Olga's Gallery


Victor Vasnetsov

(1848-1926)

Victor Vasnetsov at Artprice. To look at auction records, find Vasnetsov's works in upcoming auctions, check price levels and indexes for his works, read his biography and view his signature, access the Artprice database.

            Son of a village clergyman, Victor Mikhailovich Vasnetsov prepared himself for the same career, but the passionate love for art brought the 19-year-old student of ecclesiastical seminary to St. Petersburg's Academy of Arts. During his years  (1868-75) in the Academy Vasnetsov got a thorough professional training; an especially big role in his education was played by professorPavel Tchistyakov.
            Victor Vasnetsov started as a scene painter; the influence of Fedotov and Perov in his early works is evident Moving House (1876), At a Bookseller's (1876), News from the Front (1878), A Game of Preference (1879). In the late 1870s early 1880s, Vasnetsov tried himself in historical genre Battle of Slavs and Scythians (1881), After Prince Igor's Battle with the Polovtsy (1880). He borrowed the subjects from ancient history. He found another source of subjects in Russian mythology – legends, ballads, fairy-tales. Vasnetsov was born and grew up in a northern Russian village and almost to the age of 20 lived in an environment where the ‘folklore outlook’ was still alive; his very soul was steeped in the poetry of Russian epic literature. He wasn't only the first artist to use subjects from folklore, but also the first to borrow methods and techniques from national folk art.  Thus he became the founder of new style in Russian painting.
            Vasnetsov was an active member of the Abramtsevo circle (Abramtsevo is the estate of the well-known patron of arts Savva Mamontov), which sought to revive national traditions. Many undertakings by the Abramtsevo Colony, whether the construction of a church at Abramtsevo, where Vasnetsov, as the designer, first coped with the problem of creating a whole, integral ensemble, or the erection of the ‘Witch’s Hut” (also to his design), or the sets and costumes for the production of Alexander Ostrovsky’s lyrical fairy-tale The Snow Maiden and for Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s opera of the same name, staged at Mamontov’s private Opera in 1885, were to become milestones not only for Vasnetsov but also for the Russian art in whole.
            In 1882, Vasnetsov received a commission to produce a decorative panel for the rotunda of the Historical Museum in Moscow, which was his first big monumental project. Yet the most significant and time-consuming work of this type was the decoration of the Cathedral of St. Vladimir in Kiev, which Vasnetsov began in the autumn of 1885 at the invitation of the art historian Adrian Prakhov, who supervised the construction of the cathedral. Vasnetsov jumped at this offer as it gave him the opportunity to create an integral ensemble comparable to those done by ancient fresco-painters. Work on the decoration of the cathedral took over 10 years, during which Vasnetsov executed nearly 400 sketches and studies. The murals he painted with his assistants covered almost two thousand square meters. Fulfilling this assignment Vasnetsov relied on his favorite range of motifs and characters, painting the walls with the images of princes Vladimir, Alexander Nevsky, Andrey Bogoliubsky, Princess Olga, the chronicler Nestor, and other outstanding figures from Russian history.
            In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Vasnetsov actively worked in different fields. He produced a number of architectural designs, including those for his own house in Moscow (1894), for a pavilion at the World Fair in Paris (1898), and for E. Tsvetkov’s house on the Moskva River (1901-03), as well as designs for decoration of the Great Kremlin Palace (1898), the Faceted Chamber (1901-03), and other buildings in the Kremlin. In 1904, he designed the façade of the Tretyakov Gallery.
            During the last 20 years of his life Vasnetsov turned to his favorite lyrical subjects inspired by Russian fairy-tales. These include Three Bogatyrs (1898), The Frog Tsarevna (1918), The Tale of the Sleeping Beauty (1900-26), and the Unsmiling Tsarevna (1916-26). Thanks to his enchantment with Russian epos and history, thanks to his search for a genuinely Russian pictorial idiom, Vasnetsov was able, of the eve of the 20th century, to inspire many artists to reaffirm the moral and aesthetic ideals of the people, to revive Russian’s spiritual legacy.
            His painting influenced greatly the development of modernism and symbolism in Russian painting and poetry.

Notes

A Knight at Crossroads. In many Russian folk-tales there is such an episode when a traveling vityaz (knight) at the crossroads meets a rock with a not-very-much-inspiring choice:
If you go to the right – you'll loose your horse;
If you go to the left – you'll loose your life;
If you go forwards – you'll loose both…
Or a variation of these three.
See: Victor Vasnetsov. A Knight at the Crossroads. A Knight at the Crossroads.

After Prince Igor’s Battle with the Polovtsy. The subject is from Russian history, a military campaign of Prince Igor Svyatoslavovich, Prince of Seversk, against the Russia's southern neighbors,  the Polovtsy. The small military campaign, there were many of such between Russia and its south neighbors, remained immortalized thanks to the poem by an unknown bayan (poet). The poem, which survived till our days and is considered to be the oldest literary work in Russian, criticized the quarrels among the Russian princes and their military adventures, which brought only grief to the Russian people.
The theme was the subject of the opera by Alexander Borodin Prince Igor.
See: Victor Vasnetsov. After Prince Igor's Battle with the Polovtsy.

St. Vladimir, Prince Vladimir Svyatoslavovich (960-1015), the Grand Duke of Kiev (980-1015), the youngest son of Grand Duke Svyatoslav, the grandson of Grand Duchess Olga. He came to power after several successful plots against his elder brothers. In 988, he asked for the hand of the Byzantine Princess Anna. Byzantine rulers, wishing to have him as an ally, agreed, but their condition was that Vladimir was to accept Christianity. He was baptized himself and adopted Christianity as the official religion of Russia.
See: Victor Vasnetsov. Baptism of Prince Vladimir.

Princess Olga ( ?- 969), the Grandt Duchess of Kiev (945-969), she was the wife of Grand Duke Igor, son of Ruric. Igor was killed by a group of rebelling subjects, when his son Svyatoslav was small, and strong-minded Olga began to rule by herself. First she avenged her husband’s killers: she came to their town with troops but did not attack the town, just asked the citizens to pay her tribute: a dove and a sparrow from every house. The happy residents hurried to bring her the demanded tribute. After that Olga’s soldiers tied hemp to birds’ feet and set it on fire. The birds returned to their homes in the eaves and set the town on fire. Olga consolidated the state, subordinated Novgorod. When her son could rule the state himself she went to Constantinople, where she was baptized, her godfather was the Byzantine Emperor. Olga tried to persuade her son Svyatoslav to accept Christianity, but in vain. She succeeded at last with her grandson Vladimir, who adapted Christianity in 988 A.D.
See: Victor Vasnetsov. Princess Olga.

Prince Andrey Bogolyubsky (1111-1174), Grand Duke of Vladimir (1169-1174), son of Yuri Dolgoruky. When he became the Grand Duke he transferred the capital of Russia from Kiev to Vladimir.
See: Victor Vasnetsov. Prince Andrei Bogoliubsky.

Tatyana Anatolyevna Mamontova (1864-1920), daughter of Anatoliy Ivanovich Mamontov, publisher, owner of the publishing house and a bookstore in Moscow, niece of Savva Ivanovich Mamontov.
See: Ilya Repin. Portrait of T. A. Mamontova.
Victor Vasnetsov. Portrait of Tatyana Mamontova.

The Bard Bayan, a poet in old Russia, who presented his verses in the form of songs, ballads, accompanying himself on a dulcimer.
See: Victor Vasnetsov. The Bard Bayan.

Ivan Tsarevich Riding the Grey Wolf is a Russian folk-tale about the adventures of the prince Ivan Tsarevich and his companion the Grey Wolf, a magician. Tsarevich saved the Wolf’s cubs and the Wolf helped him in several quests: to get golden apples, to get a horse with a golden mane, and to get a beautiful princess.
See: Victor Vasnetsov. Ivan Tsarevich Riding the Grey Wolf.

The Frog Tsarevna is a Russian folk-tale. Three sons of the tzar, wishing to find wives shoot arrows in different directions: the first son’s arrow fell in the yard of a nobleman, he married the nobleman’s daughter; the second son’s arrow fell on a merchant’s yard, he married the merchant’s daughter; the third son’s arrow flew away to the swamps and was picked up by a frog. Of course it was an enchanted princess. After many dangerous adventures and a series of quests the youngest prince managed to change her into a girl again.
See: Victor Vasnetsov. The Frog Tsarevna.

Three Bogatyrs, or three knights, are the heroes of many legends: Ilya Muromets, Dobrynya Nikitich and Aliosha Popovich. Each of the character has his own set of legends. Though every hero had his own adventures, every one defended his land, the poor, and fought the enemies of Russia; and they were all adored by the people. Here the painter depicted them all together, guarding the Russian borders.
See: Victor Vasnetsov. Three Bogatyrs.

Unsmiling Tsarevna is a Russian folk-tale about the sad heiress of a tzar, who promised to give the throne to the person who could make the tsarevna laugh.
See: Victor Vasnetsov. The Unsmiling Tsarevna.

Alionushka is a Russian folktale about a sister and a brother, Alionushka and Ivanushka. Their father remarried and the stepmother appeared to be a witch, who wanted to get rid of the children by various means.
See: Victor Vasnetsov. Alionushka.

The Magic Carpet, on which one could fly, is an element of many Russian folk-tales, probably borrowed from oriental tales.
See: Victor Vasnetsov. The Magic Carpet.

Vera Savvishna Mamontova (1875-1907), daughter of Savva I. Mamontov, later married to Samarin.
See: Valentin Serov. Girl with Peaches. Portrait of Vera Mamontova.
Victor Vasnetsov. Portrait of Vera Mamontova.

Mark Antokolsky (1843-1902) is an outstanding Russian sculptor of Jewish origin, studied in the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts (1862-68). Because of poor health lived mostly in Italy, visiting Russia from time to time. Executed commissions for Russian cities, e.g. Monuments to Peter I in Archangelsk and in Taganrog.
See also Ivan Kramskoy. Portrait of the Sculptor Mark Antokolsky.
Victor Vasnetsov. Portrait of the Sculptor Mark Antokolsky.

Chronicler Nestor (the second half of XI – the first half of the XII centuries) was a monk of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra (Abbey), author and chronicler. He described the life and martyrdom of the first Russian saints Boris and Gleb, and Feodosiy Pechersky. He is considered to be the author of the first known Russian chronicles.
See: Victor Vasnetsov. The Chronicler Nestor.

Painter Alipiy (? – 1114) executed the mosaics of the Uspensky Cathedral in Kiev-Pechersk Lavra (Abbey).
See: Victor Vasnetsov. The Painter Alipiy.

Bibliography:
Victor Vasnetsov by A. Lazuko. Russian Painters. Leningrad. 1990.
The Art and Architecture of Russia (Pelican History Art) by George Heard Hamilton. Yale Univ Pr, 1992.
A Dictionary of Russian and Soviet Artists 1420-1970 by John Milner. Antique Collectors' Club, 1993.

Back to Vasnetsov's Page

Home      Artist Index     Country Index