Kramskoy was born on May 27, 1837 in the city of Ostrogozhsk, Voronezh province, into a poor bourgeois family. His attraction to art did not meet with the support of his relatives, and he was forced to paint on his own. Having acted as a retoucher for the wandering photographer Danilevsky, he traveled with him to many provincial cities and finally ended up in St. Petersburg. There he met young artists who advised him to seriously engage in painting, and at their insistence in 1857 he entered the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts.
The inertia that reigned there evoked protests from the progressive democratic youth. Kramskoy led the young artistic forces in the struggle for realism in art against classicism abstracted from life. Several people left the academy in protest. The performance of the artists marked new era in the development of Russian art. "It's time to think about creating a Russian school national art", - said Kramskoy.
In the early 70s, the Association of Traveling Art Exhibitions arose. It brought together leading Russian artists - V. G. Perov, V. E. Makovsky, A. K. Savrasov, I. I. Shishkin. A. I. Kuindzhi and others. Later it included I. E. Repin and V. I. Surikov. The soul and leader of this organization was Kramskoy.
Painting "Mermaids". Ivan Kramskoy
For the first traveling exhibition In 1871, Kramskoy presented the painting "Mermaids" based on the plot of N.V. Gogol's story "May Night". In this picture, the artist wanted to convey the magical charm of moonlight. Mermaids move smoothly by the overgrown pond. The bluish-green moonlight makes everything around mysterious and enigmatic...
Painting "Moonlight night". Ivan Kramskoy
Kramskoy returned to the image of moonlight in 1880. They paint a romantic, deeply poetic picture " Moonlight night».
Mighty poplars lined up along the alley. Lush bushes are showered with white flowers. White water lilies were found in the pond. Everything is illuminated by fabulous moonlight. On a bench in a white robe sits a woman full of charm, quiet lyrical sadness and mystery.
Painting "Christ in the Desert". Artist: Kramskoy
The painting "Christ in the Wilderness" (1872) appeared at the next exhibition. Kramskoy portrays him ordinary person. For a long time he wandered in silence. Worn out, tired, he sat down to rest on a stone in the Palestinian desert. Hands clenched convulsively, head bowed. Traces of deep feelings are visible on his face. Christ for Kramskoy is the embodiment of a person's conscience and duty. The artist was characterized by an unusually acute consciousness of his civic duty, awareness of the need for self-sacrifice in the name of a common cause.
Ivan Kramskoy: painting "Inconsolable grief"
Among the works of Kramskoy there are a number of magnificent portraits of women. They showed the artist's ability to express the emotional states of a person. The painting "Inconsolable grief" (1884) was painted after his death little son artist. Kramskoy conveyed the mother's immeasurable grief - her personal grief, which no one can share with her.
A woman in a dull black dress, leaning her hand on a chair, looks away with an absent look. She is shocked. Crying eyes, a wrinkle cut through his forehead, a gray strand of hair. She brought the handkerchief to her mouth, as if holding back her sobs ... The most precious creature left life, and everything around remained the same: this carpet, and curtains, and paintings, and albums on the table ... The coffin is not visible. Only in the armchair are boxes with wreaths and white light cloth, and on the floor are pots with blooming tulips. The gray winter light fills the room... emotional drama mother.
Ivan Kramskoy. Description of the artwork «Unknown»
Sitting in the carriage, leaning back against the back upholstered in dark yellow leather, is a graceful young woman. She turned slightly towards the sidewalk, feeling admiring glances. In her eyes is the arrogance and pride of a woman who is aware of her charm. The big shining eyes are cold and impassive. Her figure stands out against the background of a light haze of frosty winter air and the pinkish Anichkov Palace. Strict architecture, as it were, complements the image of this beautiful, majestic woman. A velvet coat, fur, purple satin ribbons, a white ostrich feather, thin leather gloves, tightly fitting hands, emphasize the gracefulness of the figure.
This is a portrait of "Unknown" Ivan Nikolaevich Kramskoy. Although this picture is not typical for the artist's work, but at the mere mention of his name, the image of this captivating woman comes to mind.
Kramskoy: portrait of Tolstoy
Kramskoy created a number of portraits of Russian writers - Saltykov-Shchedrin, Nekrasov, L. Tolstoy, Grigorovich. The artist depicts people immersed in deep thought.
Tolstoy's pose is simple and natural. The writer's eyes are riveting, demanding, attentive. Tolstoy appears as a man of will, clear and energetic mind in the portrait of Kramskoy.
Portraits of peasants
The artist's democratic views were reflected in a series of peasant images - "Peasant" (1871), "Beekeeper" (1872), "Woodsman" (1874), "Mina Moiseev" (1883) and others. These are bright types, each in its own way characteristic and expressive.
Kramskoy died on March 25, 1887 while working on another portrait. The paintings and portraits created by the artist are on a par with the best creations of his contemporaries.
T. Shakhova, magazine "Family and School", 1962, facts of the biography of the artist Ivan Nikolaevich Kramskoy, paintings, descriptions of paintings, material for essays.
Kramskoy Ivan Nikolaevich (1837-1887)
Ivan Nikolaevich Kramskoy (1837 - 1887), Russian artist, critic and art theorist. Born in Ostrogozhsk (Voronezh province) May 27, 1837 in a poor bourgeois family.
From childhood he was fond of art and literature. He was self-taught in drawing since childhood, then, on the advice of a drawing lover, he began to work in watercolor. At the end county school(1850) served as a scribe, then as a retoucher for a photographer, with whom he wandered around Russia.
In 1857 he ended up in St. Petersburg, worked in the photo studio of A. I. Denier. In the autumn of the same year he entered the Academy of Arts, was a student of A. T. Markov. For the painting “Moses exudes water from a rock” (1863) he received a Malaya gold medal.
During the years of teaching, he rallied around himself the advanced academic youth. He led the protest of the graduates of the Academy (“rebellion of fourteen”), who refused to paint pictures (“programs”) based on the mythological plot set by the Council. The young artists petitioned the council of the academy to be allowed to choose a theme for each painting for a large gold medal. The Academy reacted unfavorably to the proposed innovation. One of the professors of the academy, the architect Ton, even described the attempt of young artists in this way: “in the past, you would have been given to the soldiers for this,” as a result of which 14 young artists, headed by Kramskoy, refused to write in 1863 on the topic set by the academy - “ Feast in Valhalla” and left the academy.
The artists who left the Academy united in the St. Petersburg artel. The atmosphere of mutual assistance, cooperation and deep spiritual interests that reigned here is largely due to Kramskoy. In his articles and extensive correspondence (with, V. V. Stasov, A. S. Suvorin and others) he defended the idea of “tendentious” art, not only reflecting, but also morally transforming the inert, false world.
At this time, the vocation of Kramskoy as a portrait painter was also completely determined. Then he most often resorted to his beloved graphic technique using white, Italian pencil, he also worked using the so-called “wet sauce” method, which made it possible to imitate a photograph. Kramskoy had a painting technique - a subtle finish, which some sometimes considered superfluous or excessive. Nevertheless, Kramskoy wrote quickly and confidently: in a few hours the portrait acquired a similarity: in this respect, the portrait of Dr. Rauchfuss, Kramskoy's last dying work, is remarkable. This portrait was painted in one morning, but remained unfinished, since Kramskoy died while working on this picture.
The portraits created at this time were mostly commissioned, made for the sake of earning money. Portraits of artists (1868), (1869), (1861), (1861), N. A. Koshelev (1866) are well known. The nature of Kramskoy's pictorial portrait is meticulous in drawing and light and shade modeling, but restrained in color. The artistic language corresponded to the image of a raznochint-democrat, who was a frequent hero of the master's portraits. These are the "Self-portrait" of the artist (1867) and "Portrait of the agronomist Vyunnikov" (1868). In 1863-1868 Kramskoy taught at the Drawing School of the Society for the Encouragement of Artists.
However, over time, Artel began to gradually deviate in its activities from the high moral principles declared at its inception, and Kramskoy left it, carried away by a new idea - the creation of a partnership of traveling art exhibitions. He took part in the development of the charter of the "Partnership" and immediately became not only one of the most active and authoritative members of the board, but also the ideologist of the Partnership, defending and substantiating the main positions. From other leaders of the Association, he was favorably distinguished by his independence of outlook, a rare breadth of views, sensitivity to everything new in the artistic process and intolerance to any dogmatism.
At the first exhibition of the Association, “Portrait of F. A. Vasiliev” and “Portrait of M. M. Antokolsky” were exhibited. A year later, the picture “Christ in the Desert” was shown, the idea of which was nurtured for several years. According to Kramskoy, “for the former artists, too, the Bible, the Gospel and mythology served only as a pretext for expressing completely contemporary passions and thoughts.” He himself, like and, in the image of Christ expressed the ideal of a person full of high spiritual thoughts, preparing himself for self-sacrifice. The artist managed to speak convincingly here about a problem that is very important for the Russian intelligentsia. moral choice, which confronts everyone who understands their responsibility for the fate of the world, and this rather modest painting went down in the history of Russian art.
The artist repeatedly returned to the theme of Christ. The work on the originally conceived large painting “Laughter (“Hail, King of the Jews”)” (1877 - 1882), depicting the mockery of the crowd over Jesus Christ, ended in defeat. The artist selflessly worked on it for ten or twelve hours a day, but never finished, he soberly assessed his impotence. Collecting material for her, Kramskoy visited Italy (1876). He traveled to Europe in subsequent years.
Kramskoy's legacy is very unequal. The ideas of his paintings were significant and original, but their implementation ran into the limitations of his abilities as an artist, which he himself was well aware of and tried to overcome with persistent work, but not always successfully.
In general, Kramskoy was very demanding of artists, which earned him a lot of ill-wishers, but at the same time he was strict with himself and strove for self-improvement. His remarks and opinions about art were not subjective, they were, as a rule, conclusive, as far as it is generally possible in matters of aesthetics. Its main requirement is content and nationality. works of art, their poetry; but he assigned not the last place to painting itself. You can be convinced of this by reading his correspondence published by A. Suvorin under the editorship of V. V. Stasov “Ivan Nikolaevich Kramskoy, his life, correspondence and art-critical articles” (St. Petersburg, 1888). Sometimes his opinions remained vacillating for a long time until he found a compromise. Kramskoy was not well educated, but he always regretted it and constantly tried to make up for this shortcoming.
In a small composition “Inspection of the old manor house” (1873 - 1880), Kramskoy found an unusual solution in terms of laconicism, successfully overcoming the stereotypes common in genre painting that time. An outstanding work was his “Unknown” (1883), which still attracts viewers with its unsolvedness (and art historians with the mysteriousness of the circumstances of working on it). But the painting “Inconsolable grief” (1884), which he carried out in several versions, did not become a serious phenomenon, trying to convey strong feeling with the most discreet means. An attempt to embody a fantastic world in the painting "Mermaids" (1871) ended in failure.
Kramskoy managed to achieve the greatest success in portraiture. He captured many figures of Russian culture: L. N. Tolstoy (1873), I. I. Shishkin (1873), I. A. Goncharov (1874), Ya. P. Polonsky (1875), P. P. Tretyakov, D V. Grigorovich, M. M. Antokolsky (all 1876), N. A. Nekrasov (1877-1878), M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin (1879) and others; some of these portraits were painted specifically by order of P. P. Tretyakov for his art gallery.
Images of Russian peasants became a major art phenomenon: “Woodsman” (1874), “Contemplator” (1876), “Mina Moiseev” (1882), “Peasant with a bridle” (1883). Over time, Kramskoy as a portrait painter became very popular, he had many customers, up to members of the imperial family. This allowed him to last years life to exist comfortably. Not all of these good portraits were equally interesting. Yet it was in the 1880s. he rose to a new level - he achieved a deeper psychologism, which sometimes made it possible to expose the innermost essence of a person. So he showed himself in the portraits of I. I. Shishkin (1880), V. G. Perov (1881), A. S. Suvorin (1881), S. S. Botkin (1882), S. I. Kramskoy, the artist’s daughter (1882), V. S. Solovyov (1885). An intense life undermined the health of the artist, who did not live to be fifty years old.
Kramskoy is an outstanding figure in cultural life Russia 1860 - 1880s. The organizer of the Petersburg Art Artel, one of the founders of the Wanderers Association, a subtle art critic, passionately interested in the fate of Russian art, he was the ideologist of a whole generation of realist artists.
The main direction of his work is portrait and historical painting.
He was born on May 27 in the Voronezh province. Kramskoy's father was a clerk in the local duma. ABOUTIvan received his education at the Ostroh School, which he graduated at the age of twelve.
The school was finished with a commendable list, he studied well. In the year he received his first education, the young man lost his father. Ivan had to earn extra money in the same Duma where his father worked, served as a clerk in the Duma.
At the age of 15, Kramskoy was a student of the Ostroh icon painter, from whom he took over the skill for a year. He also worked as a retoucher for a photographer, originally from Kharkov, and made a living wandering around, photographing various events.
The Kharkiv resident introduced Kramskoy to his work. Ivan began to travel with the photographer around the country for three years. During this time he improved his skills in retouching.
In 1857, fate threw Kramskoy to the capital of the Empire. In St. Petersburg, he worked in a photo studio and soon entered. In 1863, Kramskoy received a small gold medal from the Academy of Arts for the painting "Moses exudes water from a rock."
It is worth noting that Ivan Nikolaevich was endowed with a certain charisma, he was a leader by nature. During the years of study at the Academy, he managed to establish himself well and gain great authority in the team of its students.
In order to graduate from the Academy of Arts and receive a large gold medal, which promised a pensioner's trip to Europe, he had to write a series of works.
The Council of the Academy offered 14 graduates, among whom was Ivan Nikolaevich, the topic of painting - scenes from Scandinavian mythology. All 14 students refused to write a paper on this topic, as they considered it to be very abstract from real life.
The artists made a proposal to the council that each of them choose the theme of the work. The council refused. The artists, in turn, asked for advice on their exclusion from the competition. This event went down in the history of Russian culture as the "Riot of the Fourteen".
14 rebels formed the "Petersburg artel of artists", which was formed on the initiative of Ivan Nikolaevich. The year 1870 was marked by the creation of the "Association of Traveling Art Exhibitions", Kramskoy should be considered the ideological inspirer and founder of this organization.
There are many good ones in the artist's biography, which are known to everyone today. Kramskoy is a significant figure in Russian history, who had a great influence on the development art in Russia. In fact, he was the educator of the next generation of Russian realist artists.
Ivan Nikolaevich Kramskoy died on March 24, 1887, right at work - he was painting a portrait of Dr. Raukhfus and suddenly fell. The doctor tried to help, but still was powerless.
Picturesque study for the painting "Unknown", which is kept in Prague, in a private collection (1883).
This is perhaps the most famous work Kramskoy, the most intriguing, which remains misunderstood and unsolved to this day. Calling his painting "Unknown", the clever Kramskoy fixed an aura of mystery forever behind it. Contemporaries were literally at a loss. Her image caused anxiety and anxiety, a vague premonition of a depressing and dubious new - the appearance of a type of woman who did not fit into the old system of values. “It is not known who this lady is, decent or corrupt, but a whole era sits in her,” some stated. Stasov loudly called Kramskoy's heroine "cocotte in a carriage." Tretyakov also confessed to Stasov that he liked Kramskoy's "former works" more than the last ones. There were critics who connected this image with Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina, who descended from the height of her social position, with Fyodor Dostoevsky's Nastasya Filippovna, who rose above the position of a fallen woman, and the names of the ladies of light and demi-light were also called. By the beginning of the 20th century, the scandalousness of the image was gradually covered by the romantic-mysterious aura of Blok's "The Stranger". IN Soviet time"Unknown" Kramskoy became the embodiment of aristocracy and secular sophistication, almost like the Russian Sistine Madonna - the ideal of unearthly beauty and spirituality.
In a private collection in Prague, a picturesque study for the painting is kept, convincing that Kramskoy was looking for ambiguity artistic image. The etude is much simpler and sharper, the said and more definite than the picture. It shows the audacity and imperiousness of a woman, a feeling of emptiness and satiety, which are absent in the final version. In the painting "Unknown" Kramskoy is captivated by the sensual, almost teasing beauty of his heroine, her delicate dark skin, her velvet eyelashes, and a slightly haughty squint. brown eyes, her majestic posture. Like a queen, she rises above the foggy white cold city, driving in an open carriage along the Anichkov Bridge. Her outfit is a Francis hat trimmed with elegant light feathers, Swedish gloves made of the finest leather, a Skobelev coat decorated with sable fur and blue satin ribbons, a clutch, a gold bracelet - all these are fashionable details. women's costume 1880s, claiming expensive elegance. However, this did not mean belonging to high society; rather, on the contrary, a code of unwritten rules ruled out strict adherence to fashion in the highest circles of Russian society.
The refined sensual beauty, majesty and grace of the "Unknown", a certain alienation and arrogance cannot hide the feeling of insecurity in the face of the world to which she belongs and on which she depends. With his painting, Kramskoy raises the question of the fate of beauty in imperfect reality.
Ivan Nikolaevich Kramskoy, an artist of the second half of the 19th century, entered the history of Russian painting as the founder of the realistic trend in art. He actively developed the principle critical realism in his work, as well as in articles on the theory of art. Many of his paintings are recognized as classics. Russian painting. The author was a master of portraiture, historical and genre scenes.
short biography
Kramskoy, an artist famous for his realistic paintings, was born in 1837 into a bourgeois family. He graduated from the Ostrogorzhsk real school, but due to the poverty of his family, he could not continue his education at the gymnasium. While working in the local Duma, he became interested in photo retouching. Soon M. Tulinov became his teacher, who taught him the basics of painting. A few years later, Kramskoy, the artist best known for his portraits, moved to St. Petersburg, where his fruitful career began. creative career, which lasted until his sudden death in 1887.
Studying at the academy
In 1857, he became a student of Academician A. Markov, who specialized in historical painting. During his studies, he received several medals both for his own paintings and for copies of paintings by other painters on religious themes. The future famous painter received his small gold medal for a painting dedicated to a biblical story.
To receive the title of an artist with the right to receive a state pension, one had to submit to the competition a work dedicated to a scene from the Scandinavian sagas. However, Kramskoy, an artist who aspired to realistic image events and freedom of creativity, together with other thirteen students, appealed to the administration of the academy with a request to remove them from the competition, justifying their desire by the fact that they want to write on topics that they themselves prefer. After that, the young painters founded their own artistic artel, which, however, did not last long, since its members very soon decided to switch to state support.
Association of Traveling Art Exhibitions
which is already in early period his work became a landmark event in the cultural life of the empire, became one of the organizers and ideological inspirers of this organization. Its members defended the principles of realism in art, the active social and civil position of artists. In his work, the author defended the principles of realism. He believed that the pictures should not only be believable, but also carry a moral and educational semantic load. Therefore, his works are imbued with a special drama.
In the 1870s, the author creates a number of remarkable portraits of his famous contemporaries: he paints images of Tolstoy, Nekrasov, Shishkin, Tretyakov and others. In this series, a special place is occupied by the portrait of the artist Kramskoy, created by himself in 1867. This canvas is distinguished by a high degree of realism, like the rest of his works of this period.
Portrait of N. Nekrasov
Such is, for example, notable work artist "Nekrasov during the "Last Songs"" 1877-1878. In this picture, the artist set out to show the famous poet at work in last period his life. In general, the theme of a person’s emotional experiences, his struggle with death or some kind of shock played a big role in the artist’s work. In the works of the master, this theme did not have a social connotation, as in the works of other painters. He always showed the struggle of the spirit with the disease and was most able to convey this idea in this picture.
Women's portraits
Perhaps the most famous work of the master is the painting "The Stranger". The artist Kramskoy focused on the beauty of his model. He emphasized that she was an urban fashionista, and therefore prescribed her with special care. appearance: a rich fur coat, a flirty headdress, magnificent jewelry and fabrics.
It is significant that the background on this canvas plays a secondary role: it is presented in a haze, as the author concentrates all his attention on an elegant young woman. The artist Ivan Kramskoy was especially fond of painting portraits. The paintings of the author differ in different moods.
If the woman in the above picture is depicted in a proud, confident pose, then the model on the canvas “Girl with a Loose Braid”, on the contrary, is shown in a difficult, even painful moment, when she seemed to have renounced everything around her and was completely immersed in herself. Therefore, her face, in contrast to the appearance of a stranger, expresses deep concentrated thoughtfulness, sadness and light sadness.
"Inconsolable grief"
This picture was painted in 1884 under the impression of the personal grief of the artist, who lost his son. Therefore, in the image of a woman depicted in a mourning dress, the features of the author's wife are guessed.
This canvas differs from other works of the author by the hopelessness with which it is imbued. In the center of the canvas is a middle-aged woman in a black dress. She stands next to the box full of flowers. Her grief is expressed not in a pose, which is quite natural and even free, but in her eyes and the movement of her hand, with which she presses a handkerchief to her mouth. This canvas is perhaps one of the most powerful in the work of the artist and Russian painting in general.