International studio (21.1903/1904(1904))

not only by the crowd, but by such men of culture
as Poushkin, Gogol and Sir " Walter Scott. The
tentative elfort towards truth and historical accuracy
displayed in Ivanov's long-neglected work, C47-A/
77^^7*777^ ^ seems far more admirable
from our present standpoint than the pompous
romanticism of Brulov. What Ivanov did to
vitalise the "grand art" in Russia, Fedotov effected
for ^M^-painting. Such matter-of-fact and simply
humorous pictures as
and <z ^7*7l& are the artistic counter-
parts of Gogol's earlier novels.
But the chief interest in Russian art can only be
said to begin with that wonderful renaissance of the
social and spiritual life which followed the accession
of Alexander II., and the great Act of Emancipa-
tion. The jester's cap and bells was the disguise
under which art and literature frequently escaped
the rigorous censorship of the üfties. But the
second generation of j<?777*f-painters belongs to an
entirely new time and 7*^7*777^. These men regarded
their art as a moral and educational force. Like the
writers of the day, they not only " went to the people "
for their inspiration, but they strove to make their
pictures a form of protest against existing abuses.
The greatest representative of this didactic school
was Perov, with his Hogarthian presentments of
every-day life. Near him we must place Savitsky
and Prianishnikov. The former, in his choice of
subject and treatment of an every-day crowd, recalls

our English artist, Frith. But he is far more
dramatic and emotional. The picture %7
I%37*, in the Alexander III. Museum at St. Peters-
burg, is considered his masterpiece. Less sensational
than Verestshagin's exposures of the horrors of war,
it is, nevertheless, a strong protest against the hard-
ships of conscription. Prianishnikov's A'7w<M'.sw73
77/" 7^? C7w.f, from the same gallery, deals with a
totally different phase of life in an equally realistic
spirit. The procession, with the holy and miracle-
working pictures, has just left the monastery across
the water. The entire population of the district,
rieh and poor alike, is assembled on the shore to
do honour to these Symbols of the orthodox faith
In the blinding sun old bareheaded men and
fashionably-dressed women will follow the
along the dusty road to the church. In the
foreground a shaggy 777777777'^ bends down to kiss the
sacred z'A?72. The picture is at once touching and
sad; for it shows the simple faith that makes life
possible to the bulk of the Russian people, and
also the blind Superstition which holds them back
from a nobler destiny. Among these realistic
pictures there is nothing more distinctive than
A77777777I 7?7VW72M?, by Dmitriev-Orenburgsky. It is
a life-like study of rural life. The pompous village
constable writing up his report on the back of a
patient 777777777H, gives a touch of inimitable humour
to this otherwise sombre scene.
But as the feverish, reconstructive, activity of the


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