Artist Kramskoy Ivan Nikolaevich. The meaning of Ivan Nikolaevich Kramskoy in a brief biographical encyclopedia

Ivan Nikolaevich Kramskoy (1837-1887) – artist.

Becoming in 1863 the leader of student competitors for gold medal, who refused to paint a picture based on a given biblical plot and left the Academy in protest, Ivan Kramskoy first headed the Artel of Artists, and then the Association of Traveling People art exhibitions.

The first exhibition of the Partnership was opened in St. Petersburg in 1871. I.N. Kramskoy participated in it with the film “Mermaids” based on the story by N.V. Gogol's "May Night".

“I became a portrait painter out of necessity,” Kramskoy wrote about himself. In the 1870s. he painted portraits of writers and artists, most of which were painted by order of Pavel Tretyakov. Later, dozens more orders appeared.

It seemed possible to live comfortably. But I wanted to have a family home. During construction, Kramskoy learned that he was seriously ill. He had to get into debt, which he managed to pay off three months before his death.

I.N. Kramskoy was I.E.’s first teacher. Repina. First - at the Drawing School of the Society for the Encouragement of Artists, and then - at the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts.

Biography of Kramskoy

Ivan Kramskoy. Self-portrait 1867

Ivan Kramskoy. Self-portrait 1874

Kramskoy painting a portrait of his daughter Sophia. Self-portrait 1884

• 1837. May 27 (June 8) - in the city of Ostrogozhsk, Voronezh province, a son, Ivan, was born into the family of clerk Nikolai Kramskoy.
• 1849. Ivan Kramskoy graduated from the Ostrogozhsky district school with a certificate of merit. Father's death. Kramskoy was accepted as a clerk in the city duma, where his father worked. Later, until the age of 16, Kramskoy served as an intermediary in amicable land surveying.
• 1852. At the age of fifteen, Kramskoy became an apprentice to an Ostrogozh icon painter and spent about a year in his workshop.
• 1853. Ivan Kramskoy took up photo retouching. M.B. Tulinov, Kramskoy’s fellow countryman, taught him “to finish photographic portraits with watercolors and retouching.” Meet the Kharkov photographer Yakov Petrovich Danilevsky, who came to the town to photograph military exercises. With him, Kramskoy traveled all over Russia as a retoucher and watercolorist.
• 1856. Arrival in St. Petersburg. Work as a retoucher in Aleksandrovsky’s photo workshop.
• 1857. Kramskoy successfully passed the exams at the Academy of Arts and became a student of Professor A.T. Markova. He works part-time as a retoucher at the Daguerreotype Establishment of the Artist Denyer.
• 1860. Kramskoy received a small silver award for the painting “The Dying Lensky”.
• 1861. Large silver medal for a sketch from life.
• 1863. The Academy of Arts awarded Kramskoy a small gold medal for the painting “Moses Brings Out Water from the Rock” and offered students a theme from the Scandinavian sagas “The Feast in Valhalla” for the competition. The graduates petitioned to be allowed to choose topics as they wished. Professor Tone noted: “If this had happened before, then all of you would have been soldiers!” November 9 - Kramskoy, on behalf of his comrades, told the council that they, “not daring to think about changing academic regulations, humbly ask the council to exempt them from participating in the competition.” The artists formed the "St. Petersburg Artel of Artists". Kramskoy's marriage to Sofya Nikolaevna Prokhorova. Birth of son Nikolai. Start of teaching at the Drawing School of the Society for the Encouragement of the Arts.
• 1865. Markov invited Kramskoy to help paint the dome of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow. Due to Markov's illness, the main painting of the dome was done by Kramskoy with the artists Wenig and Koshelev.
• 1867. August 21 - birth of his beloved daughter Sophia, who became an artist.
• 1868. Kramskoy’s departure from the Drawing School of the Society for the Encouragement of the Arts.
• 1869. First order from P.M. Tretyakov to create "Portrait of the Writer P.A. Goncharov." Ivan Kramskoy received the title of academician. A trip to Europe to get acquainted with the paintings of the old masters.
• 1870. Kramskoy’s departure from the “Artel of Artists”: tired of the hopeless struggle for “moral unity”. The artel disbanded a year later. Formation of the "Association of Traveling Art Exhibitions". Kramskoy is one of the main organizers and ideologists.
• 1872. Painting by Kramskoy “Christ in the Desert”.
• 1873-1880. "Passion" I.N. Kramskoy portraits.
• 1882. Deterioration of Kramskoy’s relations with the majority of the Wanderers.
• 1883. Kramskoy began two years of work on the album of the coronation of Alexander III. From a letter from P.M. Tretyakov: “I confess that the circumstances are higher than my character and will. I am broken by life and have not done what I wanted and what I should have done.”
• 1884. Exacerbation of heart disease. Departure for treatment in the south of France, accompanied by his daughter Sophia.
• 1885. Kramskoy’s participation in the development of the project for the monument to Alexander II.
• 1886. Kramskoy was accused by the Wanderers that his work had become “insincere” and that he had “betrayed his ideals” by accepting an order to paint portraits of members of the royal family. At the end of his life, Kramskoy wrote: “Almost everyone turned their backs on me... I feel insulted.”
• 1887. March 24 (April 5) - Ivan Nikolaevich Kramskoy died of a heart attack at his easel.

Paintings and portraits of Kramskoy

From the age of sixteen, Ivan Kramskoy was a photo retoucher. At first I completed “watercolor and retouching photographic portraits” from my fellow countryman M.B. Tulinov, then in Kharkov with the photographer Ya.P. Danilevsky. From 1856 he worked in the famous studio of I.F. Alexandrovsky in St. Petersburg. Kramskoy wrote about that time: “We were more interested in technology and chemistry than in the artistic side of light painting.” But this was school.

Being the ideological leader and leader of the Association of Itinerants, Kramskoy began painting only in adulthood. Kramskoy's best paintings were painted after 1870. The first of them was “Mermaids”.

Painting "Moonlit Night" written by I.N. Kramskoy in 1880. Summer night. Silence. Silver moonlight. Nothing breaks the silence. The author gave the woman sitting on a bench and immersed in her thoughts a resemblance to the second wife of Sergei Tretyakov, Elena Andreevna (nee Matveeva). CM. Tretyakov bought the painting immediately after it was painted. Contemporaries argued that both in the composition of the painting “Moonlit Night” and in the color rendering there was a strong influence of his friends - A.I. Kuindzhi and F.A. Vasilyeva. In 1892, after the death of his brother, Pavel Tretyakov donated the painting to the city as part of his collection.

Painting "Mermaids" ("May Night") , written on the plot of Gogol’s story of the same name, was the first of a series intended to illustrate “Evenings on a Farm.” The artist worked on "Mermaids" in Little Russia in the summer of 1871. On a bank overgrown with reeds and on the trunk of a huge poplar in moonlight two dozen drowned women. Their poses are sad, their faces are pale and full of hopeless melancholy. Presented at the exhibition of the Itinerants in the year it was painted, the painting attracted special attention from visitors. Kramskoy wrote about “Mermaids”: “I’m glad that with such a plot I didn’t completely break my neck... something fantastic came out.”

Plot paintings "Inconsolable grief" was close to the author: in a short time he lost two sons. The artist wrote about the painting: “If it is not sold, I turn it towards the wall in the calmest way and forget about it, I have done my job.” Ilya Repin's review was preserved in his "Memoirs": "Not a picture, but a living reality."

In the 1870-1880s. P.M. Tretyakov collected portraits of Russian art figures for his gallery. He gave twelve orders to Kramskoy. Members of the imperial family appeared among the customers. As a result, the portrait artist became popular and in demand. The Rumyantsev Museum ordered several dozen portraits from him.

M.P. Mussorgsky wrote criticism of V.V. Stasov about his impression of one of Kramskoy’s portraits: “Approaching the portrait of Litovchenko, I jumped back... This is not a canvas - this is life, power, what is sought in creativity!”

The artist Ivan Kramskoy made an invaluable contribution to culture. He was an art rebel, an ideologist of the Peredvizhniki movement, and an adviser to the collector Pavel Tretyakov, who created the world-famous Tretyakov Gallery. Kramskoy's student Ilya Repin became a famous artist. This year, on May 27, Ivan Kramskoy celebrated his 180th birthday. In the museum. I. N. Kramskoy, named after the painter, houses the artist’s paintings and graphics. The main exhibition of the museum presents six paintings by Kramskoy. One of the most interesting works is a portrait of the artist’s wife and daughter. Kramskoy never had time to complete this painting.

The future ideologist of the Wanderers was born on May 27, 1837 in Ostrogozhsk in the family of a clerk. Ivan Kramskoy graduated from the district school and found work as a retoucher for his fellow countryman, photographer Mikhail Tulinov. He used watercolors to correct portraits of people in photographs. Kramskoy left his hometown to work in Kharkov, and at the age of 19 he moved to St. Petersburg. A year after working in a photographic studio in 1857, he entered the Academy of Arts for the first time.

Ivan Kramskoy “Self-portrait”, 1867

Kramskoy was one of the most talented students. He received a small gold medal for the painting “Moses Bringing Out Water from the Rock.” However, both Kramskoy and other students of the Academy wanted more freedom. When they were offered a competition theme, “A Feast in Valhalla” (the author of the best picture received a big gold medal and the opportunity to travel to Paris), the students refused and petitioned that everyone be allowed to develop their own theme. The Academy Council refused. Then 14 best graduates Led by Kramskoy, they left the Academy and founded the first Artel of Free Artists in Russia, which existed until 1871. This event went down in art history as the “Riot of the Fourteen.”

“It’s interesting that in 1863 the “Revolt of the Fourteen” took place in Russia, and in France in the same year the first exhibition of impressionists took place,” notes the head. exhibition department of the museum. I. N. Kramskoy Olga Ryabchikova. – They were also rebels and were against the academic system. Artists of both France and Russia began to reach out to the light, to greater freedom in creativity.

In 1870, the Association of Traveling Exhibitions was created, the main organizer of which was Ivan Kramskoy. He defended his views on the high social role of the artist, the principles of realism and the nationality of art. The partnership held traveling exhibitions and conducted educational activities. it included famous artists of that time: Vasnetsov, Repin, Surikov, Shishkin, Levitan and others.

Ivan Kramskoy "Portrait of a Lady". 1881

“Kramskoy was ahead of his time in many of his views,” says Olga Ryabchikova. – For example, he had an interesting approach to the art education system. He believed that academies and schools were not needed, but that it was worth creating artists’ workshops, to which those who wanted to learn from these masters would come.

Ivan Kramskoy was an outstanding portrait painter, one of the best of his time. He had many orders. Thus, Pavel Tretyakov ordered him to create a gallery of images of prominent people, among whom were Leo Tolstoy, Nikolai Nekrasov, Alexander Griboyedov, Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin and others. Due to the large number of orders, the artist did not have much time left to paint “for the soul.” He did not have time to finish some of the work. Among them is “Portrait of Sofia Nikolaevna Kramskoy, the artist’s wife, and Sofia Ivanovna Kramskoy, the artist’s daughter.” The painting can be viewed in the main exhibition of the museum. I. N. Kramskoy.

Ivan Kramskoy “Portrait of the artist’s wife and daughter”, 1875

Kramskoy met his future wife in St. Petersburg, when he was already finishing his studies at the Academy of Arts. The girl got into trouble. She had an affair with a married artist, who shamefully fled abroad with his legal wife, leaving Sophia to fend for herself. Of course, society condemned her, but Kramskoy was so much in love with her that he did not care about the opinions of others. The artist married Sophia in 1862.

The marriage was happy, the wife supported the artist in everything. She gave her husband six children. Unfortunately, two of Kramskoy's sons died in childhood. The artist began painting the painting “Portrait of a Wife and Daughter” after their death in 1875. The painter did not have time to finish this work; only the figures were worked out, and the background was left unfinished.

“He mentions this portrait in his letters, saying that he just can’t finish it, there’s still no time,” says Olga Ryabchikova. – To some extent, the large flow of orders hindered the artist, although he had to support his family, he earned very good money, and was able to buy a dacha.

IN recent years During his life, Ivan Kramskoy was sick with a heart aneurysm. The artist died on April 5, 1887 while working on a portrait of Dr. Rauchfuss. Kramskoy's grave is located at the Tikhvin cemetery of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra.

7 interesting facts about Ivan Kramskoy

1. At the first exhibition of the Association of Itinerants, Ivan Kramskoy presented the painting “Mermaids” in 1871. It is written based on Nikolai Gogol’s story “May Night, or the Drowned Woman.” To work on the painting, Kramskoy went to the village of Khoten, Kharkov province. “Mermaids” was bought by Pavel Tretyakov.

Ivan Kramskoy “Mermaids”, 1871

2. Leo Tolstoy passed Ivan Kramskoy as the prototype of the artist Mikhailov, to whom Vronsky commissions a portrait of Anna in the fifth part of the novel Anna Karenina. The writer met the painter when Kramskoy arrived in the village of Kozlovka-Zaseka not far from Yasnaya Polyana to work on a portrait of Tolstoy. During the sessions they had conversations about art and life. The writer attracted the artist with his energy, intelligence and simplicity of appearance. “He looks like a genius,” Kramskoy said about him. The artist’s personality also impressed Lev Nikolaevich.

Ivan Kramsko “Portrait of Leo Tolstoy”, 1873

3. In the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow, the dome is decorated with the painting “Patronymic” by Ivan Kramskoy. The chief architect of the temple, Konstantin Ton, entrusted the painting to Professor Alexei Markov from the Academy of Arts. He was supposed to receive 75 thousand rubles for painting the dome. Markov took his student Evgraf Sorokin as his assistant. True, his version of the painting horrified Markov, then he offered to continue the work to another of his students, Ivan Kramskoy, paying him only ten thousand rubles. The volume of work was enormous, so Kramskoy invited two fellow artists to assist him. The painting turned out great. Unfortunately, on December 5, 1931, the Bolsheviks blew up the temple in order to build the Palace of the Soviets in its place. Kramskoy's original painting was destroyed. When the reconstruction of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior began in 1988, “Fatherland” was restored according to the artist’s sketches.

Painting "Fatherland"

4. About Kramskoy’s 1872 painting “Christ in the Desert,” Leo Tolstoy wrote: “This is the best Christ I know.” The artist worked on this work for more than five years. Kramskoy said: “This is my first thing that I worked on seriously, wrote with tears and blood... it was deeply suffered by me... it is the result of many years of searching...”. The canvas depicts Christ during a 40-day fast in the desert after his baptism. Kramskoy wanted to capture moral choice, inevitable in the life of every person. In the lonely figure sitting among the cold gray stones, one feels not only thoughtfulness and fatigue, but also a readiness to take the first step on the path to Calvary. Such a human image of Christ at that time could be perceived as blasphemy. At that time, Pavel Tretyakov bought “Christ in the Wilderness” for fabulous money - six thousand rubles.

Ivan Kramskoy “Christ in the Desert”, 1872

5. Perhaps one of Kramskoy’s most famous paintings is the portrait “Unknown”. The work was written in 1883. The painting depicts a young woman driving in an open carriage along Nevsky Prospekt. Who this person depicted in the portrait is, the artist left a mystery. Even in his letters and diaries there are no mentions. The beauty, looking down on the audience, is dressed in the latest fashion: a Francis hat with a feather, a coat trimmed with sable fur, a gold bracelet... All these things were not cheap. By the way, in secular society At that time, it was considered indecent to wear such fashionable outfits, and even to show them off, so appearance women hinted at her “easy” social position. Perhaps for this reason, Pavel Tretyakov, who was brought up in a family with strict views, did not buy the painting. The painter sold the painting to a small collector. “Unknown” wandered from one owner to another for a long time. And only in 1925 she ended up in the Tretyakov Gallery.

Ivan Kramskoy “Stranger”, 1883

6. For the painting “Christ in the Desert,” the Council of the Academy of Arts decided to award Kramskoy the title of professor. But the artist refused, wanting to remain independent from the Academy.

7. The artist’s daughter Sofya Kramskaya also became a painter. She worked in many genres, was a graphic artist, miniaturist, and watercolorist. Kramskoy, seeing talent in his daughter, worked with her a lot himself. Sophia married a lawyer of Finnish origin, Georgy Junker. She continued to paint and participated in exhibitions. The artist became so famous that in 1890-1900 she was invited to paint portraits of the royal family. For many years, Sophia and her brothers took care of the Ostrogozh Art Gallery and donated many of her works (however, during a fire in 1942, most of the collection was destroyed). In 1930, Sophia was arrested under an article for counter-revolutionary propaganda. She was sent into exile in Krasnoyarsk. In 1932, she was released for health reasons and returned home. A year later she died at the age of 66.

Sophia painted this portrait of her father shortly before his death

BY THE WAY
The house where the artist lived has been preserved in Ostrogozhsk

In Ostrogozhsk, the house (Marshak St., 14) where Ivan Kramskoy spent his childhood has been preserved. With whitewashed walls under a reed roof, it immediately stands out from other buildings. It preserves the layout of the rooms and restores everyday details. The museum presents materials dedicated to the Ostrogozh period of the artist’s life. He spent 16 years in his hometown. In the Ostrogozhsky Historical and Art Museum. I. N. Kramskoy (Kramskoy Boulevard, 4) you can see an exhibition about the artist’s St. Petersburg period. The exhibition includes graphic works, mostly by Kramskoy, his students and friends.

He did not have strong organizational skills. Thanks to Kramskoy, all art formations of the second century were created half of the 19th century century. Kramskoy was the main Itinerant and a great theorist in art.

The artist's parents were bourgeois. Kramskoy's father was a clerk of the city duma; he died when the boy was 12 years old. At the age of 12, Ivan Kramskoy graduated from the Ostrogozhsk School with certificates of merit in all subjects. Then, until the age of 16, in the Duma, where my father worked, he studied calligraphy. At the age of 15, he began studying with an Ostrogozh icon painter and studied for about a year. At the age of 16, Ivan leaves Ostrogozhsk with a Kharkov photographer, working as a retoucher and watercolorist. So he traveled around Russia for three years.

Since 1857 I.N. Kramskoy in St. Petersburg. Having no art education, he enters the Academy of Arts, having successfully passed the exams! The young man spends six years within the walls of the Academy, facing the difficulties of earning a living. To earn a living I.N. Kramskoy comes to Denyer, who opened his own “daguerreotype establishment”, where artists practiced photography. Kramskoy was known as the “god of retouching.”

In 1863, the young painter left the Academy with a loud scandal that made him famous. His nature was formed on the writings of the critic and novelist Chernyshevsky. I.N. Kramskoy led the famous “revolt of 14”. Fourteen graduates refused to write a competition paper on mythological history, wanting to choose free topic. So, having refused to fight for the Big Gold Medal, they slammed the door. They organized an “Artel of Artists”, with Kramskoy as its leader and inspirer. The Artel of Artists declared deductions in the amount of 10% of private cash receipts and 25% of earnings for “artel” works, but some artists hid their income. With the growth of popularity, “there appeared,” according to Kramskoy, “some thirst for the spirit, while others had complete contentment and obesity.” Because of this, in 1870 the artist left the artel, which soon disintegrated after his departure.

Married I.N. Kramskoy on Sofya Nikolaevna Prokhorova, who lived in civil marriage with another artist - a certain Popov. Popov was officially married to another woman. He soon leaves abroad, and the young woman is left alone. Saving her reputation, Kramskoy extended a helping hand to her, taking upon himself all the negative assessments of his chosen one’s behavior. The marriage was happy, the family had six children (the two youngest sons died in childhood). Sofya Nikolaevna has always been the artist’s guardian angel.

After Kramskoy left the artel, he was inspired new idea G. Myasoedov on the organization of a new “Moscow-St. Petersburg” artistic association. This association is known to us from the history of Russia under the name “Association of Traveling Art Exhibitions.” The goals of the Partnership, in accordance with the Charter, read: “The organization of traveling art exhibitions in all cities of the empire, in the following forms: 1) providing residents of the provinces with the opportunity to get acquainted with Russian art and follow its successes; 2) developing love for art in society; 3) making it easier for artists to sell their works.”

I.N. Kramskoy became close friends with the philanthropist P.M. Tretyakov, becoming his advisor and executor of a number of his orders. However, fulfilling orders often resembled “bondage.” In the early 1870s, Kramskoy met the talented landscape artist Fyodor Vasiliev; the friendship had a tragic end. The young painter burned out from consumption.

Despite the fact that Kramskoy had been abroad, he remained indifferent to the search for new painting, considering them “fleeting.” Kramskoy felt like a prophet sounding the alarm. From the first Itinerant Exhibition (1871) to the 16th, Kramskoy was one of its main exhibitors. Not only success accompanied Kramskoy, in recent years the Partnership has subjected Kramskoy to harsh criticism. “Almost everyone turned their backs on me... I feel insulted,” Kramskoy lamented at the end of his life.

In 1884, while living in a small French town, he treated his heart under the supervision of Russian doctors, and in his free time from treatment he gave drawing lessons to his daughter Sonya - in the future, at the turn of the century, a fairly popular artist. His life ended at work; he was then painting a portrait of Dr. K. Rauchfus.

Famous works of Kramskoy Ivan Nikolaevich

The painting “Mermaids” was painted by the artist in 1871 and is in the State Tretyakov Gallery, in Moscow. Kramskoy showed this picture at the first Peredvizhniki exhibition, which he himself organized. The painting is based on the plot of V. Gogol’s story “May Night”. Kramskoy said that he wanted to portray “something fantastic,” “to catch the moon.” The plot, compared to the literary source of inspiration, is freely executed. The painting depicts all the grace, immensity, silvery light of the Ukrainian night.

Painting “N.A. Nekrasov during the period of “The Last Songs” (1877-78), State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow. The portrait of Nekrasov, who became seriously ill in 1877, was commissioned by P. Tretyakov, who wanted the trace of the poet and writer to remain in the history of Russia. P. Tretyakov placed the portrait in his gallery. According to the original plan, Nekrasov was supposed to be shown wearing pillows. However, contemporaries argued that it was impossible to imagine a “great fighter” even in a robe. Thus, Kramskoy painted a bust-length portrait of Nekrasov with crossed arms. The portrait was completed in March 1877, but a few days later the artist began a new portrait, in accordance with the original plan, and completed it after the poet’s death in 1878. In the process of work, Kramskoy increased the size of the canvas, stitching it on all sides. He created the image of a “hero,” from which he removed Nekrasov’s beloved dog and his weapons cabinet, which were reminiscent of the poet’s hunting passion, from sight. Painting “N.A. Nekrasov in the period of “last songs”” combines the intimacy of the image and the monumentality of the image of a person with extraordinary spiritual power.

In the back of the room is a bust of the great critic Belinsky, who played a major role in the poet’s life, giving him his worldview. On the wall, portraits of Dobrolyubov and Mitskevich reveal Nekrasov’s beliefs. On the shelf near the deathbed of the hero of the canvas is the Sovremennik magazine, the editor of which was N.A. Nekrasov. The author falsely dated the painting – March 3, 1877. On this day, Nekrasov read the poem “Bayushki-Bai” to the artist, which the artist spoke of as “the greatest work.”

“Go to sleep, patient sufferer!
Free, proud and happy
You will see your homeland,
Bye-bye-bye-bye!”

Kramskoy painted the painting “Unknown” in 1883; the painting is located in the State Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow. Kramskoy in his works endows the heroines with an image of femininity. This picture received wide publicity at the 11th exhibition of the TPHV, and was almost accompanied by a scandal. Contemporaries didn’t like the title of the painting either; we know it as “The Stranger.” With extraordinary passion, the public solved the artist’s riddle! Ultimately, she was called a “demi-monde lady” (rich kept woman). V. Stasov wrote: “Cocotte in a stroller.” Stasov’s opinion was confirmed by a sketch for a painting with characteristic vulgarity that became famous. The Russian commitment to literary illusions made “The Unknown” first Natalya Filippovna from Dostoevsky’s “The Idiot,” then Anna Karenina, then Blok’s stranger, and then completely the embodiment of femininity. P. Tretyakov did not buy this work. And the painting appeared in the gallery during the nationalization of private collections in 1925.

Kramskoy was an excellent painter of light and air, and in this picture he brilliantly depicted a frosty pink haze, introducing a feeling of cold. The woman’s clothing corresponds to the fashion of 1883, the heroine is wearing a “Francis” hat with an ostrich feather, a “Skobelev” cut coat, and Swedish gloves. The background of the picture is Nevsky Prospekt in St. Petersburg. Despite their sketchiness, the buildings depicted by Kramskoy are quite recognizable. The heroine has a gypsy type of face, a somewhat contemptuous expression, a sensual look. What is the secret of beauty?

Painting “Inconsolable Grief” (1884), State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow. The heroine of the canvas is endowed with the features of the artist’s wife, Sofia Nikolaevna. In the painting, the Russian artist reflected a personal tragedy - the loss of his youngest son. For a long time, Kramskoy could not construct the composition of the painting, having painted three canvases. At the same time, the heroine herself grew old and seemed to “rise” to her feet: at first she sat by the hearse; then - on a chair; and finally, she stood near the coffin. The artist's work was long and painful. This is the only work from the 1880s purchased by P. Tretyakov. However, P. Tretyakov was not very interested in purchasing the painting because he was sure that it would not find a buyer.

There is dead silence in this work. All internal movement is concentrated in the heroine’s eyes, full of inescapable melancholy, and her hands pressing a handkerchief to her lips - these are the only bright spots in the composition, the rest seems to fade into shadow. On the wall is Aivazovsky’s painting “The Black Sea”. It brings human life closer to the life of the sea element, in which storms give way to calm. The red flower symbolizes fragile human life. The wreath placed on the coffin contrasts brightly with the mourning dress of the inconsolable mother.

Masterpiece of Kramskoy I.N. – painting “Christ in the Desert”

The artist’s work was completed in 1872 and can be seen in the State Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow. Kramskoy’s first fascinations with the theme of the temptation of Christ date back to the period of the artist’s life, when he studied at the Academy, in the 1860s. Then the first sketch of the composition was made. This painting was created over ten years. 1867 – the first unsuccessful version of the painting. The end result was distinguished by its stony, endless desert behind Christ. In order to find the right composition, the Russian artist went abroad in 1869 to look at the paintings of other artists who explored the same theme. For this painting, the Academy wanted to award Kramskoy the title of professor, which he refused. This painting was one of the favorite paintings of P. Tretyakov, who bought it without haggling for 6,000 rubles. Not many artists could risk painting the theme of the temptation of Christ. Among them we can name Duccio, Botticelli, Rubens, Blake. Realism allowed the artist to move away from the academic structure inherent in secular painting until the mid-19th century. So Christ was humanized, and the picture conveyed his soul in unison with modernity. Kramskoy rediscovered the theme of Christ, and V. Polenov, V. Vasnetsov, I. Repin, V. Vereshchagin followed in his footsteps.

The pink dawn is a symbol of new life, the emergence of Christianity. The subject of the picture is the life of the spirit reflected in the face of Christ. In Kramskoy’s portraiture, the emphasis is on the hero’s face, the mirror of the soul, which the artist achieved by painting clothes without detailing them and hiding them. The intensity of Christ's inner struggles is conveyed in His clenched hands. The landscape painted by Kramskoy is so deserted and wild that it seems as if no human has ever set foot here. He, immersed in heavy thoughts, does not notice this hostility. Christ's feet are marked with stones and oozing blood. In the viewer’s imagination, a long road appears that precedes the morning thoughts of the hero of the picture.

• Country house in France

• forest path

• In the park. Portrait of wife and daughter

• Mermaids

• N.A. Nekrasov during the period of “last songs”

The famous Wanderer, one of the main reformers in art of the 19th century century, the painter and portrait painter Ivan Nikolaevich Kramskoy could have remained in the history of Russian art by painting only a portrait of the “Unknown”. The painting - one of the diamonds of the Moscow Tretyakov Gallery - is known to everyone in the post-Soviet space. “The Unknown” is called the Russian Gioconda.

However, the artist gave the world hundreds of paintings that delight, amaze and beckon. Among them are “Moonlit Night”, “Mine of Moses”, “Mermaids”, “Christ in the Desert”. Having led the “revolt of the fourteen” in his early youth, creating the association of the Wanderers, a subtle art critic, Kramskoy became the ideologist of a whole generation of realist artists.

Childhood and youth

The artist was born in the summer of 1837 in the suburban settlement of Novaya Sotnya near Ostrogozhsk, in the Voronezh province. He was brought up in the family of a clerk and a tradesman.

The ultimate dream of the parents was for Vanya to grow up and become a clerk, but the plans were unwittingly disrupted by the neighboring self-taught artist Mikhail Tulinov. He opened the world of art to little Kramskoy and taught him to paint with watercolors. Since then, the boy, at every opportunity, grabbed a pencil and sketched the world around him.

At the age of 12, Ivan Kramskoy completed a course at the Ostrogozhsky School, receiving diplomas in all subjects. That same year, the teenager lost his father and went to work. He got a job in the City Duma, where his father had previously worked as a clerk. Kramskoy practiced calligraphy and was involved as a mediator in amicable land surveys. The desire to draw did not disappear, and the guy got a job as a retoucher for a photographer, with whom he traveled all over Russia.

An event that happened in 1853 changed the biography of Ivan Kramskoy. When he turned 16, a regiment of dragoons arrived in Ostrogozhsk, and with him Yakov Danilevsky, a photographer. The young artist entered the service of Danilevsky. The work of a retoucher brought Kramskoy 2 rubles. 50 kopecks per month, but most importantly, the talented photographer taught the young man a lot during the 3 years that Ivan worked for him. With him, the artist moved from the provincial provincial town to St. Petersburg.

In the northern capital, Ivan Kramskoy moved on to another photographer, Aleksandrovsky. At that time, the young retoucher’s skill had reached such heights that he was called the “god of retouching.” Even then, a talented portrait painter awoke in Kramskoy. Thanks to his assistant, Aleksandrovsky became a photographer imperial family and received the “Eagle”, and Ivan was invited to the famous photo studio of Andrei Denyer. The St. Petersburg elite lined up for Kramskoy's retouched photo.

In St. Petersburg, Ivan Kramskoy fulfilled a dream that he had cherished since childhood: he entered the Academy of Arts. The young man was assigned to the group of Professor Alexei Markov. In the very first years, the future painter became the leader of academic youth.

In 1863, the talented artist received the Small Silver and Small Gold medals. Kramskoy was only a little removed from the main award - the Big Gold Medal and a paid 6-year trip abroad: creative competition should have drawn a picture on the proposed topic.

However, to depict the plot from Scandinavian mythology 14 out of 15 applicants for the medal refused - there was growing interest in society in the realistic genre, in paintings that depicted everyday life. The rebels were led by Ivan Kramskoy. The students were denied their request to draw a different, non-mythical subject, and they left the final exam.

Painting

After graduating from the academy, Kramskoy organized and headed the Artel of Free Artists, which included graduates and like-minded people. Masters took orders for portraits and copies of famous paintings, and illustrated books.

Ivan Kramskoy impressed with his hard work: he painted portraits, looked for customers, distributed money, took on students. Became one of them. In the mid-1860s, the artist began painting the domes of the Moscow Cathedral of Christ the Savior: Kramskoy made sketches on cardboard during his student years.

In 1869, the painter went to Europe for the first time to get acquainted with the art of the West. The impressions the Russian master received after getting acquainted with the exhibits of art galleries in European capitals turned out to be contradictory. Unlike many compatriots western art did not excite him.

After returning home, the artist had a conflict with a colleague in the artel: having violated the rules of the “fourteen”, he accepted a paid foreign trip from the Academy of Arts. Kramskoy left the artel. Without him, the community quickly fell apart.

The painter founded a new creative association, calling it the Association of Traveling Art Exhibitions. Together with Kramskoy, the co-founders of the partnership were Grigory Myasoedov,. The Peredvizhniki artists opposed themselves to adherents of academicism and delivered traveling exhibitions to all cities of the empire, popularizing art and bringing it closer to the people.

At the exhibitions of the Itinerants, those who wished to purchase their favorite paintings. One of them, “May Night” by Kramskoy, was bought by a philanthropist and gallerist. The artist painted a mystical plot inspired by the story in Little Russia.

In 1872, Ivan Kramskoy made the final strokes on the canvas “Christ in the Desert,” which became his most famous work. Tretyakov immediately purchased the painting for 6 thousand rubles. The work created a sensation, and the painter’s alma mater almost awarded Kramskoy the title of professor, but he refused.

But Ivan Kramskoy gained greatest fame among his contemporaries as a portrait painter. His images, Sergei Botkin, according to the painter’s contemporaries, have a complete resemblance to the heroes and convey the characters, the inner light of nature.

The artist presented the canvas “Mina Moiseev” to the world in 1882. Fans of Kramskoy and art connoisseurs call the portrait of a peasant best work Russian painter. In fact, Mina Moiseev is a sketch, a sketch for the canvas “Peasant with a Bridle,” painted later. This work is a vivid example of Kramskoy the humanist, who loved and understood the Russian people.

In the 1880s, Ivan Kramskoy amazed and split society with his painting “Unknown.” The woman depicted does not belong to high society. She's dressed according to last word fashion of those years, which was considered indecent among noble ladies.

Critic Vladimir Stasov rendered a verdict on the painting, calling it “Cocotte in a Stroller.” Many contemporaries agreed that the portrait showed a rich kept woman. Tretyakov refused to buy the painting - it was purchased by industrialist Pavel Kharitonenko.

Kramskoy’s painting technique is a subtle completeness, a careful and detailed depiction of faces. The artist did not paint landscapes, but in the canvases “May Night” and “Moonlit Night” he brilliantly depicted moonlight.

Ivan Kramskoy is rightly called the ideological leader of the Peredvizhniki movement, the brightest representative of democratic art of the 19th century. The artist's portraits are surprisingly humane and spiritual.

Personal life

The young artist met his future wife, Sofia Prokhorova, while a student at the academy. He loved the girl so much that he ignored the trail of rumors trailing behind her. Sonya’s reputation was not impeccable: before meeting Kramskoy, Prokhorova lived in a civil marriage with a married artist, learning about his “unfree” status too late.

However, for Ivan Kramskoy, Sophia became a model of purity and fidelity. His wife shared with him years of hardship and lack of money; the artist consulted with her during his work and asked her to pray when he began a new canvas.

Sofya Kramskaya gave birth to her husband six children. Two of them - sons - died within 3 years of each other. The famous painting “Inconsolable Grief” depicts the painter’s wife. Ivan Kramskoy created the canvas for 4 years.

The artist’s favorite daughter, Sofya Kramskaya, followed in her father’s footsteps. In the 1930s, she fell under the skating rink of repression.

Death

In the last 5-6 years of his life, the artist’s presence was recognized by a strong dry cough: Kramskoy was diagnosed with angina pectoris (heart aneurysm). Morphine injections helped relieve the pain. The artist was treated by Sergei Botkin, who hid the name of the fatal illness from the patient. Ivan Kramskoy learned about it by chance, having read the symptoms in a medical encyclopedia, carelessly left by Botkin on the table.

Heart disease (aortic aneurysm) was the cause of the painter’s death. He died at work - painting a portrait of Dr. Karl Rauchfus. Kramskoy did not live 2 months before his 50th birthday.

He was buried at the Tikhvin Cemetery of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra.

Works

• 1880 – “Moonlit Night”
• 1882 – “Mina Moiseev”
• 1871 – “Mermaids”
• 1872 – “Christ in the Desert”
• 1873 – “Portrait of the artist I. I. Shishkin”
• 1873 – “Portrait of Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy”
• 1877 – “Portrait of Empress Maria Alexandrovna”
• 1878 – “D. I. Mendeleev"
• 1881 – “Portrait of a Lady”
• 1883 – “Unknown”
• 1884 – “Inconsolable Grief”
• 1886 – “Alexander III”
• 1883 – “Portrait of the son of Sergei”
• 1878 – “N. A. Nekrasov during the period of “The Last Songs”

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

Ivan Kramskoy

Brief 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 Ostrogozh district school, Kramskoy was a clerk in the Ostrogozh Duma. In 1853 he began retouching photographs. Kramskoy’s fellow countryman M.B. Tulinov taught him in several techniques “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 arrived in St. Petersburg, where he was engaged in retouching in the then famous photographic studio of Aleksandrovsky.

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

Riot of the 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 his painting “Moses Gushes Water from a Rock.” Before finishing his studies at the Academy, all that remained was to write a program for a big medal and receive a pension abroad. The Academy Council offered students a competition on a theme from the Scandinavian sagas “The Feast in Valhalla.” All fourteen graduates refused to develop this topic and petitioned to be allowed to each choose the topic as they wished. Subsequent events went down in the history of Russian art as the “Revolt of the Fourteen.” The Academy Council refused them, and Professor Tone noted: “If this had happened before, then all of you would have been 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 exempt them from participating in the competition.” Among these fourteen artists were: I. N. Kramskoy, B. B. Wenig, 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 done by Kramskoy together with the artists Wenig 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. Under the influence of the ideas of Russian democratic revolutionaries, Kramskoy defended an opinion consonant with them about the high social role of the artist, the fundamental principles of realism, the moral essence of art and its nationality.

Ivan Nikolaevich Kramskoy created a number of portraits of outstanding Russian writers, artists and public figures (such as: Lev Nikolaevich 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 famous works Kramskoy - “Christ in the Desert” (1872, Tretyakov Gallery).

A successor to 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 period of “The Last Songs,” 1877-1878; "Unknown", 1883; “Inconsolable Grief”, 1884 - all in the Tretyakov Gallery.

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

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

In recent years, Kramskoy was sick with a heart aneurysm. The artist died from an aortic aneurysm on March 24 (April 5), 1887, while working on a portrait of Dr. Rauchfuss, when he suddenly bent over and fell. Rauchfuss 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 there is a sculptural composition by Kramskoy and Unknown sculptor Alexandra Taratynova.

Family

• Sofya Nikolaevna Kramskaya (1840-1919, nee Prokhorova) - wife
  • Nikolai (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 - apartment building of A.I. Likhacheva - Sredny Avenue, 28;
• 1863-1866 - 17th line V.O., building 4, apartment 4;
• 1866-1869 - Admiralteysky Prospekt, 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