08.06.1837 – 05.04.1887

The future artist was born 180 years ago in the town of Ostrogozhsk, Voronezh province, in the family of a county official. Being still very young man, Ivan Kramskoy begins to work as a photo retoucher, moving from one provincial city to another. In 1856, he went to St. Petersburg, and a year later realizes his dream – goes to the Academy of Arts. His training was very successful, but the principles of classicism adopted at the Academy, did not meet the requirements of the new time. The thesis of NG Chernyshevsky “Aesthetic relation of art to reality” emphasized the special significance of art and inspired many young artists. In the autumn of 1863 the students of the Academy were offered a contest for the Great Gold Medal and the opportunity to get pensioners abroad. The theme was chosen from the Scandinavian sagas “Feast in Valhalla”. All fourteen students applied to be allowed to choose a topic on their own, and after being refused, everyone asked the council to release them from the competition and left the Academy. These events entered the history of Russian painting as “The Riot of Fourteen”. The break with the Academy was headed by Kramskoy. At the same time, they created the Artel of St. Petersburg Artists, which became the basis for the Association of Traveling Art Exhibitions, which arose in 1871. One of the main ideas of the new community was the democratization of art. In the first place, these are subjects of paintings that are understandable and close to their contemporaries. Secondly, the exhibitions were indeed mobile, and were transported from city to city, giving the inhabitants of the remote places a chance to touch the beautiful. So began the activities of this social organization, which for several decades united all the advanced artists of Russia.

Since the 70s of the XIX century, Ivan Nikolayevich Kramskoy was not only an outstanding draftsman, but also an unrivaled master of portrait. The main interest for him was the personality of the model itself. The heroes of Kramskoy’s paintings are devoid of everyday, superficial and everyday, the artist’s view penetrates the very essence of man, revealing his deep feelings. One of the best portraits of Leo Tolstoy belongs to Kramsky’s brush.

Among the paintings of Kramsko there are a number of poetic female images, such as “The Girl with a Broken Spit” or the famous “Unknown”, which was said to be the prototype of Anna Karenina.

The significance of the creative heritage of IN Kramsky is enormous, his deep interest in understanding the human essence, his subtle pictorial manner became a school for a whole generation of Russian artists.

*V.M. Vasnetsov. Kramskoy on sketches. 1876. © VOKhM im. I.N. Kramskoy.