Russia and the arts: the age of Tolstoy and Tchaikovsky

Abstract

Russian portraiture enjoyed a golden age between the late 1860s and the First World War. While Tolstoy and Dostoevsky were publishing masterpieces such as Anna Karenina and The Brothers Karamazov and Mussorgsky, Tchaikovsky and Rimsky-Korsakov were taking Russian music to new heights, Russian art was developing a new self-confidence. The penetrating Realism of the 1870s and 1880s was later complemented by the brighter hues of Russian Impressionism and the bold, faceted forms of Symbolist painting.This book explores the history of Russian portraiture between 1872 and 1914 with reference to a variety of important works held by Moscow's State Tretyakov Gallery. This national collection was founded in 1856 by Pavel Tretyakov, who took a keen interest in portraiture and set out to create a pantheon of famous Russians by commissioning portraits of prominent thinkers, writers, scientists, artists, actors, composers and musicians by the most outstanding painters of the day.In providing a context, author Rosalind P. Blakesley looks in the first and second chapters at the portrait tradition in Russia: the rise of secular portrait painting following the founding of the Academy of Arts in St Petersburg in 1757; the shifting tastes of patrons and publics; the reception of portraits in exhibitions and collections (including those of the tsars); and the role of portraiture in the cultural politics of imperial Russia. -Exhibition: The National Portrait Gallery, London, UK (18.03-27.06.2016)