Thursday 4 April 2013

Ivan Kramskoy - part 1


1867 Self-Portrait ( detail ) 
oil on canvas 52.7 x 44 cm

Ivan Kramskoy (1837 – 1887) was a Russian painter and graphic artist. He was born in 1837 in Ostrogozhsk in south-western Russia. During his childhood Kramskoy independently studied drawing and later began working with watercolour. When he was 16 he worked as a colour-correction artist for a photographer. In 1856 he moved to St. Petersburg and continued to work with photographers. The following year he entered the Arts Academy. During his academy years he gathered the progressive youth around him. He was the head of the protest against painting the pieces ordered by the council.

Kramskoy himself began to mature as a portraitist. He often employed his favourite graphic technique, using sauce, bleach and Italian pencil. Using this method he drew portraits of other artists. His art technique corresponded well with the image of the intellectual democrat, a common character of his paintings such as "Self Portrait" 1869 (see above) and "Portrait of an Agronomist M.E. Vyunnikov 1868.



1868 Portrait of an agronomist M.E. Vyunnikov 
oil on canvas

In 1863-1868 Kramskoy taught at the Drawing School of the Artist Encouraging Society. By the end of the decade the St. Petersburg Team lost its unity and social status. Kramskoy left it and became one of the founders of the Peredvizhniki Society (The Comradeship of Moving Arts Exhibitions).

His prevailing success remained in portraiture. In the 1870s-80s he created some of his best works, including a series of portraits of prominent people of the tim such as Leo Tolstoy. During his lifetime Kramskoy also executed many commissions for church paintings and portraits to earn his living. He died in 1887.




Russian Stamp from 2012 celebrating 175th anniversary of Kramskoy's birth

Russian Stamp from 2012 celebrating 175th anniversary of Kramskoy's birth

This is part 1 of 2-part post on the works of Ivan Kramskoy:



1861 Prayer of Moses after the Israelites go through the Red Sea 
oil on canvas 142.6 x 105.7 cm

1866 Portrait of the Artist Nikolay Andreyevich Koshelev

1866-69 Sophia Kramskaya Reading 
oil on canvas 64 x 56 cm

1867 Portrait of a Woman

1867 Portrait of Princess Catherine Alekseevny Vasilchikova  
oil on paper

1868 The Portrait of a Peasant 
oil on canvas

1868 Portrait of artist and photographer Mikhail Borisovich Tulinova

1869 Portrait of A.P. Bogoliubov

c1870 Path in a Forest 
oil on canvas 46.7 x 67.3 cm

1871 Mermaids 
oil on canvas 88 x 132 cm

1871 Portrait of the Artist Fyodor Vasilyev 
oil on canvas 88.3 x 68.3 cm

1871 Portrait of ( poet and artist ) Taras Shevchenko 
oil on canvas 84 x 65 cm

1871 Somnambulant

1871 Portrait of the Artist Konstantin Savitsky 
 oil on cardboard 42 x 33 cm

1872 Beekeeper 
oil on canvas 63 x 49 cm

1872 Books Got Her 
oil on canvas

1872 Christ in the Wilderness 
oil on canvas 180 x 210 cm

1872 Portrait of the Artist Arkhip Kuindzhi 
oil on canvas 35.8 x 28.6 cm

1872 Old Man with a Crutch 
oil on canvas 76.5 x 57.5 cm

1873 Portrait of Leo Tolstoy 
oil on canvas 98 x 79.5 cm

1873 Portrait of ( the painter ) Ivan Shishkin 
oil on canvas 110.5 x 78 cm

1873 Girl with a Loose Braid 
oil on canvas 57.2 x 48.9 cm

1873 The Miller 
oil on canvas 73.5 x 58 cm

1874 Forester 
oil on canvas 84 x 62 cm

1874 Outraged Jewish Boy  
oil on canvas

1874 Portrait of Ivan Aleksandrovich Goncharov

1874 Self-Portrait 
oil on canvas

1875 Portrait of the Artist Mikhail Dyakonov 
oil on canvas

1875 Portrait of the poet Yakov Polonsky  
oil on canvas

1875 Portrait of Sofia Nikolaevna and Sophia Ivanovna Archaeology 
( Wife and Daughter of the Artist ) 
oil on canvas

1876 Portrait of Dmitry Vasilyevich Grigorovich  
oil on canvas 86 x 68 cm

1876 Portrait of Pavel Tretyakov 
oil on canvas 59 x 49 cm

1876 Portrait of Vera Nikolaevna Tretyakova 
oil on canvas 226 x 148 cm

1876 Portrait of sculptor Mark Matveevitch Antokolsky

1876 Village Yard in France 
watercolour 24 x 31.5 cm

1876 Portrait of Vera Nikolaevna Tretyakova 
oil on canvas 226 x 148 cm

1877 Portrait of the poet Nikolai Nekrasov 
oil on canvas 75 x 55 cm

1878 Portrait of Sergei Timofeevich Aksakov

1878 Nikolay Nekrasov in the period of his "Last Songs" 
oil on canvas 105 x 89 cm

1878 D. I. Mendeleev oil on canvas

1878 Portrait of the artist Alexander Dmitrievich Litovchenko
 

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