractive type, I know, but I also know that there are many like him, I’ve seen them.”
In the later period of his creativity, the artist also turned to the peasant theme. In 1882, a “study of a Russian peasant” was created - a portrait of Mina Moiseev. In 1883 - the canvas “Peasant with a Bridle” (Kiev Museum of Russian Art). In these two works, the master created two diametrically opposed images, painted, however, from the same model.
Late period of creativity
Despite the political defeat of democratic thought in Russia in the 70s and 80s of the 19th century, which was literally crushed by the regime, Russian democratic art experienced an unprecedented rise. Significant changes took place in the life of the Association of Traveling Art Exhibitions; the work of such titans of Russian fine art as I. E. Repin and V. I. Surikov came to the fore. Ivan Nikolaevich Kramskoy continued to work hard and hard. Despite the high authority that the artist had among his contemporaries, his work became increasingly difficult. Evidence of this can be seen in the unfinished painting “Laughter” for many years, the very idea of which no longer met the needs of society. As a result, Kramskoy was left with only portraits.
During this period, the artist, with his characteristic skill and psychologism, painted portraits of I. I. Shishkin, an outstanding figure in Russian medicine, S. P. Botkin, and artist V. V. Samoilov. Moreover, Kramskoy not only looked decent next to younger portrait painters, such as I. E. Repin and N. A. Yaroshenko, but continued to play the role of a “teacher” for them. And their canvases, in turn, bore the reflection of Kramskoy’s art.
Nevertheless, the artist understood that he needed to grow somewhere, to look for new ways for his creativity. He tries his hand at a ceremonial portrait, looking for new lighting and color solutions, suffocating, at the same time, under the burden of constant orders. Rushing to provide for his family as best as possible and realizing that his strength was running out, Kramskoy rushed between time-consuming creative searches and quick execution of work, which sometimes did not lead to the best results. The artist, who enjoyed great respect and even honor, took these failures seriously.
The demands that life itself placed on art changed, and therefore the artistic system had to change. In 1883, at the MUZHVIZ, the young artist K. A. Korovin, a student of A. K. Savrasov and V. D. Polenov, wrote the sketch “Chorus Girl,” using an unusual motif and very bold painting techniques. Even Polenov, familiar with creativity French impressionists, was amazed by this bold experiment of the artist, deciding that he was far ahead of his time. However, soon Korovin’s close friend, V. A. Serov, would write his “Girl with Peaches” (1887), turning the portrait of twelve-year-old Vera, the daughter of the famous Moscow industrialist S. I. Mamontov, into a radiant image of youth.
Trying to capture the essence of new trends, Kramskoy painted his “Unknown” (1883) - one of his most mysterious paintings. This is how art critic N. G. Mashkovtsev describes the picture: “A young woman is depicted in a stroller against the backdrop of the Anichkov Palace, painted rusty red. This color is softened by the winter fog, as are the contours of the architecture. The female figure appears in the foreground all the more clearly. She is dressed with all the luxury of fashion. She leaned back on the back of the carriage, upholstered in dark yellow leather. In her face there is the pride of a woman aware of her charm. In no other portrait did Kramskoy pay so much attention to accessories - velvet, silk, fur. Dark Glove, tightly covering the hand, like a second skin, thin and translucent, through which one can feel the living body, written with some special warmth. Who she is, this captivating woman, remains unknown.”
Many believe that Kramskoy portrayed Anna Karenina as a symbol of the new position of women in society, the way it should become. This version has both supporters and opponents, but it would be more correct to assume that the artist I.N. Kramskoy and the writer L.G. Tolstoy, when creating their female images, put into them something more than a portrait of a specific woman, namely, their idea of the ideal of a modern woman. Like Tolstoy, Kramskoy, defending the human dignity of a woman, set himself the task of trying to embody his idea of the moral and aesthetic category of beauty through the visible, “objective” attractiveness of the model.
In 1884, the artist completed his painting “Inconsolable Grief,” conceived back in the late 70s. The plot of the canvas is inspired by the master’s personal grief - the death at an early age of his two youngest sons. Through this work, which has an unusual number of sketches for an artist (showing how important it was for Kramskoy), he conveyed his own grief and the grief of his wife, Sofia Nikolaevna. Putting a lot of personal, deeply intimate things into the picture, the painter at the same time sought to expand and deepen its content as much as possible. Precisely and sparingly selected elements introduce us to the atmosphere of a house in which great grief has come, conveyed, however, very restrainedly, without melodramatic excesses, only the reddish glow of funeral candles flickering behind the curtain suggests its cause.
The compositional and semantic center of the canvas is the dramatic image of a woman. Her tense straight figure, the mournful look of unseeing eyes, the handkerchief raised to her lips, indicating barely restrained sobs, reveal the full depth of her suffering. Such psychological expressiveness of the image was not easy for the artist. “I sincerely sympathized with my mother’s grief,” Kramskoy wrote to P. M. Tretyakov. “I searched for a long time for a pure form and finally settled on this form...” It was the strict form, achieved without unnecessary theatricality, that allowed him to create the image of a strong-willed person, and the monumental structure of the canvas helped convey feelings and experiences as a personal drama that the master is trying to raise to the level of a large social phenomenon.
It should be noted that in contrast to the portraits of the 70s, in which the feelings of Kramskoy’s heroes were marked rather with the stamp of high citizenship, the characters of later works live in a much more closed world of personal experiences.
Kramskoy's letters to his friends tell us about how difficult the last period of his life was for him. In 1883 he writes to P.M. Tretyakov: “...I confess that the circumstances are higher than my character and will. I am broken by life and have not done what I wanted and what I should have done...” At the same time, a letter was written to the artist P. O. Kovalevsky: “I have been working in the dark for a long time. There is no one near me anymore who, like the voice of conscience or the trumpet of an archangel, would notify a person: “Where is he going? Are you on the real road, or are you lost?” There is nothing more to expect from me, I have already stopped expecting from myself.”
Nevertheless, the master worked until his last day. He conducted portrait sessions for five hours a day, constantly screaming in pain, but almost without noticing it, he was so captivated by the creative process. This was the case on the painter’s last day. Feeling a surge of vigor in the morning, he painted a portrait of Dr. Rauchfus. Suddenly, his gaze stopped and he fell straight to his palette. It was March 24, 1887.
“I don’t remember a more heartfelt and touching funeral!.. Peace be to your ashes, mighty Russian man, who emerged from the insignificance and dirt of the outback,” I. E. Repin later wrote about seeing off his old friend on his last journey.
Also in 1887, a large posthumous exhibition of works by the great Russian master was organized, accompanied by the publication of a detailed illustrated catalog. A year later, a book dedicated to the life and work of Ivan Nikolaevich Kramskoy was published.
A picturesque sketch for the painting "Unknown", which is kept in Prague, in a private collection (1883).
This is perhaps Kramskoy’s most famous work, the most intriguing, remaining to this day incomprehensible and unsolved. By calling his painting “Unknown,” the clever Kramskoy forever attached to it an aura of mystery. Contemporaries were literally at a loss. Her image evoked concern and anxiety, a vague premonition of a depressing and dubious new thing - the emergence of a type of woman who did not fit into the previous system of values. “It is unknown who this lady is, decent or corrupt, but a whole era sits in her,” some stated. Stasov loudly called Kramskoy’s heroine “a cocotte in a stroller.” Tretyakov also admitted to Stasov that “ previous works“He likes Kramskoy more than the latter. There were critics who connected this image with Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina, who descended from the heights of her social position, with Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Nastasya Filippovna, who rose above the position of a fallen woman, and the names of ladies of the world and demi-monde were also mentioned. By the beginning of the 20th century, the scandalousness of the image was gradually covered by the romantic and mysterious aura of Blok’s “Stranger.” In Soviet times, Kramskoy’s “Unknown” became the embodiment of aristocracy and secular sophistication, almost Russian Sistine Madonna- the ideal of unearthly beauty and spirituality.
In a private collection in Prague there is a picturesque sketch for the painting, convincing that Kramskoy was looking for ambiguity artistic image. The sketch is much simpler and sharper, what has been said and more definite picture. It reveals the insolence and power of a woman, a feeling of emptiness and satiety, which are absent in the final version. In the film “Unknown,” Kramskoy is captivated by the sensual, almost teasing beauty of his heroine, her delicate dark skin, her velvet eyelashes, the slightly arrogant squinting of her brown eyes, her majestic posture. Like a queen, she rises above the foggy white cold city, driving in an open carriage along the Anichkov Bridge. Her outfit - a "Francis" hat, trimmed with elegant light feathers, "Swedish" gloves made of the finest leather, a "Skobelev" coat, decorated with sable fur and blue satin ribbons, a muff, a gold bracelet - all these are fashionable details of a women's costume of the 1880s years, claiming expensive elegance. However, this did not mean belonging to high society; rather, on the contrary, the code of unwritten rules excluded strict adherence to fashion in the highest circles of Russian society.
The exquisite sensual beauty, majesty and grace of the “Unknown”, a certain alienation and arrogance cannot hide the feeling of insecurity in the face of the world to which she belongs and on which she depends. With his painting, Kramskoy raises the question of the fate of beauty in imperfect reality.
