Apollinary Mikhaylovich Vasnetsov

Apollinary Mikhaylovich Vasnetsov (born July 25 [Aug. 6, New Style], 1856, village of Ryabovo, Vyatka province, Russia—died Jan. 23, 1933, Moscow, Russia, U.S.S.R.) was a Russian historical and landscape painter, graphic artist, and stage designer who was the younger brother of the artist Viktor Vasnetsov.

As the son of a priest, Vasnetsov followed family tradition and studied in a seminary. In 1872 he moved to St. Petersburg, where he attempted to enroll in the Academy of Arts. He was not accepted as a student there and instead studied art under his brother’s tutelage while also studying history and natural science. In 1875, drawn to the ideas of Russian populism, he took an examination to become a village teacher and went to teach in Orlov province.

Disappointed with his teaching experience, he moved permanently to Moscow in 1878, and there he wrote for several journals. From 1882 on, he collaborated with his brother on the design of a church in Abramtsevo at the estate near Moscow of Savva Mamontov, a financier and patron of the arts. In the 1880s and ’90s, Vasnetsov traveled extensively in Russia and also visited France, Italy, and Germany. During this period, landscape painting became his preferred genre. Pavel Tretyakov’s purchase for his gallery of Vasnetsov’s painting The Gray Day (1883) was a mark of Vasnetsov’s improving status and recognition. In 1899 Vasnetsov became a member of Peredvizhniki (“Wanderers”), a group that rebelled against the foreign-inspired classicism of the Russian Academy. Between 1880 and 1910 Vasnetsov painted superb landscapes in which he endeavoured to express the epic beauty of the Russian countryside. Beginning in 1903 and continuing for a period of 15 years, he worked during the summer months in Demyanovo, the estate of Vladimir Taneyev, brother of composer Sergey Taneyev. There Vasnetsov painted landscapes directly from nature (In the Churchyard, Demyanovo [1917], among others), which stood out for the free manner of painting and the sonority of brightly coloured contrasts.

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Vasnetsov was also widely known as a historical painter and was the creator of a special genre of historical domestic paintings. As a member of the Archaeological Society (from 1901), he managed to re-create in his paintings the look of Old Moscow, relying on his excellent knowledge of history, archaeology, old maps, and etchings. His paintings reflect the imagination with which he re-created the reality of the past. Like other artists caught in the neo-Russian trend, he was particularly drawn to the portrayal of life in Moscow during the 16th and 17th centuries, as can be seen in such paintings as Old Moscow, Street in Kitay-Gorod; Moscow in the Mid-Seventeenth Century: Moskvoretsky Bridge and the Vodyanye Gates; and Moscow in the Mid-Seventeenth Century: Dawn at the Voskresenskiye Gates, all painted in 1900. Despite his fixation on the past, Vasnetsov generally managed to avoid romanticizing it, showing the harshness of life in works such as Moscow Torture Chamber: The End of the Sixteenth Century (1912). The literary and narrative quality of these paintings was in stark contrast to the lyricism of his landscapes and added considerably to their appeal.

In 1900 Vasnetsov was accorded the title academician of art, and in 1903 he became a founding member of the Union of Russian Artists. He taught for many years in various art institutes and from 1918 to 1929 headed the Commission for the Research on Old Moscow. He also wrote works on archaeology, history, and art theory.