Ilya Yefimovich Repin Ilya Yefimovich Repin Ilya Yefimovich Repin ' onMouseout='HidePop("50923")' href="http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Christ">Christ
Christ is the English term for the Greek meaning "the anointed". It is a translation of the Hebrew . The term "Christ" was a title rather than a proper name. In the four gospels in the New Testament, the word "Christ" is nearly always preceded by the definite article...
and
Pontius PilatePontius Pilate was the Prefect of the Roman province of Judaea from AD 26–36. Typically referenced as the fifth Procurator of Judea, he is best known as the judge at Jesus' trial and the man who authorized his crucifixion.Pilate appears in all four canonical Christian Gospels...
Before the People, the Academy awarded a small silver medal to him.
In the early 1870s he executed a lot of
engravingEngraving is the practice of incising a design on to a hard, usually flat surface, by cutting grooves into it. The result may be a decorated object in itself, as when silver, gold, steel, or glass are engraved, or may provide an intaglio printing plate, of copper or another metal, for printing...
s depicting contemporary life. Two of them (
Provincial Bookseller from 1870 and
A Boy with a Bottle of Vodka from 1872) won him a bronze medal at the
World FairWorld Fair can refer to:* Expo , a large public exhibition* This World Fair, an American rock band...
in
London[]London is the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It has been a major settlement for two millennia, and the history of London goes back to its founding by the Romans, when it was named Londinium. London's core, the ancient City of London, the 'square mile', retains its medieval boundaries...
(1874).
At that period he also started producing genre paintings in oil. Such pieces as
Peasant Singers (1873) and
Moving House (1876) were warmly welcomed by democratic circles of Russian society.
Paris (1876-1877)
In 1876 Repin invited Vasnetsov to join the Peredvizhniki colony in
ParisParis is the capital of France and the country's most populous city. It is situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
. While living in France, Viktor studied classical and contemporary paintings, academist and
ImpressionistImpressionism was a 19th-century art movement that began as a loose association of Paris-based artists whose independent exhibitions brought them to prominence in the 1870s and 1880s...
alike. At that period, he painted
Acrobats (1877), produced prints, and exhibited some of his works at the
SalonThe Salon , or rarely Paris Salon , beginning in 1725 was the official art exhibition of the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris, France. Between 1748–1890 it was the greatest annual or biannual art event in the western world...
. It was in Paris that he became fascinated with fairy-tale subjects, starting to work on
Ivan TsarevichIvan Tsarevich is one of the main heroes of Russian folklore, usually a protagonist, often engaged in a struggle with Koschei. Along with Ivan the Fool, Ivan Tsarevich is a placeholder name rather than a certain character.He is often, but not always, the youngest son of three...
Riding a Grey Wolf and
The Firebird. Vasnetsov was a model for
SadkoSadko is a character of a Russian medieval epic , an adventurer, merchant and gusli musician from Novgorod.-Synopsis:Sadko played the gusli on the shores of a lake. The Sea Tsar enjoyed his music, and offered to help him...
in Repin's celebrated painting
Sadko in the Underwater Kingdom. In 1877 he returned to
MoscowMoscow is the capital and the largest city of Russia. It is also the largest metropolitan area in Europe, and ranks among the largest urban areas in the world. Moscow is a major political, economic, cultural, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the world, a...
.
Moscow (1877-1884)
In the late 1870s Vasnetsov concentrated on illustrating Russian fairy tales and
bylinaBylina is a traditional epic, heroic narrative poem of the early East Slavs of Kievan Rus...
s, executing some of his best known pieces:
Knight at the Crossroads (1878),
Prince IgorPrince Igor is an opera in four acts with a prologue by Alexander Borodin. The composer adapted the libretto from the East Slavic epic The Lay of Igor's Host, which recounts the campaign of Russian prince Igor Svyatoslavich against the invading Polovtsian tribes in 1185...
's Battlefield (1878),
Three tsarevnas of the Underground Kingdom (1879-1881),
The Magic Carpet (1880), and
Alionushka (1881).
These works were not appreciated at the time they appeared. Many radical critics dismissed them as undermining the realist principles of the
PeredvizhnikiPeredvizhniki , often called The Wanderers or The Itinerants in English, were a group of Russian realist artists who in protest at academic restrictions formed an artists' cooperative which evolved into the Society for Traveling Art Exhibitions in 1870.The society formed in 1870 in St...
. Even such prominent connoisseurs as Pavel Mikhailovich Tretyakov refused to buy them. The vogue for Vasnetsov's paintings would spread in the 1880s, when he turned to religious subjects and executed a series of icons for
AbramtsevoAbramtsevo is an estate located north of Moscow, in the proximity of Khotkovo, that became a center for the Slavophile movement and artistic activity in the 19th century.-History:...
estate of his patron
Savva MamontovSavva Ivanovich Mamontov was a famous Russian industrialist, merchant, entrepreneur, and patron of the arts.-Biography:...
.
Kiev 1884-1889
In 1884-1889 Vasnetsov was commissioned to paint
frescoFresco is any of several related painting types, done on plaster on walls or ceilings. The word fresco comes from the Italian word affresco which derives from the adjective fresco , which has Latin origins...
s in the St Vladimir's Cathedral of
KievKiev or Kyiv , is the capital and the largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper River. The population as of the 2001 census was 2,611,300...
. This was a challenging work which ran contrary to both Russian and Western traditions of religious paintings. The influential art critic Vladimir Stasov labelled them a sacrilegious play with religious feelings of the Russian people. Another popular critic, Dmitry Filosofov, referred to these frescoes as "the first bridge over 200 years-old gulf separating different classes of Russian society".
While living in Kiev, Vasnetsov made friends with
Mikhail VrubelMikhail Aleksandrovich Vrubel is usually regarded as the greatest Russian painter of the Symbolist movement...
, who was also involved in the cathedral's decoration. While they worked together, Vasnetsov taught the younger artist a great deal. It was in Kiev that Vasnetsov finally finished
Ivan TsarevichIvan Tsarevich is one of the main heroes of Russian folklore, usually a protagonist, often engaged in a struggle with Koschei. Along with Ivan the Fool, Ivan Tsarevich is a placeholder name rather than a certain character.He is often, but not always, the youngest son of three...
Riding a Grey Wolf and started his most famous painting, the
BogatyrThe bogatyr or vytiaz/vityaz The bogatyr (from baghatur, an old Altaic term for a warrior, a military commander, or an epic hero) or vytiaz/vityaz The bogatyr (from baghatur, an old Altaic term for a warrior, a military commander, or an epic hero) or vytiaz/vityaz (ukr. витязь or rus...
s.
In 1885 the painter travelled to
ItalyItaly , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia. Italy shares its northern, Alpine boundary with France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia...
. The same year he worked on stage designs and costumes for
Nikolai Rimsky-KorsakovNikolai Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov , also Nikolay, Nicolai, and Rimsky-Korsakoff, was a Russian composer, and a member of the group of composers known as "The Five." Noted particularly for a predilection for folk and fairy-tale subjects as well as his extraordinary skill in orchestration, his...
's opera
The Snow Maiden.
Later years (1890-1926)
The following two decades were productive for Vasnetsov, but most of his later paintings were perceived as being of secondary importance. He increasingly turned to other media during this period. In 1897 he collaborated with his brother Apollinary on the theatrical design of another Rimsky-Korsakov premiere,
SadkoSadko is a character of a Russian medieval epic , an adventurer, merchant and gusli musician from Novgorod.-Synopsis:Sadko played the gusli on the shores of a lake. The Sea Tsar enjoyed his music, and offered to help him...
, and he was commissioned in the 1910s to design a new uniform for the Russian military — the so-called
bogatyrkaBudenovka is a distinctive type of hat and an essential part of the communist uniform of the Russian Civil War and later. Its official name was the "broadcloth helmet" . Named after Semyon Budyonny, it was also known as the "frunzenka" after Mikhail Frunze...
, a Russian army headwear.
At the turn of the century, Vasnetsov elaborated his hallmark "fairy-tale" style of
Russian RevivalThe Russian Revival style is the generic term for a number of different movements within Russian architecture that arose in second quarter of the 19th century and was an eclectic melding of pre-Peterine Russian architecture and elements of Byzantine architecture.The Russian Revival style arose...
ist architecture. His first acclaimed design was a church in Abramtsevo (1882), executed jointly with
Vasily PolenovVasily Dmitrievich Polenov was a Russian landscape painter associated with the Peredvizhniki movement of realist artists....
. In 1894, he designed his own mansion in
MoscowMoscow is the capital and the largest city of Russia. It is also the largest metropolitan area in Europe, and ranks among the largest urban areas in the world. Moscow is a major political, economic, cultural, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the world, a...
. The Russian pavilion of the World Fair in
ParisParis is the capital of France and the country's most populous city. It is situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
followed in 1898. Finally, in 1904, Vasnetsov designed the best known of his "fairy-tale" buildings — the
Tretyakov GalleryThe State Tretyakov Gallery is an art gallery in Moscow, Russia, the foremost depository of Russian fine art in the world.The gallery's history starts in 1856 when the Moscow merchant Pavel Mikhailovich Tretyakov acquired works by Russian artists of his day with the aim of creating a collection,...
.
Between 1906 and 1911, Vasnetsov worked on the design of the mosaics for
Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, WarsawThe Alexander Nevsky Cathedral was a Russian Orthodox Cathedral in Saxon Square built by authorities of Imperial Russia in Warsaw, Poland, then under the rule of the Russian Empire. The cathedral was designed by distinguished Russian architect Leon Benois, and was built between 1894 and 1912...
.
In 1912, Vasnetsov was given a noble title by Czar Nicholas II. In 1914, he designed a revenue stamp intended for voluntary collection for victims of World War I.
Even prior to the
Russian RevolutionThe Russian Revolution is the collective term for the series of revolutions in Russia in 1917, which destroyed the Tsarist autocracy and led to the creation of the Soviet Union. In the first revolution of February 1917 the Czar was deposed and replaced by a Provisional government...
, Vasnetsov became active as a regent of that gallery. He allocated a significant portion of his income to the
State Historical MuseumThe State Historical Museum of Russia is a museum of Russian history wedged between Red Square and Manege Square in Moscow. Its exhibitions range from relics of the prehistoric tribes inhabiting present-day Russia, through priceless artworks acquired by members of the Romanov dynasty...
, so that a large part of the museum's collection was acquired on Vasnetsov's money. After the
October RevolutionTheOctober Revolution , also known as the Soviet Revolution or Bolshevik Revolution, was a political revolution and a part of the Russian Revolution. It began with an armed insurrection in Petrograd traditionally dated to 25 October 1917 Julian calendar...
he advocated removing some of the religious paintings (notably those by Alexander Ivanov) from churches to the Tretyakov Gallery.
Legacy
A
minor planetAn asteroid group or minor planet group is a population of minor planets that have a share broadly similar orbits. Members are generally unrelated to each other, unlike in an asteroid family, which often results from the break-up of a single asteroid...
3586 Vasnetsov3586 Vasnetsov is a Main-belt Asteroid discovered on September 26, 1978 by L. Zhuravleva at Nauchnyj. It is named after Russian romantic artist Viktor Vasnetsov.- External links :*...
, discovered by
SovietThe Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. The name is a translation of the , tr. Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated СССР, SSSR. The common short name is Soviet Union, from , Sovetskiy Soyuz...
astronomer
Lyudmila ZhuravlyovaLyudmila Vasil'evna Zhuravleva is a Ukrainian astronomer.She works at the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory.She also serves as president...
in 1978 is named after Viktor Vasnetsov and Apollinary Vasnetsov.
In the film
Elizabeth: The Golden Age, Vasnetsov's painting of Ivan the Terrible (see gallery below) is anachronistically presented as if it already existed in that Tsar's lifetime, and as being sent by Ivan to England when he offers to marry Queen Elizabeth I.
Sources
External links