Russian painter and draftsman, master of genre, historical and portrait painting; art critic

Ivan Kramskoy

short biography

Ivan Nikolaevich Kramskoy(June 8, 1837, Ostrogozhsk - April 5, 1887, St. Petersburg) - Russian painter and draftsman, master of genre, historical and portrait painting; art critic.

After graduating from the Ostrogozhsk district school, Kramskoy was a clerk in the Ostrogozhsk Duma. Since 1853 he began to retouch photographs. Kramskoy's compatriot M. B. Tulinov taught him in several steps 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 the well-known at that time photographic studio of Aleksandrovsky.

In 1857, Kramskoy entered the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts as a student of Professor Markov.

Riot of fourteen. Artel of artists

Portrait of the artist Shishkin. (1880, Russian Museum)

In 1863, the Academy of Arts awarded him a small gold medal for the painting "Moses pours water from a rock." Before graduating from the Academy, it remained to write a program for a large medal and receive a pension abroad. The Council of the Academy offered the students a competition on a theme from the Scandinavian sagas "Feast in Valhalla". All fourteen graduates refused to develop this topic and petitioned to be allowed to each choose a topic of their choice. The subsequent events went down in the history of Russian art as the "Riot of the Fourteen". The Council of the Academy refused them, and Professor Ton noted: “If this happened before, then all of you would be 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 release them from participating in the competition." Among these fourteen artists were: I. N. Kramskoy, B. B. Venig, 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. P. Petrov. The artists who left the Academy formed the "Petersburg Artel of Artists", which existed until 1871.

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 made by Kramskoy together with the artists Venig 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.

Wandering

The grave of I. N. Kramskoy at the Tikhvin cemetery in the Alexander Nevsky Lavra (St. Petersburg)

In 1870, the "Association of Traveling Art Exhibitions" was formed, one of the main organizers and ideologists of which was Kramskoy. Influenced by the ideas of the Russian democratic revolutionaries, Kramskoy defended his consonant opinion about the high social role of the artist, the fundamental principles of realism, the moral essence of art and its national identity.

Ivan Nikolayevich Kramskoy created a number of portraits of prominent Russian writers, artists and public figures (such as: Lev Nikolayevich 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 Kramskoy's most famous works is "Christ in the Desert" (1872, Tretyakov Gallery).

The successor of 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 Last Songs period, 1877-1878; "Unknown", 1883; "Inconsolable grief", 1884 - all in the Tretyakov Gallery.

Postal envelope of the USSR, 1987:
150 years since the birth of Kramskoy

The democratic orientation of Kramskoy's work, his critical insightful judgments about art, and persistent research into objective criteria for evaluating the features of art and their influence on it, developed democratic art and the worldview of art in Russia in the last third of the 19th century.

In recent years, Kramskoy was ill with a heart aneurysm. The artist died of an aortic aneurysm on March 24 (April 5), 1887, while working on a portrait of Dr. Rauchfus, when he suddenly stooped and fell. Rauhfus tried to help him, but it was too late. I. N. Kramskoy was buried at the Smolensk Orthodox cemetery. In 1939, the ashes were transferred to the Tikhvin cemetery of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra with the installation of a new monument.

In Tsarskoye Selo, a sculptural composition of Kramskoy and the Unknown by sculptor Alexander Taratynov was installed.

A family

Sofya Nikolaevna Kramskaya (1840-1919, nee Prokhorova) - wife
- Nicholas (1863-1938) - architect
- Sophia - daughter, artist, repressed
- Anatoly (02/01/1865-1941) - official of the Department of Railway Affairs of the Ministry of Finance
- Mark (? −1876) - son

Addresses in St. Petersburg

1863 - profitable house of A. I. Likhacheva - Middle Avenue, 28;
1863-1866 - 17 line V.O., house 4, apartment 4;
1866-1869 - Admiralteisky prospect, building 10;
1869 - 03/24/1887 - Eliseev's house - Birzhevaya line, 18, apt. 5.

Gallery

Kramskoy's works

Mermaids, 1871

Christ in the Desert, 1872

Member of the "Riot of the Fourteen"
Artel of free artists

And van Kramskoy participated in the well-known student revolt of the Academy of Arts: he refused to write a competitive work on a given topic. Having expelled from the Academy, he first founded the Artel of Free Artists, and later became one of the founders of the Association of the Wanderers. In the 1870s, Ivan Kramskoy became a famous art critic. Many collectors bought his canvases, including Pavel Tretyakov.

Member of the "Riot of the Fourteen"

Ivan Kramskoy was born in Ostrogozhsk in the family of a clerk. Parents hoped that the son would become a clerk, like his father, but the boy loved to draw from early childhood. Neighbor, self-taught artist Mikhail Tulinov taught the young Kramskoy to paint with watercolors. Later, the future artist worked as a retoucher - first with a local photographer, and then in St. Petersburg.

Ivan Kramskoy did not dare to enter the capital's Academy of Arts: there was no elementary art education. But Mikhail Tulinov, who by this time had also moved to St. Petersburg, suggested that he study one of the academic disciplines - drawing from plaster. The sketch of Laocoön's head became his introductory work. The Council of the Academy of Arts appointed Ivan Kramskoy as a student to Professor Alexei Markov. The novice artist learned not only to write, but also prepared cardboard for painting the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow.

In 1863, Ivan Kramskoy already had two medals - Small silver and Small gold. A creative competition remained ahead - those who passed it with success received the Big Gold Medal and a six-year pensioner's trip abroad.

For the competitive work, the council offered the students a plot from Scandinavian mythology - "Feast in Valhalla". However, at this time, interest in genre works grew in society: paintings depicting everyday life became popular.

The students of the Academy were divided into innovators-genre painters and historians, faithful to the old traditions. 14 out of 15 contenders for the Big Gold Medal refused to paint competitive canvases on a mythological plot. First, they submitted several petitions to the council: they wanted to choose topics on their own, demanded that examination papers be considered publicly and give reasoned assessments. Ivan Kramskoy was a "deputy" from a group of fourteen. He read out the requirements to the council and the rector of the Academy and, having received a refusal, left the exam. Comrades followed his example.

“... In the end, we stocked up, just in case, with petitions stating that “for domestic or other reasons, I, such and such, cannot continue the course at the Academy and ask the Council to issue me a diploma corresponding to the medals with which I was awarded” .
<...>
One by one, the students came out of the conference rooms of the Academy, and each took out a request folded in four from the side pocket of his coat and placed it in front of the clerk, who was sitting at a special table.
<...>
When all the petitions had already been submitted, we left the board, then from the walls of the Academy, and I finally felt myself in this terrible freedom, to which we all so eagerly aspired.
Ivan Kramskoy

Artel of free artists

Ivan Kramskoy. Self-portrait. 1867. State Tretyakov Gallery

Ivan Kramskoy. Girl with a cat. Portrait of a daughter. 1882. State Tretyakov Gallery

Ivan Kramskoy. For reading. Portrait of Sophia Nikolaevna Kramskoy, the artist's wife. 1869. State Tretyakov Gallery

After graduation, young artists had to leave the workshops of the Academy, where they not only worked, but also lived - often with relatives or friends. There was nothing to rent new apartments and workshops. To save his comrades from poverty, Kramskoy proposed the creation of a joint venture, the Artel of Free Artists.

Together they rented a small building, where each had his own workshop and a common spacious meeting room. The household was run by the painter's wife, Sophia Kramskaya. Soon the artists received orders: they drew illustrations for books, painted portraits, made copies of paintings. Later, a photo studio appeared in Artel.

The association of free artists flourished. Ivan Kramskoy was engaged in the affairs of the Artel: he was looking for customers, distributing money. In parallel, he painted portraits, gave drawing lessons at the Society for the Encouragement of Artists. One of his students was Ilya Repin. He wrote about Kramskoy: "That's the teacher! His sentences and praises were very weighty and produced an irresistible effect on the students..

In 1865, the painter began to paint the domes of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow on the basis of cardboard, which he created during his years of study at the Academy.

At the end of 1869, Ivan Kramskoy left Russia for the first time to get acquainted with Western art. He visited several European capitals, visited museums and art galleries there. Kramskoy's impressions of Western painters were contradictory.

"Today I visited the Royal Museum... Everything I saw makes an overwhelming impression."
Ivan Kramskoy, from a letter to his wife

When Ivan Kramskoy returned to Russia, he had a conflict with one of his comrades: he accepted a pensioner's trip from the Academy, which was against the rules of "fourteen". Kramskoy left the Artel, and soon the association of free artists disintegrated.

Founder of the Association of Wanderers

Ivan Kramskoy. Portrait of Ilya Repin. 1876. State Tretyakov Gallery

Ivan Kramskoy. Portrait of Ivan Shishkin. 1880. State Tretyakov Gallery

Ivan Kramskoy. Portrait of Pavel Tretyakov. 1876. State Tretyakov Gallery

Soon Ivan Kramskoy became one of the founders of a new creative association - the Association of Traveling Art Exhibitions. Among its founders were also Grigory Myasoedov, Vasily Perov, Alexei Savrasov and other artists.

“The purpose of the partnership is to organize ... in all cities of the empire traveling art exhibitions in the form of: a) providing residents of the provinces with the opportunity to get acquainted with Russian art ... b) developing a love for art in society; c) making it easier for artists to market their works.”
From the Charter of the Association of Traveling Art Exhibitions

Ivan Kramskoy. May night. 1871. State Tretyakov Gallery

Ivan Kramskoy. Christ in the wilderness. 1872. State Tretyakov Gallery

At the first exhibition of the Wanderers in 1871, Ivan Kramskoy presented his new work, May Night. The picture with mermaids bathed in moonlight was painted by the painter in Little Russia based on the story of Gogol. The canvas with a mystical plot did not correspond to the program of the Wanderers, however, the work was a success with both artists and critics, and immediately after the exhibition it was bought by Pavel Tretyakov.

“I am glad that with such a plot I didn’t finally break my neck, and if I didn’t catch the moon, then something fantastic came out ...”
Ivan Kramskoy

In 1872, Kramskoy completed the painting "Christ in the Desert". “For five years now He has stood before me relentlessly; I had to write it to get rid of it", - he wrote to his friend, the artist Fedor Vasiliev. For this canvas, the Academy of Arts wanted to award Kramskoy the title of professor, but he refused. The painting was bought by Pavel Tretyakov for a lot of money - 6,000 rubles.

In the 1870s, Kramskoy created many portraits - the artist Ivan Shishkin, Pavel Tretyakov and his wife, writers Leo Tolstoy, Taras Shevchenko and

In the 1880s, one of the artist's sensational works was "Unknown". The heroine of the canvas - a beautiful lady dressed in the latest fashion - was discussed by both critics and the public. The audience was intrigued by her personality, a slightly arrogant look and an outfit that was impeccable in the fashion of those years. In the press, the painting was described as a “Russian Mona Lisa”, the critic Vladimir Stasov called the painting “Kokotka in a stroller”. However, art connoisseurs paid tribute to the skill of Kramskoy, who subtly wrote out both the face of an unknown lady and her exquisite clothes. After the 11th exhibition of the Wanderers, where the painting was exhibited, it was bought by a major industrialist Pavel Kharitonenko.

In 1884, Kramskoy completed the canvas "Inconsolable Grief", which depicted a grieving mother at a children's coffin. The artist worked on it for about four years: he made pencil sketches and sketches, changed the composition several times. Kramskoy presented the painting with a tragic plot to Pavel Tretyakov.

Ivan Kramskoy died in 1887. The artist died in his studio while painting Dr. Karl Rauchfuss from nature. The doctor tried to revive him, but to no avail. The painter was buried at the Smolensk Orthodox cemetery in St. Petersburg.

Association of Traveling Art Exhibitions

KRAMSKOY IVAN NIKOLAEVICH

Kramskoy Ivan Nikolaevich - a famous painter (1837 - 1887). Born in Ostrogozhsk, in a poor bourgeois family. He has been self-taught in drawing since childhood; then, with the help of the advice of one drawing lover, he began to work in watercolor. First he was a retoucher for Kharkov, then for the best metropolitan photographers. Having entered the Academy of Arts, he made rapid progress in drawing and painting; studied with A.T. Markov. After receiving a small gold medal for a painting written according to the program: “Moses exudes water from a stone,” Kramskoy had to compete for a large gold medal, but, together with 14 other comrades, refused, in 1863, to write on a given topic - “A Feast in Valhalla and left the academy. Joining the association of traveling exhibitions, Kramskoy became a portrait painter. In further artistic activity, Kramskoy constantly showed a desire for paintings - works of the imagination and willingly gave himself up to him when everyday circumstances allowed it. Even when he was an academician, he helped Markov in drawing cardboard for the ceiling in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior (in Moscow). Subsequently, Kramskoy had to write on these cardboards, along with others, the ceiling itself, which remained unfinished. The best works of non-portrait painting by Kramskoy include: "May Night" (according to Gogol, in the Tretyakov Gallery), "Lady on a Moonlit Night", "Inconsolable Grief" (in the Tretyakov Gallery), "Woodworker", "Contemplator", "Christ in the desert" (in the Tretyakov Gallery), etc. He put a lot of work into composing the painting "Jesus Christ, ridiculed as the king of the Jews," which he called "Laughter"; but he did not manage to provide himself in such a way as to fully devote himself to this work, which remained far from finished. Portraits Kramskoy painted (the so-called "sauce") and wrote a lot; of these, portraits of S.P. Botkin, I.I. Shishkin, Grigorovich, Mrs. Vogau, the Gunzburg family (portraits of women), a Jewish boy, A.S. Suvorin, unknown, Count L.N. Tolstoy, Count Litke, Count D.A. Tolstoy, Goncharov, Dr. Raukhfus. They differ in similarity and characteristics of the face. The Museum of Alexander III has portraits of the artist's daughter, Vladimir Solovyov, Perov, Lavrovskaya, A.V. Nikitenko, G.P. Danilevsky, Denyer and others. There are many works by Kramskoy in the Tretyakov Gallery. He was also engaged in engraving on copper with strong vodka; of his etchings, the best are portraits of Emperor Alexander III (when he was his heir), Peter the Great and T. Shevchenko. Kramskoy was very demanding of artists, but at the same time, he was strict with himself and strove for self-improvement. Its main requirement is the content and nationality of works of art, their poetry. Very interesting and indicative for his time was his correspondence published by A. Suvorin (in 1888) according to the idea and edited by V.V. Stasov. Kramskoy left a significant mark with his anti-academic activities; he constantly agitated in favor of the principle of the free artistic development of young people. In the last years of his life, he seemed to be inclined towards reconciliation with the academy, but this is due to the fact that he hoped to wait for the possibility of its transformation, in accordance with his basic views.

Brief biographical encyclopedia. 2012

Paintings by Ivan Kramskoy

Heightened sense of life

Ivan Nikolaevich wrote in his biography: “I was born in 1837, on May 27 (according to the old st. V. R.), in the county town of Ostrogozhsk, Voronezh province, in the suburban settlement of Novaya Sotna, from parents assigned to the local philistinism. At the age of 12, I lost my father, a very stern man, as far as I can remember. My father served in the city duma, if I am not mistaken, as a journalist (that is, a clerk - V.R.); my grandfather, according to the stories ... was also some kind of clerk in Ukraine. Further, my genealogy does not rise.

In his declining years, the artist ironically noted that something like a “person” came out of him. Some bitterness is felt in his autobiography, but at the same time, the legitimate pride of a man who has escaped from the "bottom" and has become in line with the most prominent figures of his time. The painter wrote about how he strove all his life to get an education, but he managed to finish only 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 that 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 the icon-painting craft, then, at the age of sixteen, he "had the opportunity to escape from the county town with one Kharkov photographer." The future artist traveled with him “a large part of Russia for three years, as a retoucher and watercolorist. It was a tough school…” But this "severe school" brought Kramskoy considerable benefit, tempered his will and formed a steadfast 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 fell on a difficult time for the whole of Russia. The Crimean War had just ended, marking the crushing military and political defeat of the autocracy, at the same time awakening the public consciousness of both progressive people and the broad masses of the people.

Imperial Academy Monolith

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 tocsin of the Herzen "Bell" sounded powerfully, the 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 society, 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 conductor of official doctrines and already obsolete aesthetic principles, she did not allow the area of "beautiful" to have anything in common with reality. But her students in the second half of the 50s - early 60s felt more and more definitely that life makes completely different demands on art. The significant words of N. G. Chernyshevsky “beautiful is life” became a program setting for the entire progressive Russian intelligentsia and young figures of the emerging Russian democratic art. It was they who brought new public sentiments to the Academy of Arts, established close ties with the students of the University, the Medical and Surgical Academy, where the heroes of Chernyshevsky's novel What to Do? Dmitry Lopukhov and Alexander Kirsanov, both are typical commoners, the same age as I. Kramskoy.

Ivan Nikolayevich, who arrived in St. Petersburg, already enjoyed the fame of an excellent retoucher, which opened the doors for him in the studio of the best metropolitan photographers I. F. Aleksandrovsky and A. I. Denier. But the career of a successful artisan could not satisfy him. Kramskoy thought more and more stubbornly about entering the Academy of Arts.

Kramskoy's drawings were immediately approved by the Council of the Academy, and in the autumn of 1857 he already became a student of Professor A. T. Markov. So his cherished dream came true, and I must say that he studied Kramskoy very diligently, worked hard on drawing, the culture of which was very high at the Academy, successfully worked on sketches for historical and mythological subjects, receiving all the 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, the work of A. A. Ivanov “The Appearance of Christ to the People” was brought to St. Petersburg from Italy. The return of the artist to Russia after an absence of almost thirty years, his subsequent sudden death, the impression that the painting made on his contemporaries, which became the main work of the life of the great master, 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 of all about the rebellion of 14 in his letter to his old friend M. B. Tulinov: “My dear Mikhail Borisovich! Attention! On November 9, that is, last Saturday, the following circumstance happened at the Academy: 14 of the students applied for diplomas for the title of class artists. At first glance, there is nothing surprising here.

People are free, free-coming students, they can, when they want to leave classes. But the fact of the matter is that these 14 are not ordinary students, but people who have to write for the first gold medal. It was like this: a month before now, we had submitted a request for permission to freely choose plots, but our request was refused ... and we decided to give one plot to historians and a plot to genre painters, 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 had decided. And therefore, to the question of the inspector: which of us are historians and who are genre painters? we, in order to enter the conference room together, answered that we are all historians. Finally, they call in front of the Council to listen to the task. We enter. F.F. Lvov read us a story: “A Feast in Valhalla” - from Scandinavian mythology, where heroes knights fight forever, where 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, a month driven by a monster in the form of a wolf, and a lot of other nonsense. After that, Bruni got up and came 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 the eyes of everyone stared at the speaker). “We petitioned twice, but the Council did not find it possible to fulfill our request; we, not considering ourselves in the right to insist more and not daring to think about changing the academic regulations, ask us to humbly release us from participation in the competition and give us diplomas for the title of artists.

A few moments - silence. Finally, Gagarin and Ton make sounds: “everything?”. We answer: “everything,” and we leave, and in the next room we give petitions to the case manager ... And on the same day, Gagarin asked Dolgorukov in a letter that nothing appear in literature without a preview of him (Gagarin). In a word, we put them in a difficult position. So, we cut off our own retreat and do not want to return, and may the Academy be healthy by its centenary. Everywhere we meet with sympathy for our action, so that one, sent from the writers, asked me to tell him the words I said in the Council for publication. But we are still silent. And since we have been holding hands tightly so far, so that we would not be lost, we decided to hold on further in order to form an artistic association out of ourselves, that is, to work together and live together. I ask you to tell me your advice and ideas regarding the practical organization and general rules suitable for our society, .. And now it seems to us that this thing is possible. The range of our actions has to embrace: 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 fourteen participants in the "revolt": painters I. Kramskoy, A. Morozov, F. Zhuravlev, M. Peskov, B. Venig, P. Zabolotsky, N. Shustov, A. Litovchenko, N. Dmitriev, A. Korzukhin, A. Grigoriev, N. Petrov, K. Lemokh and sculptor V. Kreytan.

All of them were ordered to urgently vacate the workshops, but the youth, left without a livelihood, nevertheless won a major victory, the significance of which at that time could hardly be understood. This was the first conquest of Russian democratic realist art. Soon, Kramskoy, together with like-minded people, began the practical implementation of his idea - the creation of the first independent "artistic 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 "turned out to be a talented young man who had just arrived in St. Petersburg from Ukraine", just like Kramskoy himself, who once dreamed of entering the Academy of Arts - Ilya Repin.

Ilya Efimovich himself describes his first meeting with Kramskoy as follows: “It's Sunday, twelve o'clock in the afternoon. There is a lively excitement in the class, Kramskoy is not yet there. We are drawing from the head of Milo of Croton... The class is noisy... Suddenly there was complete silence... And I saw a thin man in a black frock coat, entering the class with a firm gait. I thought it was someone else: I imagined Kramskoy differently. Instead of a beautiful pale profile, this one had a thin high-cheeked face and black smooth hair instead of shoulder-length chestnut curls, and such a shabby thin beard is only found in students and teachers. - Who is this? I whisper to my friend. - Kramskoy! Don't you know? he wonders. So that's what he is!.. Now he looked at me too; seems to have noticed. What eyes! You can’t hide, even though they are small and sit deep in sunken orbits; grey, glowing... What a serious face! But the voice is pleasant, sincere, speaks with excitement ... But they also listen to him! They even abandoned their work, they stand around with their mouths open; It is clear that they are trying to remember every word.

Repin, like many Russian artists (Kramskoy himself painted superbly, as did Perov), Repin turned out to be a talented writer. In his essay "Ivan Nikolaevich Kramskoy (In Memory of a Teacher)", he creates a very lively, expressive literary portrait with his characteristic impulsiveness. “Kramskoy on Repin’s pages is all in motion, in struggle, this is not a frozen wax figure of a panopticon, this is precisely the hero of a fascinating story rich in episodes,” K. Chukovsky later wrote.

Repin created an image that coincided almost to the smallest detail with the "Self-Portrait" written by Kramskoy in 1867 and was distinguished by an unusually objective characterization. In the picture, nothing distracts us from the main thing - the face of the hero, with a strict, penetrating look of gray eyes. Mind, will, restraint - these are the main features of the artist's personality, which are clearly visible in the canvas. Proud self-esteem is shown without showing off or posing. Everything is simple and natural in the outer appearance of the painter and in its own way harmonious in the inner. The coloring of the portrait is almost monochrome, the stroke is dynamic, we have before us the recognized head of the first St. Petersburg Artel of Artists.

Creation of the Artel

On the facade of the house number 2/10, which stands at the corner of Mayorova Avenue and Admiralteisky Avenue in St. Petersburg, there is a memorial plaque with the inscription: “In this house from 1866 to 1870 lived and worked a prominent Russian artist Ivan Nikolaevich Kramskoy. The Artel organized by him, which united the leading realist artists of the 60s, was also 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, eat, since all 14 people had two chairs and one three-legged table. Those who had anything at all fell away immediately.” “After much deliberation,” wrote Repin, “they came to the conclusion that it was necessary to arrange, with the permission of the government, an Artel of Artists - something like an art firm, a workshop and an office that takes orders from the street, with a sign and an approved charter. They rented a large apartment in the Seventeenth Line of Vasilyevsky Island and moved (mostly) there to live together. And then they immediately came to life, cheered up. A common large bright hall, comfortable rooms for everyone, their own household, which was run by Kramskoy's wife - all this encouraged them. Life has become more fun, and some orders have appeared. Society is strength." This is how the first association of artists, organized by Kramskoy, appeared. It allowed many talented masters of painting not only to survive, but to achieve success, recognition and financial independence, which, as a result, caused the complete collapse of the organization in the future.

Personal life and interest in psychology

Ivan Nikolaevich was always sure that his chosen one would be his true friend, share with him all the hardships of the 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 friend of my comrades, but even as if you yourself have become a true artel worker ...". Kramskoy repeatedly painted portraits of Sophia Nikolaevna. And although it would be too bold to call her the “muse” of the artist, she undoubtedly was the ideal woman for him. The best confirmation of this is her images created in portraits of the 60s. Common features for all canvases are the integrity, independence and pride of their heroine, allowing you to see in her a “new woman”, who at the same time has not lost true femininity, poetry and softness.

These qualities are especially noticeable in her graphic portrait, owned by the Tretyakov Gallery (1860s). A young, charming and gentle woman with a strong strong-willed character, as evidenced by the energetic turn of her head and a strict but open look.

Painting “Reading. Portrait of S. N. Kramskoy, painted in 1863, reminds us of lyrical female portraits of the early 19th century. The color of the picture is built on a combination of shades of light green, lilac and other delicate colors. A large role in the canvas is played by the landscape and a few carefully selected accessories that help convey the obvious attractiveness of the portrait's heroine. The young couple of Kramskoy was captured 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 plunged into reflection 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, increasing their psychologism more and more. True, photography, which was rapidly developing at that time, seemed to be replacing artistic graphic and expensive pictorial portraits. It seemed that absolutely everything was available to the camera; look inside a person, give him a certain social and psychological assessment. This remained achievable only in the portrait created by the artist.

It was precisely this - the improvement of the psychological portrait - that many masters were engaged in, including N.N. Ge, V.G. Perov and I.N. Kramskoy. The powerful rise of the Russian realistic portrait coincided with the beginning of the Wandering era and the end of the Artel era, which lost its original meaning in time.

Association of Wanderers

The excellent idea of creating the 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 well-known genre painter G. G. Myasoedov was the direct initiator of the undertaking. He addressed a letter to the Artel, meeting there with support only from individual members, primarily I.N. Kramskoy.

In toga, in 1870, an organization was created that could free Russian democratic art from state tutelage, rally leading artists around an association based on the principle of personal material interest of all its members. The main goal of the Association 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.

For several decades, many of the best works of the Wanderers were acquired by P.M. Tretyakov. On November 28 (December 12, according to the new style), 1871, the first exhibition of the Association took place in St. Petersburg. It should be noted that it was Kramskoy, a man of extremely firm principles and convictions, who owed the created Association of Traveling Art Exhibitions the fact that very soon outgrew the tasks of an exhibition organization and became a genuine school of advanced Russian art.

Ivan Nikolayevich himself, organizing the Association and directing its creative life, found in it that "nutrient environment" that allowed him to reach his own artistic heights. The heyday of the activities of the Association of the Wanderers coincided with the flowering of Kramskoy's work, both as a painter and as a critic-publicist, the author of a number of very serious articles in which he expressed his thoughts about the fate of art and its high social purpose.

In numerous letters to various 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 moment in the critical reasoning of the artist was that he wrote them not so much to instruct others, but to express the enormous and continuous inner work that was carried out in 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.”

Kramskoy argued that “art cannot be anything other than national. Nowhere and never has there been another art, and if there is a so-called universal art, it is only due to the fact that it was expressed by a nation that stood ahead of universal human development. And if someday in the distant future Russia is destined to occupy such a position among the peoples, then Russian art, being deeply national, will become universal.

Image of Christ

During the heyday of Impressionist art in France, Repin, who was in 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 should 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 the mood of the picture, its soul, it must place and capture the entire viewer, like a chord in music.

It should be noted that similar ideas at that time were expressed 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 association of the Wanderers, the idea of which had arisen for him long ago. About the fact that she became the receptacle of the most important ideas for him, the artist said: “Under the influence of a number of impressions, I had a very heavy feeling from life. 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 is overwhelmed by thought - whether to go right or left? .. We all know how such hesitation usually ends. Expanding my thought further, embracing humanity in general, I, from my own experience, from my little original, and only from it alone, can guess about the terrible drama that was 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 the hieroglyph is the most accessible to me. And then one day I saw a figure sitting in deep thought... His thoughts were so serious and deep that I kept him constantly in the same position... It became clear to me that he was busy with an important issue for him, so important that he was he is insensitive... Who was that? I dont know. In all likelihood, it was a hallucination; I really, I must think, did not see him. It seemed to me that this was the best fit for what I wanted to say. Here I didn’t even have to invent anything, I just tried to copy. And when he finished, he gave him a daring name. But if I could, while observing him, write him, is this Christ? Don't know…".

We can judge how long and hard the artist worked on creating that very “correct” image by the huge number of drawings and sketches made in preparation for the main work. The significance of this picture for Kramskoy can also be judged by the fact that he continued to finish his work even after it was posted 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 had yet set foot. A fine balance of the level of the horizon that divides the space of the work in half, His figure simultaneously dominates the space of the canvas, drawing a clear silhouette against the sky, and is in harmony with the earthly world depicted on the canvas. This only helps the artist to deepen the inner drama of his character. There is no action in the picture, but the viewer seems to feel the life of the spirit, the work of the thought of the son of God, solving some important issue for himself.

His feet are wounded on sharp stones, his figure is bent, his hands are painfully clenched. Meanwhile, the emaciated face of Jesus not only conveys his suffering, but in spite of everything expresses tremendous willpower, boundless fidelity to the idea to which he subordinated his whole life.

“He sat down like this when the sun was still in front of him, sat down tired, exhausted, at first he followed the sun with his eyes, then did not notice the night, and at dawn already, 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 onset of the 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 work, although they did not see anything ... ".

The author addresses his contemporaries, raising in this work great and eternal universal problems, putting 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 were preparing for "going to the people", who would soon become the heroes of many works of democratic literature and painting. The 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? Continued in the next book." The very “next book” was to be the canvas “Laughter” (“Hail, King of the Jews!”, 1877-1882).

In 1872, Kramskoy wrote to F. A. Vasiliev: “We must write more“ Christ ”, it is absolutely necessary, that is, not actually him, but that crowd that laughs at the top of its lungs, with all the strength of its huge animal lungs ... This laughter is already how many years haunts me. It’s not hard that it’s hard, but it’s hard that they laugh.” Christ in front of the crowd, ridiculed, spat on, but "he is calm as a statue, pale as a sheet." “As long as we are not seriously talking about kindness, about honesty, we are in harmony with everyone, try to seriously put Christian ideas into practice, see what kind of laughter will rise around. This laughter follows me everywhere, wherever I go, everywhere I hear it.

“Seriously pursuing Christian ideas” for the artist did not mean at all to approve the dogmas of official Orthodoxy, it was a desire to stand up for genuine morality, humanity. The protagonist of "Laughter" was the personification of not only the ideas of Kramskoy himself, it generally reflected the thoughts of many honest-minded representatives of that time, who, a direct encounter with rudeness, all-destroying cynicism, greed, clearly proved that abstract good is simply not able to defeat real real evil .

Lyrics

In the life of Kramskoy, in the middle of his life, a certain drama took place, akin to the one that Ivanov experienced at the end of his journey. It began to seem to the artist that the creative failure that had befallen him (the work “Laughter” was never completed) was a consequence of the fallacy of the ideological position he had chosen as a whole. These doubts were generated by the utopian maximalism characteristic of many of the best representatives of the Russian intelligentsia. A difficult task, which he tried in vain to realize in the form of a cycle of works about Christ, the artist managed to solve in his magnificent portraits of the 70-80s, embodying his idea of high moral personalities in a large gallery of images of leading Russian writers, scientists, artists and stage figures. shape.

In the same 70s, Kramskoy wrote a number of previously uncharacteristic lyrical works, a vivid example of which is the painting “Inspection of the Old House” (1873), which tells about the abandoned and collapsing “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 collapsed in one place, cobwebs and mold everywhere, a number of portraits of ancestors on the walls. Two female personalities are leading him under the arms ... Behind them is a buyer - a fat merchant ... ".

We see an elderly man slowly moving through the suite of rooms of an abandoned family estate. So he entered the living room, hung with portraits of his ancestors darkened by time, saw ancient furniture in gray canvas covers, it seems that even the air in this old house is painted in smoky dusty tones, time has stopped here, and the timid light from the windows is not able to dispel this haze of the past.

As mentioned in his letters N.A. Mudrogel is one of the oldest employees of the Tretyakov Gallery, most likely "Kramskoy portrayed himself in the painting" Inspection of the Old House ". The testimony of a contemporary is of undoubted interest, although, even if this is true, the artist did not just try on this sadly lyrical situation. Kramskoy invested in the image he created a wide poetic and deep social meaning.

As you know, the picture remained unfinished. Perhaps Kramskoy, as an active, active, purely “public” person, simply did not allow himself to relax, go into a 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 difficult social and artistic situation in Russia in the 1870s. “In fact, I never liked portraits, and if I did it 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 in itself make him an outstanding master of the portrait.

Portrait of Tolstoy

The need to prove that, according to Chernyshevsky's ideas, "the human personality is the highest beauty in the world, accessible to our senses," aroused in Kramskoy a keen interest in "human physiognomy." Thanks to such an 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 1860s-80s.

“The portraits that you now have,” I. E. Repin wrote to him in 1881, “represent the faces of the dear nation, its best sons, who brought positive benefits with their disinterested activities, for the benefit and prosperity of their native land, who believed in its better future and who 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 have 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.

To get a portrait of the great Russian writer in the collection was Tretyakov's cherished dream, but so far no one has been able to persuade Lev Nikolaevich to pose. On the other hand, there was Kramskoy, who tried to persuade the collector to help the young talented artist F.A. Vasiliev, who was dying in the Crimea from consumption. As a result, in 1873, Kramskoy, in order to pay Tretyakov's debt for Vasiliev, persuaded Tolstoy to pose for him 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 immersed in himself. Tretyakov, on the other hand, got a portrait in which the writer, as it were, addresses the viewer. So 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 hands of the model are written out only in general terms. Thirdly, the artist deliberately avoided expressive picturesqueness in color. Such restraint of the plastic solution made it possible to transfer all attention to the face of the forty-five-year-old Tolstoy - open, simple, framed by a bushy beard and manly cut hair.

The main thing in the created portraits is the writer's eyes, expressing the hard work of the thought of an intelligent and educated person. From Kramskoy’s painting, Tolstoy looks at us “inexorably and sternly, even coldly… not allowing himself to forget even for a moment about his task of observation and analysis. He becomes a scientist, and his subject is the human soul, ”the prominent Soviet art critic D. V. Sarabyanov described his impression. It was the comprehension of the mighty intellect of Tolstoy that became the main goal and, of course, represented the main difficulty that the artist faced in this work.

Portraits of the great

Kramskoy painted many portraits commissioned by Tretyakov, paying tribute to this extraordinary man. So in 1871, the artist paints a portrait of the great Ukrainian poet Taras Grigoryevich Shevchenko from a photograph. And in the winter of 1876, Ivan Nikolayevich 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 Russian national culture, who firmly believed that “the Russian school of painting won't be the last." In a small portrait of 1876, distinguished by a certain "intimacy" of the artistic solution, 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 Last Songs”. Work on these works was complicated by the serious illness of the poet. 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 the greatest value, but the painting “Nekrasov during 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 the 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 you feel that the great poet immortal.

It is interesting that if you look closely at the surface of the canvas of the picture, it is easy to notice that several seams cross it. The image of the poet's head is made on a separate fragment, the initial position of which is easy to establish. Apparently, at first the master depicted the terminally ill poet as lying, then rebuilding 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: "Kramskoy as a keepsake. N. Nekrasov April 3.

Kramskoy's work on the images of the outstanding satirist writer M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin turned out to be even more difficult, stretching for 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 of its artistic features, the master emphasizes: "The painting ... came out murugaya, and imagine - with intention."

As in the portrait of Tolstoy, the coloring of the work is very deaf, gloomy. Thus, the artist focuses on Shchedrin's face, his high forehead, the mournfully lowered corners of his lips, and, most importantly, the demandingly questioning look inherent only in him. An important role in creating the image of a satirist writer is played by 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, was the idea of high citizenship. In them, Kramskoy saw the spiritual leaders of the nation, the foremost people of his time. This left an imprint on the manner of portraying the portrayed. 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 accumulate the “spiritual charge” of the era so powerfully, he made the pictorial and plastic solution of the works more free, uninhibited, which made the images of the people depicted by him alive and direct. The works of this kind include the portrait of Ivan Ivanovich Shishkin, executed by the painter in 1873. This work, like the canvas “Nekrasov during the Last Songs”, belongs to the category of portrait-paintings, since it combines two principles at once 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. The lyrical and at the same time majestic landscape (a clear blue sky with light clouds floating across it, the mysterious silhouette of a forest and tall grasses at Shishkin’s feet) does not so much recreate the appearance of a specific area as it represents a generalized expression of Russian nature, as it was depicted in the 70s years, including I. I. Shishkin himself.

The artist sought to emphasize its indissoluble unity with the outside world. The slender but powerful figure of the landscape painter, his strong-willed open face, the outward simplicity and at the same time the undeniable grandeur of his appearance, the way he calmly and in a businesslike way peers into the endless distances, all this accurately conveys Kramskoy's idea of Shishkin as a "man-school ”, “Milestone in the development of the Russian landscape”.

Later, in 1880, Kramskoy will paint another portrait of the great singer of Russian nature. In it, the artist will again be amazed at his physical strength, noting that with age, Shishkin's personality became richer and more complex.

The extraordinary gift of a portrait painter

Among the many portraits of Russian writers and artists painted in the 70s, most of which Kramskoy painted by order of P. M. Tretyakov, there were images of I.A. Goncharova, I.E. Repin, Ya.P. Polonsky, P.I. Melnikov-Pechersky, M.M. Antokolsky, S.T. Aksakov, F.A. Vasilyeva, M.K. Klodt and many others.

Two portraits can be especially distinguished - 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 Goremyka", the master sharply noticed the usual gentleness of Grigorovich's posture and a certain condescension and complacency in his eyes, characteristic of a person who is not used to delving into the complexity of life around him. The gesture of the hand with a pince-nez in a gold frame sandwiched between thin fingers is emphatically theatrical. “This is not a portrait, but just a scene, a drama! .. So Grigorovich is sitting in front of you with all his lies, French feuilletonism, boasting and laughter,” V. V. Stasov enthusiastically wrote to Kramskoy. Although the artist himself, who a few years later wrote a letter to the well-known publisher A. S. Suvorin, tried to ward off the accusation of obvious bias, assuring that he did not want to “do anything funny, except for a completely natural passion for a visible characteristic form, without underlining.” How true this is, we will probably never know, but one thing is absolutely clear - today we are attracted in 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 lively human image.

This is expressed even more strongly in the large-format portrait of A. D. Litovchenko. Dressed in a dense dark brown coat, the artist is depicted against a light gray-greenish background. Slightly “blurring” the movable contour outlining the figure, Kramskoy emphasized the natural ease of his model. Litovchenko's pose is unusually expressive, with his right hand laid behind his back with a free movement, and his left hand gracefully holding a cigar in a familiar gesture. The fingers are not drawn, only outlined with a few precise, dynamic strokes. It was not by chance that Kramskoy "blurred" the edge of the sleeve framing this arm, made it deliberately fuzzy. So he convincingly conveyed the natural instantaneous gesture, exactly corresponding to the lively, changeable expression on the face of the hero of the portrait, framed by a lush beard. One can only guess about the drawing of the lips, but the eyes of the person portrayed, black as coals, look so piercingly sharp, expressing in the best way all the immediacy of his nature, that the whole image of Litovchenko is perceived “as alive”. Sparing, but extremely expressive details, the artist uses with amazing accuracy: a cap of a conical shape, with its outlines, perfectly completes the silhouette of the artist’s figure as a whole, as well as light yellow gloves, casually looking out of the pocket of Litovchenko’s coat, complete his image.

Portrait of A. D. Litovchenko, without a doubt, one of the greatest creative successes of Kramskoy. His image turned out to be so lively and brightly individual thanks to the high pictorial merits of this picture, “by the fire, passion and vitality of a quick performance, similar to impromptu” (V. Stasov).

Ivan Nikolaevich no longer “paints” with a brush, as was the case in many of his paintings, how much he writes, broadly, temperamentally, building a plastic form with color, anticipating the best portrait paintings by I.E. Repin. Struck by his powerful expression, M.P. Mussorgsky will respond about his work in this way: “Going up to 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, sought in creativity!

We can see what the artist himself had become by this time, thanks to his “Self-Portrait” of 1874. A small picture, clearly written "for myself." The saturated dark red background contributes to the creation of an atmosphere of emphasized concentration in the portrait. Kramskoy, peering into his own face, shows how over the years his composure and perseverance, developed by a hard life and constant work, have increased. His gaze became much deeper and sadder than in the self-portrait of 1867, in which the master, as it were, publicly announced the position of the artist-fighter he had chosen. Now, without retreating a single step from the chosen path, he admits to himself how much mental strength this stamina and courage require.

“Until now, Mr. Kramskoy has succeeded exclusively in male portraits,” wrote one of the observers of the seventh mobile, “but the current exhibition has shown that a female portrait is equally accessible to him and presents incomparably more difficulties.”

A correct remark, especially considering that before Kramskoy such a democratic version of the female portrait, the merit of developing which belongs entirely to him, did not exist in Russian painting.

The image of the Russian people

Kramskoy often wrote that, while living in St. Petersburg, he felt the burden of the oppressive social atmosphere, he even said that the "Petersburg climate", which he constantly tried to resist, "kills Russian art and artists." In this sense, he had many like-minded people. Let us recall A. S. Pushkin, who said that the North was “harmful to him,” K. P. Bryullov, who, after returning from Italy, bathed in the rays of glory, but wrote that he was “moping” because he was “afraid of the climate and captivity.”

“It pulls me out of Petersburg,” Kramskoy wrote, “I’m sick of it! Where does it pull, why is it sickening? .. Where is peace? Yes, and this would be nothing if it were not for the rich and unimaginably huge material 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 ... scrip, but freedom! Vividly responding to the emerging "going to the people", the artist wrote that "sitting in the center ... you begin to lose the nerve of a wide free life; the outskirts are too far, and the people have something to give! My God, what a huge spring! Have only ears to hear and eyes to see... It pulls me out, that's how it pulls! 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, Kyiv Museum of Russian Art), a philosophizing man, a seeker of eternal truth, and a beekeeper living a life one with nature (“Beekeeper”, 1872), and “A peasant with a stick” (1872, Tallinn Art Museum) - who lived a long, bleak age, a downtrodden old peasant. There are other images, such as the full inner dignity of the hero of the painting “Village Headman” (“Melnik”, 1873), or a powerful, stern peasant on the canvas of 1874 “Head of a Peasant” (Penza Art Gallery of K.A. Savitsky).

But the most significant work on the folk theme was the painting of 1874 "Woodsman". Regarding it, Kramskoy writes to P.M. Tretyakov: “... my sketch in a hat that has been shot through, according to the plan, should depict one of those types (they exist in the Russian people) who understand much of the social and political system of folk life with their own mind, and in which displeasure, bordering on hatred, is deeply embedded. Of such people, in difficult times, Stenka Razins and Pugachevs recruit their gangs, and in ordinary times they act alone, where and how they have to, but they never put up. Unsympathetic type, I know, but I also know that there are many of them, I have seen them.

In the late period of 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" (Kyiv Museum of Russian Art). On 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 unprecedentedly high 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, it became more and more difficult for him to work. Evidence of this is the unfinished for many years painting "Laughter", the very idea of which no longer met the needs of society. As a result, Kramskoy had only portraits.

During this period, the artist, with his inherent skill and psychologism, paints portraits of I. I. Shishkin, an outstanding figure in Russian medicine S. P. Botkin and artist V. V. Samoilov. Moreover, Kramskoy not only looked worthy next to younger portrait painters, such as I. E. Repin and N. A. Yaroshenko, but continued to play the role of “teacher” for them. And their canvases, in turn, carried the reflection of Kramskoy's art.

Nevertheless, the artist understood that he needed to grow somewhere, to look for new ways for his work. He tries his hand at a formal portrait, looking for new light and color solutions, suffocating at the same time, under the weight of constant orders. Hurrying to provide for the families as best as possible and realizing that his strength was running out, Kramskoy rushed between time-consuming creative searches and fast execution of work, which sometimes did not lead to the best result. The artist, who was highly respected and even honored, took these failures hard.

The demands that life itself made on art have changed, therefore, the art system had to change. In 1883, at MUZhViZ, a young artist K. A. Korovin, a student of A. K. Savrasov and V. D. Polenov, painted the sketch “Chorus Girl”, taking for him an unusual motive and very bold painting techniques. Even Polenov, who was familiar with the work of the French Impressionists, was amazed by this bold experiment of the artist, deciding that he was far ahead of his time. However, soon a close friend of Korovin, V. A. Serov, will write his “Girl with Peaches” (1887), turning the portrait of the twelve-year-old Vera, the daughter of the famous Moscow industrialist S. I. Mamontov, into a radiant image of youth.

In an effort to capture the essence of new trends, Kramskoy wrote his "Unknown" (1883) - one of his most mysterious paintings. Here is how the art critic N. G. Mashkovtsev describes the picture: “A young woman is depicted in a carriage against the backdrop of the Anichkov Palace, painted rusty red. This color is softened by the winter mist, as are the contours of the architecture. With all the more distinctness, a female figure comes to the fore. She is dressed with all the luxury of fashion. She leaned back in the back of the carriage, upholstered in dark yellow leather. In her face there is the pride of a woman who is conscious of her charm. In no other portrait did Kramskoy pay so much attention to accessories - velvet, silk, fur. The dark glove, tightly covering the hand, like a second skin, thin and translucent, through which a living body is felt, is 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, creating their female images, invested in 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 Sorrow", conceived back in the late 70s. The plot of the canvas is inspired by the personal grief of the master - the death at an early age of his two younger sons. Through this work, which has an unusual number of sketches and sketches for an artist (showing how important it was for Kramskoy), he conveyed his own grief and the grief of his wife, Sofya Nikolaevna. Putting a lot of personal, deeply intimate into the picture, the painter at the same time sought to expand and deepen its content as much as possible. Accurately and sparingly selected elements introduce us to the atmosphere of a house in which a great grief has come, conveyed, however, very restrainedly, without melodramatic excesses, only a reddish glow of funeral candles, flickering behind the curtain, suggest its cause.

The compositional and semantic center of the canvas is the image of a woman full of drama. Her tense straight figure, the mournful look of eyes that do not see, the handkerchief brought to her lips, testifying to barely restrained sobs, reveal the full depth of her suffering. Such a psychological expressiveness of the image did not come easily to the artist. “I sincerely sympathized with maternal grief,” Kramskoy wrote to P. M. Tretyakov. “I was looking for a clean form for a long time 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 to convey feelings and experiences, as a drama of the individual, which the master is trying to raise to the level of a great 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 seal 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 wrote to P.M. Tretyakov: “... I confess that the circumstances are beyond my character and will. I am broken by life and far from doing what I wanted and what I had to ... ". 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 who, like the voice of conscience or the trumpet of an archangel, would inform a person: “Where is he going? Is it on the real road, or have you lost your way? There is nothing more to expect from me, I have already stopped waiting from myself. ”

Nevertheless, the master worked until his last day. For five hours a day, he spent portrait sessions, constantly screaming in pain, but almost without noticing it, he was so fascinated by the creative process. So it was on the last day of the painter. Feeling a surge of vivacity in the morning, he painted a portrait of Dr. Rauchfus. Suddenly, his gaze stopped and he fell right on his palette. It was March 24, 1887.

“I don’t remember a more heartfelt and touching funeral!.. Peace be upon you, a mighty Russian man who has escaped from the insignificance and dirt of the backwoods,” I. E. Repin later wrote about seeing his old friend on his last journey.

In the same year, 1887, a large posthumous exhibition of the works of the great Russian master was organized, accompanied by the publication of a detailed illustrated catalogue. A year later, a book was published dedicated to the life and work of Ivan Nikolaevich Kramskoy.

Ivan Nikolaevich Kramskoy

Kramskoy's paintings and the artist's biography

Self-portrait. 1867

Ivan Nikolaevich Kramskoy(1837-1887) - an outstanding artist of the second half of the 19th century, occupies one of the leading places in the history of Russian artistic culture. Having matured early, thoughtful and well-read, he quickly gained authority among his comrades and, naturally, became one of the leaders of the "revolt of the fourteen" in 1863, when a group of graduates refused to paint graduation pictures on a given mythological plot. After the rebels left the Academy of Arts, it was Kramskoy who headed the Artel of Artists, created on his initiative. Kramskoy is one of the main founders of the Wanderers association, a subtle art critic, passionately interested in the fate of Russian art, he was the ideologist of a whole generation of realist artists. He took part in the development of the charter of the Partnership and immediately became not only one of the most active and authoritative members of the board, but also the ideologist of the Partnership, who defended and substantiated the main positions. From other leaders of the Association, he was favorably distinguished by his independence of outlook, a rare breadth of views, sensitivity to everything new in the artistic process and intolerance to any dogmatism.

Biography of Kramskoy

The work of Ivan Nikolaevich Kramskoy coincided with the brightest period in the history of Russian realistic art, when critical realism in painting and literature reached its highest level and acquired great importance in the world culture of the 19th century. However, the role of the artist in the history of Russian art is not limited to his personal work: with his gift as a teacher, ideologist of a new direction, with all his social activities, Kramskoy had a huge impact on the minds of his contemporaries.

Kramskoy was born in the city of Ostrogozhsk, Voronezh province. The future artist's early interest in art turned over time into a persistent attraction to creativity. The young Kramskoy worked for some time as a retoucher for the photographer Danilevsky and, as an assistant, endlessly wanders around the industrial cities of Russia. Finally, once in St. Petersburg, he fulfills his dream - he enters the Academy of Arts. However, the bright hopes of familiarizing with the secrets of great art were not destined to be realized, since at that time the main principles of academic teaching remained the ideas of classicism that had already outlived themselves, and did not correspond to the new time at all. Advanced social circles set before the artists the task of being a broad and truthful father of living reality. The appearance at that time of N. G. Chernyshevsky’s dissertation “The Aesthetic Relationship of Art to Reality” gave special weight to the issues of art. In the autumn of 1863, fourteen academicians were offered a “program” on a theme from the Scandinavian sagas “Feast in Valhalla”. Young artists refused to write on this topic and left the Academy. The break with the Academy was led by Kramskoy. This decisive step threatened the former students with political distrust from the state and material need, and therefore required great courage. Having led this movement, Kramskoy assumed responsibility for the future fate of Russian art. For the purpose of mutual assistance and material support, the Artel of Artists was created, which later became the base of the Association of Traveling Art Exhibitions. A public figure by vocation, Kramskoy becomes one of the most active members of this organization. One of the main objectives of the Partnership was the development of democratic art, not only in the form of organization, but also in the ideological direction. In the Russian Wandering movement, democratic realism, as a phenomenon of world art, reached high peaks. The first traveling exhibition was opened on November 21, 1871 in the building of the Academy of Arts. In the spring of 1872, she was transported to Moscow, and then to Kyiv. Unlike academic exhibitions, traveling exhibitions "moved" from city to city, everywhere arousing keen interest in themselves. Thus began the activity of this public organization, which for a number of decades united all the leading artists of Russia.

At the first traveling exhibition, Kramskoy participated in a large painting "Mermaids" based on the plot of N.V. Gogol's story "May Night". Here the artist was attracted by the opportunity to convey the moonlight in the language of painting, so poetically changing everything around. Kramskoy wrote: “I am glad that with such a plot I didn’t finally break my neck, and if I didn’t catch the moon, something fantastic came out.”

For the next exhibition of the Wanderers, Kramskoy paints the painting “Christ in the Desert” (1872), which was conceived as the first in a series (and never realized) of paintings on gospel stories. The artist wrote that his task was to show the inner struggle of a person immersed in deep thoughts about choosing a life path. The painting "Christ in the Wilderness" was perceived by contemporaries as a symbol of a person of high civic duty.

In the summer of 1873, Kramskoy and his family settled in the Tula province, not far from the estate of Leo Tolstoy. Taking advantage of this neighborhood, Kramskoy paints a portrait of Tolstoy. The strength and solidity of the personality, a clear and energetic mind - this is how the writer appears in this portrait. From the whole gallery of portraits of L. N. Tolstoy, written by N. N. Ge, I. E. Repin, L. O. Pasternak, the portrait of Kramskoy is one of the best. In turn, the artist himself served as a prototype for the artist Mikhailov in the novel Anna Karenina. Almost at the same time, portraits of I. I. Shishkin and N. A. Ne-krasov were created. The portrait of “Nekrasov from the period of the Last Songs” (1877) was painted at a time when Nekrasov was already seriously ill, so the sessions lasted 10-15 minutes. The strongest impression from the portrait is the contrast between the clarity of mind, creative inspiration and the physical weakness of the dying poet.

Among the works of Kramskoy there are a number of poetic female images, such as "Girl with a loose braid" or the famous "Stranger", which was said to be the prototype of Anna Karenina. Back in 1874, the artist created a whole series of peasant types, the most powerful in character among them - "Woodsman" (1874).

In the 80s, Kramskoy painted the painting “Inconsolable Grief”, which is largely autobiographical: the artist survived the death of two children. Kai and in "The Widow" by Fedotov, the theme of human grief sounds mournful here. The face and the very image of the mother who lost her child are striking.

This woman, killed by an irreparable misfortune, exists, as it were, outside of time, it seems to have stopped. Since 1883, the artist's health has deteriorated, and Kramskoy's last years were extremely difficult. Constant household chores and work on orders do not allow him to finish work on the painting “Laughter” (“Christ before the people”), the idea of which involved the development of the theme “Christ in the Desert”, the theme of the sacrificial fate of man.

On March 25, 1887, while working on a portrait of Dr. Rauchfus, Kramskoy died unexpectedly.

It is difficult to overestimate the importance of Kramskoy's artistic and literary heritage for Russian culture. The main ideological orientation of his artistic activity is a deep interest in the knowledge of a person of his era, whether the artist portrayed him in the guise of a gospel legend or in the guise of his contemporary. Social activities of Kramskoy, his work became a school for a whole generation of Russian artists.

Self-portrait. 1874.

Christ in the wilderness. 180 x 210 cm. 1872

Mermaids. 1871

ON THE. Nekrasov in the period of the Last Songs. 1877-1878

Prayer of Moses after the passage of the Israelites through the Black Sea. 1861

Herodias. 1884-1886

For reading. Portrait of Sophia Nikolaevna Kramskoy, the artist's wife. 1866-1869

Female portrait. 1884

Female portrait. 1867

A girl with a loose braid. 1873

A girl with linen on a yoke among the grass. 1874

Peasant's head. 1874

Convalescent. 1885

Bouquet of flowers. Phloxes. 1884

Actor Alexander Pavlovich Lensky as Petruchio in Shakespeare's comedy The Taming of the Shrew. 1883

Portrait of Vera Nikolaevna Tretyakova. 1879

Portrait of Vera Nikolaevna Tretyakova. 1876

Portrait of Anatoly Ivanovich Kramskoy, the artist's son. 1882

Portrait of Adrian Viktorovich Prakhov, art historian and art critic. 1879

Portrait of the artist Mikhail Klodt. 1872

Portrait of the artist K.A.Savitsky.

Portrait of the artist I.K. Aivazovsky

Portrait of the artist I. E. Repin

Portrait of the artist Grigory Myasoedov

Portrait of the artist Alexei Bogolyubov. 1869

Portrait of the philosopher Vladimir Sergeevich Solovyov. 1885

Portrait of Sophia Ivanovna Kramskoy, the artist's daughter. 1882

Portrait of the sculptor Mark Matveyevich Antokolsky. 1876

Portrait of the poet Yakov Petrovich Polonsky. 1875

Portrait of the poet Nikolai Alekseevich Nekrasov. 1877

Portrait of the poet and artist Taras Grigoryevich Shevchenko. 1871

Portrait of the writer Sergei Timofeevich Aksakov. 1878

Portrait of the writer Mikhail Evgrafovich Saltykov (N. Shchedrin). 1879

Portrait of the writer Leo Tolstoy. 1873

Portrait of the writer Ivan Aleksandrovich Goncharov. 1874

Portrait of the writer Dmitry Vasilyevich Grigorovich. 1876

Portrait of the singer Elizaveta Andreevna Lavrovskaya, on the stage in the Nobility Assembly. 1879

Portrait of Nikolai Ivanovich Kramskoy, the artist's son. 1882

Portrait of Empress Maria Feodorovna

Portrait of the publisher and publicist Alexei Sergeevich Suvorin. 1881

Portrait of I.I. Shishkin. 1880

Portrait of the artist Ivan Shishkin. 1873

Laughter (Hail, king of the Jews). Late 1870s - 1880s

Poet Apollon Nikolaevich Maikov. 1883

Portrait of the artist F.A.Vasiliev. 1871

(! LANG: Kramskoy briefly. Ivan Kramskoy biography and work of the artist. Kramskoy through the eyes of Repin