Viktor Vasnetsov

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
In this name that follows Eastern Slavic naming customs, the patronymic is Mikhaylovich and the family name is Vasnetsov.

Viktor Vasnetsov
Виктор Васнецов
Vasnetsov in 1895
Born
Viktor Mikhaylovich Vasnetsov

15 May 1848[1]
Lopyal, Vyatka Governorate, Russian Empire[1]
Died23 July 1926(1926-07-23) (aged 78)[1]
Moscow, Russian SFSR[1], Soviet Union
EducationImperial Academy of Arts
Known forPainting
Notable work
  • A Knight at the Crossroads
  • Bogatyrs
MovementSymbolism; History painting, Peredvizhniki
RelativesApollinary (brother)
Patron(s)
Signature

Viktor Mikhaylovich Vasnetsov (Russian: Ви́ктор Миха́йлович Васнецо́в; 15 May (

Russian Revivalist
movement.

Biography

Childhood (1848–1858)

Viktor Vasnetsov was born in the remote village of Lopyal in

narodnik but as a friend".[3]

Vyatka (1858–1867)

From the age of ten, Viktor studied in a seminary in Vyatka, each summer moving with his family to a rich merchant village of Ryabovo. During his seminary years, he worked for a local icon shopkeeper. He also helped an exiled Polish artist, Michał Elwiro Andriolli, to execute frescoes for Vyatka's Alexander Nevsky cathedral.

Having graduated from the seminary, Viktor decided to move to Saint Petersburg to study art.[1] He auctioned his paintings of Woman Harvester and Milk-maid (both 1867) to raise the money required for the trip to the Russian capital.

Saint Petersburg (1867–1876)

Self-portrait, 1873

In August 1867 Viktor tried to enter the

Ilya Yefimovich Repin
.

Viktor, whose name would subsequently be associated with historical and mythological paintings, initially avoided these subjects at all costs. For his graphic composition of Christ and

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 Paris. While living in France, Viktor studied classical and contemporary paintings, academist and

Salon. It was in Paris that he became fascinated with fairy-tale subjects, starting to work on Ivan Tsarevich Riding a Grey Wolf and The Firebird. Vasnetsov was a model for Sadko in Repin's celebrated painting Sadko
. In 1877 he returned to Moscow.

Moscow (1877–1884)

In the late 1870s Vasnetsov concentrated on illustrating Russian fairy tales and the epic narrative poem Bylinas, executing some of his best known pieces: The Knight at the Crossroads (1878), Prince Igor's Battlefield (1878), Three princesses of the Underground Kingdom (completed 1884 ), The Flying 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

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 Abramtsevo estate of his patron Savva Mamontov
.

Kiev (1884–1889)

Portrait of Vasnetsov by Sergey Malyutin, 1915

In 1884–1889 Vasnetsov was commissioned to paint

Kiev. 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

The Snow Maiden.[1]

Later Years (1890–1926)

The following two decades were productive for Vasnetsov. 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, Sadko.

At the turn of the century, Vasnetsov elaborated his hallmark "fairy-tale" style of

Russian Revivalist architecture. His first acclaimed design was a church in Abramtsevo (1882),[1] executed jointly with Vasily Polenov. In 1894, he designed his own mansion in Moscow. The Russian pavilion of the World Fair in Paris followed in 1898. Finally, in 1904, Vasnetsov designed the best known of his "fairy-tale" buildings – the façade of the Tretyakov Gallery
.

Between 1906 and 1911, Vasnetsov worked on the design of the mosaics for

Czar Nicholas II
. In 1914, he designed a revenue stamp intended for voluntary collection for victims of World War I.

Even prior to the

Alexander Ivanov
) from churches to the Tretyakov Gallery.

In 1915, Vasnetsov participated in the designing of a military uniform for the Victory parade of the Russian army in Berlin and Constantinopole. Vasnetsov is credited with the creation of the budenovka (initially named bogatyrka), a military hat reproducing the style of Kievan Rus' cone-shaped helmets.[1]

Vasnetsov died in Moscow in 1926, he was 78.

Legacy

A minor planet,

Lyudmila Zhuravlyova in 1978, is named after Viktor Vasnetsov and Apollinary Vasnetsov.[7]

In the film

Queen Elizabeth I
.

Vasnetsov's grandson, Andrei, was People's Artist of the USSR.

Works

References

  1. ^ One of Vasnetsov's most famous paintings, depicts mythical Russian knights Dobrynya Nikitich, Ilya Muromets and Alyosha Popovich.
  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Viktor Mikhaylovich Vasnetsov. Encyclopaedia Britannica
  2. ^ "Васнецов, Виктор Михайлович" [Viktor Mikhaylovich Vasnetsov]. krugosvet.ru (in Russian). Retrieved 1 January 2011.
  3. ^ a b "Богатырь русской живописи". centre.smr.ru. Retrieved 1 January 2011.
  4. OCLC 1222809052.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link
    )
  5. OCLC 1222809052.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link
    )
  6. ^ Ярославцева, Нина Александровна (1987). Виктор Михайлович Васнецов: Письма. Дневники. Воспоминания. Суждения современников. Moskva: Iskusstvo. p. 475.
  7. ISBN 3-540-00238-3
    .
  8. ^ "Картина «Спящая царевна», Виктора Михайловича Васнецова". Музеи мира и картины известных художников. Retrieved 11 March 2024.
  9. ^ a b A Vasnetsov fresco, St. Vladimir's Cathedral in Kiev.

Bibliography

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Viktor Vasnetsov.
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