Ivan Kramskoi

Ivan Nikolaevich Kramskoi (Russian: Иван Николаевич Крамской, scientific transliteration Ivan Nikolaevich Kramskoj; * 27 Maijul / June 8 1837greg in Ostrogozhsk, .. .. † 24 Märzjul / April 5 1887greg in Saint Petersburg ) was a Russian painter, educator and art critic. He was the intellectual leader of the Democratic Russia movement art from the 1860s to 1880s.

Life

He came from an impoverished lower middle class family. In the period 1857-1863 he studied at the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts. He soon began to rebel against the academic art styles and find followers. He initiated the revolt of fourteen ( восстание четырнадцати ), who was the exclusion from the academy to the consequence for him.

Under the influence of the Russian revolutionary democrats, he stood up for the responsibility of the artist to its viewing public, for the principle of realism in art as well as for morale and for the art with reference Nationality. He was the founder and spiritual head of the movement of Peredvizhniki.

In the years 1863 to 1868, he joined perceive as an art teacher. In the following years he created a series of portraits with the images of the most important Russian writers, scientists, artists and people of the time history of this period. These were, inter alia, Leo Tolstoy, Ivan Ivanovich Shishkin and Pavel Mikhailovich Tretyakov. These paintings are now exhibited in the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow. One of his most famous portraits is the image of " the unknown".

In addition Kramskoi created paintings that also reflect beside his understanding of democracy and humanism his religion. His main work is the 1872 resulting painting Christ in the Desert ( Христос в пустыне ), which is also exhibited in the Tretyakov Gallery. Even in the aftermath admitted Kramskoi biblical themes a large space in his works.

His style of painting and his current critical opinions on the art of his time influenced many artists of Russia in the last third of the 19th century.