Bloomsbury Art and Commerce in Late Imperial Russia: The Peredvizhniki, a Partnership of Artists

This book is a seminal recalibration of major scholarly interpretations of the Peredvizhniki group, ranging from the most misleading ones made by Soviet researchers to Marxist and contemporary socioeconomic readings. A revisionist, comprehensive study, it examines for the first time the organizational structure, the modes of public self-representations, the visual output in original exhibition settings, and the critical reception of the group. Shabanov advances a more pragmatic story of the Peredvizhnikione of artists trying to prosper and secure professional freedom in authoritarian Tsarist Russia. Unprecedentedly rich in new primary visual and textual sources, the book also connects afresh the Russian and Western art worlds of the period. A must-read monograph for anyone interested in Russian art and culture, 19th-century European art, and also the history of art exhibitions, art movements, and the art market. Review "[Where] Shabanov has most succeeded is to demonstrate the diversity of works in the Peredvizhniki exhibitions. This diversity includes such aspects as the types of paintings exhibited as well as the social breadth of models represented in portraiture." -H-Shera "This groundbreaking work greatly advances our understanding of Russian realist painting, the professionalization of artists, and wider processes of cultural identity formation in the nineteenth century. In recovering the original ethos and agenda of the Peredvizhniki, Shabanov provides a vital revisionist account which uncovers the pragmatic and commercial nature of this well-known but long misunderstood artistic group." --Rosalind P. Blakesley, Professor of Russian and European Art, University of Cambridge, UK "In his masterful investigation Andrey Shabanov offers an alternative history of Russian Realist art. Confronting and undermining the stereotypes which have long afflicted studies of the peredvizhniki (owing in small degree to the highly tendentious social interpretations by Soviet scholars), Shabanov places artists such as Kramskoi, Perov, and Repin in the practical context of the "art market" of photographic reproduction, advertising, incorporation, and mass distribution. By providing new and often archival information on the pragmatic, promotional, and commercial aspects of the peredvizhniki, Shabanov furnishes us with a luminous and lucid account of one of Russia's primary artistic attainments." --John Bowlt, Professor Emeritus, Slavic Languages and Literatures, the USC Dana and David Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, USA About the Author Having received an MA in 2004 in art history from the European University at Saint Petersburg, Russia, in 2013, Andrey Shabanov completed PhD at the Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London. Currently, Andrey Shabanov is a Research Fellow and Lecturer in the Department of Art History at the European University at Saint Petersburg, where his teaching and research lies in Russian and Western institutional art history as well as the history of art exhibitions.