The Peredvizhniki

Following the liberation of Russia’s serfs in 1861, a group of liberal students at the Russian Imperial Academy of the Arts began refusing to subscribe to the school’s emphasis on historical painting and replication. These students, called the “Peredvizhniki” (“wanderers”) saw the constraining teachings of the Imperial Academy as irrelevant to and disconnected from contemporary Russian life and society. Instead […]

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Russian Realism

I chose to focus on the painting Barge Haulers on the Volga by Ilya Repin. It was painted between 1870 and 1873 as his first commissioned work after graduation from the Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg. Repin then joined the group known as the Peredvizhniki, or the Wanderer’s, in the late 1870’s. I found […]

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Barge Haulers on the Volga

Ilya Repin, Barge Haulers on the Volga 1870–187 The painting that I have decided to talk about is the painting of the men who are alongside the shore pulling a boat with ropes and straps. The title of the painting is noted above. I find this piece of art very interesting because of how the […]

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