This year is the 175th anniversary of the birth of the wonderful Russian artist Ilya Repin (1844 to 1930). To celebrate this the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow is staging a retrospective exhibition but sadly it will be over before I plan to be in Moscow later this year.
Repin’s paintings are amazingly varied. He produced wonderfully evocative portraits, paintings of historical scenes and also images of Russia as it appeared during his lifetime. He was one of the ‘Peredvizhniki’ (or ‘Itinerants’ or ‘Wanderers’), a group of artists who broke away from the constraints imposed by the Russian Academy of Arts in order to produce work that was more relevant and accessible to the people.
The picture above is called ‘Procession of the Cross, Kursk’ and it was painted in 1881/2. In addition to being a critical commentary on society at the time, it is also thought to be an environmental protest. The countryside through which the procession is wending its way is bare and arid, and it is thought that this is Repin’s protest against the environmental damage caused in the region by excessive cutting down of trees. The inhospitable landscape also perhaps says something about the spiritual state of many of the participants in the procession.
In my talk about Russian Roads I look at this picture in some detail, and also discuss the Peredvizhniki.