1.
Ilya Repin
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Ilya Yefimovich Repin was a Russian realist painter. He was the most renowned Russian artist of the 19th century and he played a major role in bringing Russian art into the mainstream of European culture. His major works include Barge Haulers on the Volga, Religious Procession in Kursk Province, Repin was born in Chuguyev, in Kharkov Governorate, Ukraine into a family of military settlers. His father traded horses and his grandmother ran an inn and he entered military school to study surveying. In 1863 he went to St. Petersburg Art Academy to study painting but had to enter Ivan Kramskoi preparatory school first and he met fellow artist Ivan Kramskoi and the critic Vladimir Stasov during the 1860s, and his wife, Vera Shevtsova in 1872. In 1874–1876 he showed at the Salon in Paris and at the exhibitions of the Itinerants Society in Saint Petersburg and he was awarded the title of academician in 1876. In 1880 Repin travelled to Zaporozhia in Ukraine to gather material for the 1891 Reply of the Zaporozhian Cossacks and his Religious Procession in Kursk Province was exhibited in 1883, and Ivan the Terrible and His Son Ivan in 1885. In 1892 he published the Letters on Art collection of essays and he taught at the Higher Art School attached to the Academy of Arts from 1894. In 1898 he purchased an estate, the Penates, in Kuokkala, in 1901 he was awarded the Legion of Honour. In 1911 he traveled with his common-law wife Natalia Nordman to the World Exhibition in Italy, in 1916 Repin worked on his book of reminiscences, Far and Near, with the assistance of Korney Chukovsky. He welcomed the Russian Revolution of 1917, celebrations were held in 1924 in Kuokkala to mark Repins 80th birthday, followed by an exhibition of his works in Moscow. In 1925 a jubilee exhibition of his works was held in the Russian Museum in Leningrad, Repin died in 1930 and was buried at the Penates. Repin was born in the town of Chuguyev, in the Kharkov Governorate of the Russian Empire and his father Yefim Vasilyevich Repin was a private in the Uhlan Regiment of the Imperial Russian Army. As a boy Ilya was educated at the school where his mother taught. From 1854 he attended a military Cantonist school and he did not have fond recollections of his childhood, mainly due to the military settlements his family lived in. In 1856 he became a student of Ivan Bunakov, an icon painter. In 1859–1863 he painted icons and wall-paintings by commission for the Society for the Encouragement of Artists, in 1864 he began attending the Imperial Academy of Arts, and met the painter Ivan Kramskoi. In 1869 he was awarded a gold medal for his painting Job
2.
Genre art
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Genre art is the pictorial representation in any of various media of scenes or events from everyday life, such as markets, domestic settings, interiors, parties, inn scenes, and street scenes. Such representations may be realistic, imagined, or romanticized by the artist, some variations of the term genre art specify the medium or type of visual work, as in genre painting, genre prints, genre photographs, and so on. Rather confusingly, the meaning of genre, covering any particular combination of an artistic medium. Painting was divided into a hierarchy of genres, with painting at the top, as the most difficult and therefore prestigious. But history paintings are a genre in painting, not genre works, the following concentrates on painting, but genre motifs were also extremely popular in many forms of the decorative arts, especially from the Rococo of the early 18th century onwards. Single figures or small groups decorated a huge variety of such as porcelain, furniture, wallpaper. Genre painting, also called genre scene or petit genre, depicts aspects of life by portraying ordinary people engaged in common activities. A work would often be considered as a genre work even if it could be shown that the artist had used a known member of his family. In this case it would depend on whether the work was likely to have intended by the artist to be perceived as a portrait—sometimes a subjective question. The depictions can be realistic, imagined, or romanticized by the artist, because of their familiar and frequently sentimental subject matter, genre paintings have often proven popular with the bourgeoisie, or middle class. Genre themes appear in all art traditions. These were part of a pattern of Mannerist inversion in Antwerp painting, giving low elements previously in the background of images prominent emphasis. The generally small scale of these paintings was appropriate for their display in the homes of middle class purchasers. Often the subject of a painting was based on a popular emblem from an Emblem book. The merry company showed a group of figures at a party, other common types of scenes showed markets or fairs, village festivities, or soldiers in camp. In Italy, a school of painting was stimulated by the arrival in Rome of the Dutch painter Pieter van Laer in 1625. He acquired the nickname Il Bamboccio and his followers were called the Bamboccianti, whose works would inspire Giacomo Ceruti, Antonio Cifrondi, jean-Baptiste Greuze and others painted detailed and rather sentimental groups or individual portraits of peasants that were to be influential on 19th-century painting. Spain had a tradition predating The Book of Good Love of social observation and commentary based on the Old Roman Latin tradition, practiced by many of its painters and illuminators
3.
Imperial Academy of Arts
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The Russian Academy of Arts in Saint Petersburg, informally known as the Saint Petersburg Academy of Arts, was founded in 1757 by Ivan Shuvalov under the name Academy of the Three Noblest Arts. Catherine the Great renamed it the Imperial Academy of Arts and commissioned a new building, the academy promoted the neoclassical style and technique, and sent its promising students to European capitals for further study. Training at the academy was virtually required for artists to make successful careers, formally abolished in 1918 after the Russian Revolution, the academy was renamed several times. It established free tuition, students from across the country competed fiercely for its few places annually, in 1947 the national institution was moved to Moscow, and much of its art collection was moved to the Hermitage. The building in Leningrad was devoted to the Ilya Repin Leningrad Institute for Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, since 1991 it has been called the St. Petersburg Institute for Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. The academy was located in the Shuvalov Palace on Sadovaya Street, in 1764, Catherine the Great renamed it the Imperial Academy of Arts and commissioned its first rector, Alexander Kokorinov, to design a new building. It took 25 years to complete the Neoclassical edifice, which opened in 1789, konstantin Thon was responsible for the sumptuous decoration of the interiors. He also designed a quayside in front of the building, with stairs down to the Neva River, Ivan Betskoy reorganized the academy into a de facto government department, it supervised matters concerning art throughout the country, distributing orders and awarding ranks to artists. The academy vigorously promoted the principles of Neoclassicism by sending the most notable Russian painters abroad, in order to learn the ancient and Renaissance styles of Italy and it also had its own sizable collection of choice artworks intended for study and copying. The adherents of this movement became known as peredvizhniki, led by Ivan Kramskoi, they publicly broke with the Academy and organized their own exhibitions, which traveled from town to town across Russia. Ilya Repin, Mikhail Vrubel and some other painters still regarded the academys training as indispensable for the development of professional and technical skills. After the Russian Revolution of 1917, the Imperial Academy passed through a series of transformations, after the Academys move to Moscow that year, the building in what was then called Leningrad was renamed Ilya Repin Leningrad Institute for Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. The national academy has stayed in Moscow, in 1991 it was renamed the Russian Academy of Arts. The old academys art collection, which included works by Poussin, David. During the Soviet era, academies were free of tuition fees as they were financed by the government, many would-be students would apply to the Academy for as many as six or seven years in a row without success. With just twenty places available and thousands of applicants, the competition was brutal, well-known graduates of Ilya Repin Leningrad Institute for Painting, Sculpture and Architecture in 1930–1950s include, The Russian Academy of Arts has been headquartered in Moscow since 1947. Its current president is Zurab Tsereteli and its vice-president is Tair Salakhov and it is also called the St. Petersburg State Academic Institute of Fine Arts, Sculpture and Architecture. - Saint Petersburg, NP-Print Edition,2007, the Leningrad School Russian Academy of Arts The St. Petersburg State Academic Institute of Fine Arts Sergei V. Ivanov
4.
Cathedral of Christ the Saviour
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The Cathedral of Christ the Saviour is a cathedral in Moscow, Russia, on the northern bank of the Moskva River, a few blocks southwest of the Kremlin. With an overall height of 103 metres, it is the tallest Orthodox Christian church in the world, the current church is the second to stand on this site. The original church, built during the 19th century, took more than 40 years to build and it was destroyed in 1931 on the order of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin. The demolition was supposed to make way for a colossal Palace of the Soviets to house the countrys legislature, construction started in 1937 but was halted in 1941 when Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union during World War II. Its steel frame was disassembled the year, and the Palace was never built. Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the current church was rebuilt on the site during 1995–2000, the original church was the scene of the 1882 world premiere of the 1812 Overture composed by Tchaikovsky, which became internationally famous. It took some time for work on the cathedral to get started. The first finished architectural project, by Aleksandr Lavrentyevich Vitberg, was endorsed by the Tsar in 1817 and it was a flamboyant Neoclassical design full of Freemasonic symbolism. Construction work was begun on the Sparrow Hills, the highest point in Moscow, in the meantime Alexander I was succeeded by his brother Nicholas I. Profoundly Orthodox and patriotic, the new Tsar disliked the Neoclassicism and he commissioned his favorite architect Konstantin Thon to create a new design, taking as his model Hagia Sophia in Constantinople, Turkey. Thons Russian Revival design was approved in 1832, a new site closer to the Moscow Kremlin was chosen by the Tsar in 1837. A convent and church on the site had to be relocated, the cathedral took many decades to build, the scaffolding was not taken down until 1860. Its painting was overseen by Evgraf Sorokin, and thereafter some of the best Russian painters continued to embellish the interior for another twenty years, the cathedral was consecrated on 26 May 1883, the day before Alexander III was crowned. Although Tchaikovskys 1812 Overture was written with the completion in mind. The inner sanctum of the church was ringed by a gallery, its walls inlaid with rare sorts of marble, granite. The ground floor of the gallery was a dedicated to the Russian victory over Napoleon. The walls displayed more than 1,000 square metres of Carrara bianca marble plaques listing major commanders, regiments, the second floor of the gallery was occupied by church choirs. The giant dome of the cathedral was gilded using the new technique of electroplating, replacing the older
5.
Saint Isaac's Cathedral
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Saint Isaacs Cathedral or Isaakievskiy Sobor in Saint Petersburg, Russia, is the largest Russian Orthodox cathedral in the city. It is the largest orthodox basilica and the fourth largest cathedral in the world and it is dedicated to Saint Isaac of Dalmatia, a patron saint of Peter the Great, who had been born on the feast day of that saint. The church on St Isaacs Square was ordered by Tsar Alexander I, to replace a structure by Vincenzo Brenna. A specially appointed commission examined several designs, including that of the French-born architect Auguste de Montferrand, Montferrands design was criticised by some members of the commission for the dry and allegedly boring rhythm of its four identical pedimented octastyle porticos. It was also suggested that despite gigantic dimensions, the edifice would look squat, the members of the commission, which consisted of well-known Russian architects, were also particularly concerned by necessity to build a new huge building on the old unsecure foundation. The emperor, who favoured the ponderous Empire style of architecture, had to step in, the cathedral took 40 years to construct, under Montferrands direction, from 1818 to 1858. To secure the construction, the foundation was strengthened by driving 25,000 piles into the fenland of Saint Petersburg. Innovative methods were created to erect the giant columns of the portico, the construction costs of the cathedral totalled an incredible sum of 1000000 gold rubles. Under the Soviet government, the building was stripped of religious trappings, in 1931, it was turned into the Museum of the History of Religion and Atheism, the dove sculpture was removed, and replaced by a Foucault pendulum. On April 12,1931, the first public demonstration of the Foucault pendulum was held to visualize Copernicus’s theory, in 1937, the museum was transformed into the museum of the Cathedral, and former collections were transferred to the Museum of the History of Religion. During World War II, the dome was painted over in gray to avoid attracting attention from enemy aircraft, on its top, in the skylight, a geodesical intersection point was placed, to determine the positions of German artillery batteries. With the fall of communism, the museum was removed and regular worship activity has resumed in the cathedral, the main body of the cathedral is used for services on feast days only. On January 10,2017 Georgy Poltavchenko, the Governor of St and it is similar to Andrea Palladios Villa La Rotonda, with a full dome on a high drum substituted for the Villas low central saucer dome. The rotunda is encircled by an accessible to tourists. 24 statues stand on the roof, and another 24 on top of the rotunda, the cathedrals main dome rises 101.5 metres and is plated with pure gold. The dome is decorated with statues of angels by Josef Hermann. These angels were likely the first large sculptures produced by the novel process of electrotyping. Montferrands design of the dome is based on a supporting cast iron structure and it was the third historical instance of cast iron cupola after the Leaning Tower of Nevyansk and Mainz Cathedral
6.
Pushkin, Saint Petersburg
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Pushkin was founded in 1710 as an imperial residence named Tsarskoye Selo and received status of a town in 1808. The first public railways in Russia, Tsarskoye Selo Railways, were opened here in 1837, after the October Revolution, the town was renamed to Detskoye Selo. Its name was changed in 1937 to Pushkin to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the death of the Russian poet Alexander Pushkin. The town contains an ensemble of the 18th century Tsarskoye Selo, the town is located on the Neva Lowland, on the left bank of the river Neva. The landscape is varied and contains hills, ridges and terraces intermixed with valleys, plains, forests. Numerous springs give rise to streams and feed ponds, in the Paleozoic era, 300–400 million years ago, the area was covered by a sea. Sediments of that form a layer thicker than 200 metres on top of the Baltic Shield consisting of granite, gneiss. The modern topography was shaped by the retreat some 12,000 years ago which created the Littorina Sea. About 4,000 years ago the sea receded and formed the valley of the Neva River which has not changed much over the last 2,500 years, the climate Pushkin is temperate and wet, it is transitional between oceanic and continental. The length of the day varies from 5 hours and 51 minutes in the solstice to 18 hours and 50 minutes in the summer solstice. Summer is short and moderately warm, whereas winter is long and uneven, Air temperatures above 0 °C prevail from early April to mid-November. Winds mostly blow southward and frequently change air mass above the city, summer is dominated by westerly and northwesterly winds, and the wind direction changes to westerly and southwesterly in winter. The cloudiest months are November, December and January, and the least cloudy are May, June, there are at least 240 sunny days per year. Between May 25 and July 16, white nights are observed when the sun only briefly goes over the horizon, the area is mostly fed by surface and ground waters. Prior to the founding of the town the area was covered by coniferous forests with an admixture of broad-leaved trees. The soils were mostly podzol, combined with peat and gleysols, intensive economic activities changed the original forest landscape to agricultural land with small groves of aspen, birch, alder and willow. In the 18–19th centuries, a park area of 704 hectares has been created in. Owing to the parks and environment-friendly policies, the Pushkin area has low level of pollution
7.
Victor Borisov-Musatov
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Victor Elpidiforovich Borisov-Musatov, was a Russian painter, prominent for his unique Post-Impressionistic style that mixed Symbolism, pure decorative style and realism. Together with Mikhail Vrubel he is referred as the creator of Russian Symbolism style. Victor Musatov was born in Saratov, Russia and his father was a minor railway official who had been born as a serf. In his childhood he suffered an injury, which made him humpbacked for the rest of his life. In 1884 he entered Saratov real school, where his talents as an artist were discovered by his teachers Fedor Vasiliev and Konovalov. The damp climate of Saint-Petersburg was not good for Victors health and in 1893 he was forced to return to Moscow and re-enroll to the Moscow School of painting, sculpturing and architecture. The same works however were praised by his peers, who considered him to be the leader of the new art movement, in 1895 Victor once again left Moscow School of painting, sculpturing and architecture and enrolled in Fernand Cormons school in Paris. He studied there for three years, returning in summer months to Saratov and he was fascinated by the art of his French contemporaries, and especially by the paintings of the father of French Symbolism Pierre Puvis de Chavannes and by the work of Berthe Morisot. In 1898 Borisov-Musatov returned to Russia and almost immediately fell into what it is called fin de siècle nostalgia, Musatovs response was creating a half-illusory world of the 19th century nobility, their parks and country-seats. This world was based on the estate of princes Prozorvky-Galitzines Zubrilovka. Borisov-Musatov also abandoned oil paintings for the mixed tempera and watercolor, the most famous painting of that time is The Pool,1902. The painting depicts two most important women in his life, his sister, Yelena Musatova and his bride, the people are woven into the landscape of an old park with a pond. Another famous painting is The Phantoms,1903 depicting ghosts on the steps of an old country manor. The painting was praised by the contemporary Symbolist poets Valery Bryusov, the last finished painting of Borisov-Musatov was Requiem. Devoted to the memory of Nadezhda Staniukovich, a friend of the artist. Borisov-Musatov died on October 26, O. S.1905 of an attack and is buried on a bank of Oka River near Tarusa. On his tomb there is a sculpture of a boy by Musatovs follower Alexander Matveyev
8.
Kosta Khetagurov
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Konstantin Khetagkati was a national poet of the Ossetian people who is generally regarded as the founder of Ossetian literature. He was also a painter and a notable public benefactor. He is often known by the Russian version of his name and he studied at the Stavropol Gymnasium from 1871 to 1881, and entered the Saint Petersburg Academy of Arts in 1881, but had to abandon his studies due to financial constraint in 1885. Back in his native Ossetia, he became a prominent poet, whose poems composed in Ossetic quickly spread throughout Ossetian towns and he also published a number of poems, stories and articles in the Russian-language newspapers Severny Kavkaz, and Kazbek. His paintings also gained in popularity, one of them depicting Saint Nino. Due to his criticism of the Imperial Russian government he was exiled from his motherland from 1891 to 1896. The last exile significantly shattered the poets health and deprived him of the ability to continue his creative, Khetagurov died shortly afterwards in Karachay in 1906. On October 15,1859, came a birth that was propitious in the story of Ossetia. That birth was of Kosta Khetagurov, a man who was not yet a man, the birthing occurred in a small mountain village which is known as Nar. Nar is at the end of a road now, it is a small but known city. Tibsli is in the Alagir gorge of North Ossetia, the town of Nar is close to the Georgian-Russian border, a fact to which importance shall come later. Quickly, Kosta was recognized as a drawing prodigy, the attention of many and all was raised by this fact, and Kosta had very high expectations set for him. These years were difficult for Kosta but helped his development strongly and it cam time for Kosta to enter a new school. Due to his recognitions as a gestating artist, Kosta was selected to attend a distant and more prestigious school and this school was one of great color, and was in a region of Russian significance, the later place where Mikhail Gorbachev cut his teeth. Kostas remarkable facility with brush and pen was apprehended and remarked upon by the Russian drawing master Smirnov and it was now that a crossroads arose. Kosta had a disagreement with father Khetagurov about the direction of his future efforts, the father was convinced that the proper life for Kosta was that of a soldier. As a result, the father informed Kosta of the many patriotic benefits, Kosta, however, rebutted this argument strongly that he was not interested in fighting opportunities. There was some back and forth on this matter, eventually, Kosta won out, though it is not known whether this was done by reconciling or by scorning father Khetagurov
9.
Yehuda Pen
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Yehuda Pen, also known as Yuri Pen was a Litvak painter and art teacher. He was a figure of the Jewish Renaissance in Russian and Belarusian art at the beginning of 20th century. Yehuda Pen was born on May 241854 in the city of Novoalexandrovsk and he was orphaned at the age of thirteen and became an apprentice to a decorative painter in Dvinsk. In 1879 he went to Saint Petersburg and took the exam at the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts. Despite lacking the necessary passport, he remained there and, in 1881. His teachers included Pavel Chistyakov, Valentin Serov and Mikhail Vrubel and he was eventually admitted as a student and graduated in 1886. In 1891, on his friends advice, he settled in Vitebsk and and he catered to many poor students who were unable to gain admission to the larger academies, all they needed was a sponsor. Pens pupils included Ilya Mazel, Yefim Minin, Oskar Meshchaninov, Marc Chagall, Ossip Zadkine, Leon Gaspard, the school was in operation until 1919. At that time, thanks to the efforts of Chagall, he became a teacher at the Vitebsk Art School, Pen was killed at his home in Vitebsk on the night of 28 February/1 March 1937. The exact circumstances of his death have never been clarified and he was buried in the Jewish cemetery there. The bronze bust on his grave has been stolen twice, a gallery devoted to his works has been created in Vitebsk. His works are kept at the Vitebsk Museum of Modern Art. Витебский Музей современного искусства, история создания и коллекции, Материалы о Ю. М. Пэне в РГАЛИ // Бюллетень Музея Марка Шагала. Об утраченном портрете Марка Шагала работы Юрия Пэна // Бюллетень Музея Марка Шагала, Изобразительное искусство Витебска1918 –1923 гг. Bio at Vitebsk City informational portal Vitebsk Museum of Modern Art
