Grigoriy Masiodev was one of the founders of the Peredvizhniki, or the Association of Travelling Art Exhibitions. He is well known for his paintings showing the lives of peasants and important moments in Russian history. He was a realist painter, and he travelled all over Europe before returning to Russia and joining the Peredvizhniki, whom he supported and contributed to till the end of his life. His portraits are mainly in oil paint and are wonderful depictions of the peasant class and life in rural Russia.
Education
Grigory Grigorievich Myasoyedov was born on 9th April,1834 in the village of Pankovo, in the Tula province and belonged to an old noble family. He was the son of a small estate nobleman. His training as a future artist began in Orel Gymnasium, where he was taught by a professional artist I. A. Wolves. However, In 1853 he entered the Academy of Arts without completing his education. Myasoyedov’s decision to pursue art caused a difficult relationship between the artist and his father. His father completely cut off material assistance, and they only reconciled in 1857.
In 1861, for the canvas “Congratulations to the young newlyweds in the house of a Pomeschik”, Myasoyedov received a small gold medal. Myasoyedov graduated from the Academy of Imperial Arts with a focus on historical painting in 1862, having received a large gold medal for the composition “The Flight of Grigory Otrepyev from the Inn at the Lithuanian Border “. This granted him a pension to travel all over Europe. In 1863, he visited Italy, Germany, Belgium, Switzerland, and worked in Paris and Spain. He returned to Russia in 1870, where he was elected to the Academy. He would later join the “Revolt of the Fourteen” and the Peredvizhniki, or The Wanderers, with artists like Ivan Kramskoy and Nikolai Ge. He was an avid participant in the movement and continued to support it till his death in 1911.
Philosophy
As one of the leading figures of the Peredvizhniki, Grigoriy Myasoyedov was a good candidate for the role, as he was politically conscious and came from the gentry, thereby making him a man of good status in the social hierarchy. As a result, his main qualities were his administrative qualities and his open mind independent of any other’s view. He was acquainted with Mili Balakirev, who was known for opening a Free Music School in 1862, which was a rival to the Conservatory that mainly stuck onto state sanctioned laws. His trip to Western Europe made him understand the freedom that artists and art schools held in regard to professional autonomy. He decided he needed to help the subordinate position in which artists were kept by the Tsar or the Emperor’s administration, limiting them to state-sanctioned commissions and rigid themes.
He also adopted the stance, along with the rest of the Peredvizhniki, that Russian art had to be a depiction of the Russian contemporary idea of nation. This, along with his ideas of art being a part of moral as well as social responsibility and of art belonging to the people, led him to participate and be one of the founders of the Company of Itinerant Art Exhibitions: a group of the realist painters who were graduates of the academy who all held the same belief that art belonged to everyone and was not purely academic nor was it bound by its restrictions.
Signature Works
Myasoyedov is known for pioneering the Russian style of Historical paintings using realism. He also depicted the lives of Rural Russians. His first painting that got him a gold medal was “Congratulations to the young newlyweds in the house of a Pomeschik”. He also painted “The Flight of Grigory Otrepyev from the Inn at the Lithuanian Border ” which was his first historical painting that brought him recognition and a tour abroad to the capital cities of Western Europe. It was based on False Dimitry I, a man who claimed to be Dimitry of Uglich, a son of Ivan the Terrible.
The next popular painting of his was “The “Zemstvo” on Lunch Break”. The Zemstvo was a local form of government set up as a part of the emancipation reform of 1861 by Emperor Alexander II. There is also a painting titled “Reading of the 1861 Manifesto” that portrayed this reform from the view of the peasants and their reaction on receiving the news. “People burning themselves”, painted in 1884, this depicts a historical event in Russian history which was a mass immolation of Old Believers in Russia in the 17th century in an event known as ‘The Great Schism of the Russian Church’. Entire villages of people burned themselves to death in defiance of the reforms brought to the Russian Orthodox sect of Christianity to deem old practices as heresy. He has many other works such as “Harvest Time (The Scythers)”, “A Wharf in Yalta”, and “The Reaper”, many on display in the Tretyakov Gallery.
Themes
The Peredvizhniki favoured a few common themes visible throughout their paintings. This, with regard to Mayasoyedov, mostly included landscapes, Peasants, Emotionality and Typicalness, and Portraits. Landscapes such as “A Wharf in Yalta” were a favourite of the members of the Peredvizhniki. They romanticized the countryside and loved to depict its beauty; however, critics and supporters of the movement urged them to keep painting more important subjects to immortalize the idea of Russia. The main subjects of Myasoyedov’s work were the peasants, whom he held were recognizable and had strong characteristics. His painting “The Zemstvo on Lunch Break” shows the divide between the peasants who are shown eating lunch outside at an institution made for their upliftment while the gentry eats within. This also shows how he managed to add emotion and typical features into his painting to make the peasantry and their position in society a recognizable one. He was criticized for his sensationalization of the peasantry as the Peredvizhniki were deemed to depict them with unrealistic morality and romanticization.
Portraits were yet another theme that the Wanderers were known for. After Adrian Prakhov, an art critic, reviewed the fourth Peredvizhniki exhibition, he said he left without any grand emotions and that they should draw more from Russian history. As a result, they began focusing on portraits of elders, famous Russian aristocrats and peasants in order to show their grand Russian history. An example of this is Grigoriy Myasoyedov’s portrait piece “Grandfather of the Russian Navy”.