Portrait of cathrine the great (1790)

pictured outside (naturalism); closer, more intimate and relaxed; she's older, holding a walking stick; monument on a lake to her late husband (haunted by death and age); dog (symbol of fidelity - to Russian people? to late husband?); move towards Romanticis

Portrait of Catherine the Great 

1790

Levitsky 

Description:Classical style; guided by Catherine; godlike illumination (religious undertones); latent energy in background (red drapes); ship in background going away (symbol of naval expansion and reach); statue of Justice; the eagle (symbol of military power) carrying a branch (peace); books (literacy); points to fire (education and enlightenment); international smbology; not very personal (symbol of Russian power)

Portrait of Lopukhina 

1797 

Borovikovsky 

Description:post-humous portrait of Russian princess (haunted by death); classical attire; fluidity; natural setting; intimate, three-dimensional; Romantic curves; natural beauty

The Last day of pompeii (1833)

Karl Briullov

Description: everybody equalized as they share the same fate; destruction of classical statues (neoclassicism dead); nature's/God's destructive power; puts himself in the picture (crossing time); allegory for Russia (thought revolution was imminent)

Self Portraits of Kiprensky 

1810-1820s

Description:Romanticism, eyes are the window to the soul; it's dawn, he's wearing a robe and has unkempt hair; holding an engraving pen, telling us his art comes before everything else

Portrait of Pushkin

1827 

Description:Pushkin is Russia's great poet; muse of music in background (poetry was considered music); deep in thought; a celebration of the creative process; Walter Scott's tartan sash (Pushkin loved Sr. Walter Scott's poetry); landscape of the soul

Appearance of Christ to the People 

1837-1857

Ivanov 

Description:Christ is far (he believed that Christ was always distant and couldn't be understand closely); failure at its time; John the Baptist announces that Christ is coming; Ivanov placed himself in the painting alongside GOgol

Morning of a landowner (1823)

By Venetsianov

Description: first painter to use peasants as subject matter in works like this; theme of humility and modest beauty of pastoral Russia; romanticized version of serfs; about a discourse between a landowner (his wife) and serfs; screen divides, but words connect

Capricious Bride 

Fedotov

1842 

Description:Realist painting; no exits; caged bird trapped in corner (metaphor for marriage); parents listening in; old for single woman, so she's got to get married; the suitor is an unwholesome hunchback; message is that marriage is not about love, but capitalism (emphasized by overcrowded room of furniture)

Aristocrats Breakfast 

Fedotov

1840s

Description:Realist painting; an aristocrat being disturbed over his breakfast; he hides his meager meal; about the impoverishment of the aristocracy due to the rise of the bourgeoisie; oyster advertisement on chair (delicacy he can no longer afford)

Spring. Plowing (1820)

By Venetsianov

Description: barefoot serf plows fields as a baby looks on; evokes Virgin Mary imagery for a serf; another plower in the distance (symbolizes circular repetitive nature of labor)

Major's Bethrothal (1848)

Fedotov

Description: woman running away from her suitor, but her mother brings her back; her suitor is an old major; her destiny is sealed by the priest, her mother, and the matchmaker; the cat mirrors the major; dropped handkerchief = loss of virginity; unlit chandelier; no exit

Harvesting. Summer (1820)

By Venetsianov

Description: something's missing is this painting; it captures the stillness during the hot summer, a brief respite from the hard summer; empty, blue sky dominates half the frame; the sickle sits in the foreground, a symbol of the serf's toil

Gamblers

Fedotov

1853 

Description:artist's last picture after suffering from mental instability; dramatic, low lighting; agony and shock after a man wins a gambling game; doesn't make sense (empty picture frames, legless man, lighting doesn't match up); no escape except for the mirror; guy who won the game is Fedotov!; servant is bringing more candles and cards so they can keep playing; trapped like some sort of hell in this game

Easter Procession 

1861

Perov 

Description:four drunken clergymen ignoring their duties; man holds Virgin Mary upside-down; going from peasants hut to the Church, but it's a dirge; the woman holding Mary is a prostitute!; looking in different directions (dissonance); ominous sky, dead trees; criticism of institution, not the faith

Self-Portrait (1887)

By Ilia Repin

Description: Realist painter; Russian hero who sings the song of the people; hated superficiality of French art; believed in the didactic power of art 

The Refrectory 

Perov 

1865-1876 

Description:a gaudy bourgeoisie woman married to a bureaucrat has arrived at an indulgent meal among priests; beggars show up, wanting money from the rich; the bourgeoisie are patrons of the Church; emaciated Jesus watches them stuff themselves with food; chief priest looks like the bourgeoisie man; dove flies (the Holy Spirit?)

Volga Boatmen (1873)

By Ilia Repin

Description: workmen pulling up boats from the current; how can civilized Russia tolerate this; each man is an individual, but they are not a cohesive group; all elderly except one, who looks up into the light hopefully (promise of a new generation?)

The Drowned Women (1867) 

Perov

Description:real story; the woman was a street worker Perov knew who killed herself; spires of the Church loom in the background, divided from the horrible scene by a thick mist; the watchman is indifferent, this must happen often

They did not expect him (1884)

By Ilia Repin

Description: shows a young man returning from prison/exile after the assassination of Alexander the 2nd; nobody is happy about his return, they have discordant reactions; light on left, dark on right; the lithograph of Alexander shows the man's family held different views; we can't see the mother's reaction; this chair divides us from the painting, a symbol of the comfort of the bourgeoisie being disrupted; the maid is even stern (she doesn't want to disrupt the status quo, even though the dissident is fighting for her)

The Apotheosis of War (1871-1872) 

Vereshchagin 

Description:subversion of what is expected from title; war is not grand, war is death; this is realist! he saw it and even photographed it; Russian skirmish in Afghanistan results in monument to death

Portrait of Mamontov 

1897

Vrubel 

Description:Russian railroad tycoon who owned Abramtsevo

Religious Procession (1880-83)

By Ilia Repin

Description: country scene, huge procession united by faith at first glance; mixing of all types of people; but... crippled boy kept out; there are always people outside of society; hill covered with stumps in background (ecological disaster of industrialization) 

Ivan the terrible and his son

by Ilia Repin

Description: critique of the divine monarchy; how could this horror be divine?; reverse sequence, you piece together the murder barkwards

Dmitrii, The Dead Tsarevich

1899

Nesterov 

Portrait of Musorgsky (1881)

By Ilia Repin

Description: portrait of alcoholic Russian composer; just about to die, unkempt; folksy pattern reminds us that he loved folk music

Portrait of Tolstoi

By Ilia Repin

Description: synthesis of the writer's ideas; pictured in nature; dressed like a peasant; barefoot; book in pocket = intellectual; loved putting his hands behind his belt; verticality pushes him upwards towards saintlike status

Church of Abramtsevo, Vrubel, 1883

Description:monument to the Neo-Nationalist movement; replica of 15th century Church

Self-Portrait (1904)

By Mikhail Vrubel

Description: very interested in his own psychology; introspection and loneliness in his eyes; expression is concentrated, but melancholy; attacking the surface with staccato lines

The Fire-Bird 

Polenova 

early 1890s 

Illustration to the Fairy-Tale the Fire-Bird 

Bilibin 

1899 

Portrait of Diaghilev 

1905

Bakst 

Description: Diaghilev =leader of the World of Arts Group; writer dedicated to the propagation of Russian culture; flamboyant, gay, and cruel; like Oscar Wilde

Betrothal of Mary and Joseph (1883) 

By Mikhail Vrubel

Description: a work from when this artist was still in school; shows that he was capable of drawing in classical style but chose not to

Walk of Louis XIV (or the King's Walk) 

1897 

Benois

Description:the WoA enjoyed Versailles because it was scenic and theatrical; this painting employs a stagelike setup, emphasizing costumes of the people within it; taming of nature; hydraulic artistery

Chinese Pavillion 

1906 

Benois 

Description: N/A 

The Bath of the Marquise 

Benois 

1906 

The Demon Seated (1890)

By Mikhail Vrubel

Description: contemporary trend of humanizing the devil; insularity of devil, contemplation; fragmented style; in the mountains, observing our world from afar

Lady in Pink 

Somov 

1903 

Description:artificial, dehumanized woman; creepy (is she strangling herself with a scarf?); strange man, very perturbing; porcelain people, hints of death, artificial

Echo of Time Past 

1903 

Somov

Description:o   Looks like porcelain doll, uncomfortable

o   Pillow = more alive than she is 

Ridiculed Kiss 

1908

somov 

Description:o   Ridiculing normal relationships

o   Set in Versailles 

The skating rink 

1915 

Somov 

Description: n/a 

The Demon Downcast (1902)

By Mikhail Vrubel

Description: anatomically incomprehensible creature wrapped up in a veil; ashen pallor, crazed eyes, crown of thorns; lying on a bed of peacock wings; devastation, the feeling of being cast out

Harlequinade 

1914 

Somov

The Bogatyr (1898)

By Mikhail Vrubel

Description: a mythological knight who aided the poor; interest in Pre-Petrine Russia; organic part of Russia; standing on a tree top between heaven and earth

1905 

1905

Douzhinsky 

Description: during Russian revolution 

Entry into Moscow 

1905 

Kustodiev 

Description: During Russian Revolution 

Domestic and Foregin Policy 

1906 

Grzhebin 

Description: things were censored, flip upside down and has different meaning 

Levitsky 

• portrait painter favored by Russia 
• first master of Academy of the Arts

The god Pan (1889)

By Mikhail Vrubel

Description: in-betweenness: dusk/dawn, man/god, man/beast

The Lilacs (1900)

By Milhail Vrubel

Description: the irony of pessimism and vague terror wrapped up in typically beautiful flowers; lilacs swell and almost seem to be attacking a woman; no escape; apocalyptic to ring in the new century

Borovikovsky 

• famous Russian portraitist  
• first master from academy of the arts 

Portrait of Artist Son (1902)

By Mikhail Vrubel

Description: Son was deformed w/ a hare lip and died young; artist blamed himself; painting uses forced perspective that pushes the boy's face to the front; accusatory, sullen gaze; the boy is not a child, he has a man's face

Kiprensky 

• Romantic painter interested in the landscape of the soul, interiority; literally a criminal (roasted his lover); self-portraits in different moods
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Portrait of the Poet Valerii Briusov (1906)

By Mikhail Vrubel

Desciption: clarity of the face; unfinished; third arm???; last painting

Vasilii Perov

Description of Painter: Realist painter who criticized the Church through narrative paintings

Briullov 

• Romantic painter interested in the mighty violence of nature

Ivanov 

• Romantic painter with religious fanaticism who lived a monastic life, believing himself able to talk to God

Venetsianov

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  Romantic painter who sings the praises of humility in pastoral Russia; loved painting peasant life

Ilia Repin

Description of Painter: Realist painter; Russian hero who sings the song of the people; hated superficiality of French art; believed in the didactic power of art

Fedotov 

• bridge between Romanticism and Realism; interested in consumerism and the home's interiors; concerned that women had no social mobility or choice; worries about Church's immense power; belief in humor and satire in art; outsider artist

V. Vereshchagin

Description of painting: Realist painter who photographed and painted scenes from the front lines of war

Vrubel 

the first original Russian artist; not derivative of Western art; enigmatic; attended the Academy of Art but learned from art in Italy; schizophrenic and incarcerated; theme of "The Demon" runs through his work; dies from pneumonia, blind from syphilis; his work is seen as incomprehensible, but very revolution compared to narrative painting; exploration of silence, mystery, and enigmatism; never finished his work (painting was about the process); disintegration, dissonance; attack on surface

Baskt

Description of Painter: one of the greatest stage and costume designers ever; believed that the body was the most important thing on a stage; costume must liberate the body; tension between clothed and unclothed

Vasnetsov

• Russian artist who specialized in mythological and historical subjects. He is considered the co-founder of Russian folkloris

Polenova 

• a Russian painter and designer

Kustodiev 

• a Russian painter and stage designer. has a place of honour among those artists of the early twentieth century

Benois 

Description of Painter: painter, writer, historian; second in command of the World of Art; remembered as a stage designer; regarded Versailles as a symbol of wholeness

Grzhebin