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Ivan Nikolaevich Kramskoi (1837 - 1887)
(lang-ru|Иван
Николае&
#1074;ич
Крамско&
#1081;) was a Russian painter and the art critic.
He was the intellectual leader of the Russian
democratic art movement 1860-1880. 

He was originally from a poor petty-bourgeois
family. From 1857 to 1863 he studied at the
St.Petersburg Academy of Arts; he reacted against
academic art, and he was an initiator of the
"revolt of fourteen" which ended with an expulsion
from the Academy of arts its graduates, who
organized Artel of Artists
("Артель
художни&
#1082;ов"). 

Under the influence of ideas of the Russian
revolutionary democrats Kramskoi asserted
representation about a high public duty of artist,
principles of realism, moral substance and a
nationality of art. He became one of the main
founders and ideologists of Company of Mobile Art
Exhibitions (or Peredvizhniki). In 1863-1868 he
taught at drawing school of a society of
encouragement of applied arts. He created gallery
of portraits of the largest Russian writers,
scientific, artists and public figures (portraits:
Leo Nikolayevitch Tolstoy, 1873, Ivan Shishkin,
1873, Pavel Mikhailovich Tretyakov, 1876, Mikhail
Saltykov-Shchedrin, 1879, - all in Tretyakov
Gallery;  portrait of Sergei Botkin|Botkin, 1880 -
private collection, Moscow) in which expressive
simplicity of a composition, clearness of figure
emphasize the leading part of the profound
psychological characteristic. Democratic sights of
Kramskoi found the brightest expression in
portraits of the peasants who reflected sincere
riches and internal advantage of the person from
people. Central Kramskoi’s painting is "The
Christ in desert” (1872, Tretyakov gallery).

Continuing Alexander Ivanov (painter)|Alexander
Ivanov's humanistic tradition, Kramskoi treated a
religious plot in moral – philosophical plan. He
gave the Christ dramatic experiences deeply
psychological vital interpretation, idea of heroic
self-sacrifice. Aspiring to expansion
ideological-art maintenances of images, Kramskoi
created art, worth on the verge of a portrait and
a thematic picture ("Nekrasov during the period of
"Last songs" ", 1877-1878|78, "Unknown person",
1883, "Inconsolable to mountain", 1884, - all in
Tretyakov gallery). They differ by interest to
disclosing complex sincere movements, characters
and destinies. 

A democratic orientation of Kramskoi’s art, his
acute critical judgments about the art, and
persevering searches of objective public criteria
of an estimation of art peculiar to it rendered
essential influence on development of democratic
art and art idea in Russia in the last third of 19
century.

Commons|