The Peredvizhniki Art Movement in late 19th century Russia

In her illustrated lecture Dr Alexandra Persheeva will provide us with an overview of the Peredvizhniki movement in late 19th century Russia, together with an insight into the outstanding quality of the paintings by artists of this movement and an appreciation of their legacy. Dr Persheeva will tell us how the Society for Itinerant Art Exhibitions, commonly known as the Peredvizhniki – meaning the "Itinerants" or "Wanderers" – was established in 1870. The movement believed in representing subject-matter drawn from everyday life, with an accuracy and empathy which reflected their egalitarian social and political views. Moreover, the Society for Itinerant Art Exhibitions proved an innovative business-model, which enabled the artists to benefit from both showing and selling their paintings in the emerging market, without the need for any mediation by the Academy (i.e. the Imperial Academy of Arts in St Petersburg).

The phenomenon of the Peredvizhniki, therefore, is interesting from both the artistic and economic point of view. They worked across several types of painting, from landscape painting and portraiture to genre and historical painting, and by the close of the 19th century had become the most famous art movement in Russia, supporting the emerging trend in Russian painting towards realism. In 1923 the group was disbanded, but its impact was felt across many subsequent styles of Russian art, from Impressionism and Neo-Primitivism to Socialist Realism.

In the course of her talk Dr Persheeva will show us paintings by some of the leading Peredvizhniki, for example, Ilya Repin and Vasily Surikov, along with works by some of the artists renowned for their portrait painting – such as Valentin Serov and Vasily Perov – or for their landscape painting – such as Ivan Kramskoi, Isaak Levitan, Ivan Shishkin, Arkhip Kuindzhi and Alexei Sarasov.

We are delighted that Dr Persheeva has agreed to talk to the Society again. Many members will recall the superbly illustrated overview of Soviet art she treated us to in April 2024.

Dr Alexandra Persheeva is an Associate Professor in the Art and Design School at the Higher School of Economics (HSE) in Moscow and is the academic supervisor of the Art and Design School’s bachelor of arts degree programme “Contemporary Art". She has a Ph.D in Art History, is a member of AICA (International Association of Art Critics)-Russia and is the author of popular online-courses dedicated to contemporary culture. She delivers lectures addressed both to HSE students and to the general public on art and the history of art. Dr Persheeva’s current research focuses on finding parallels in art history and watching the way visual structures recombine and evolve through the decades. Her research examines in particular the use of modern techniques to identify a wide range of unexpected connections between pieces of classical art and modernist and contemporary art projects.