XLIV peredvizhnaya vystavka kartin Tovarishchestva peredvizhnykh khudozhestvennykh vystavok 1916 (XLIV Itinerant Exhibition of Paintings by the Society for Itinerant Art Exhibitions 1916) [Exhibition Catalogue]

Very good condition; repaired corners of the cover, rebacked (repaired spine), slight creases across cover corners, bookstore markings on the back cover; internally first and last pages show very minor soilng, otherwise fine. 

Edition is printed on coated fine paper. Present catalog introduces 44th Traveling Exhibition on paintings arranged by The Society for Itinerant Art Exhibitions, less formally known as "Peredvizhniki". Full-paged reproductions are the major part of the catalog - altogether 52 illustrations. Also included full list of exhibited works - 313 paintings by 79 artists. In exhibition participated members of the society (Nikolay Bogdanov-Belsky, Vladimir Makovsky, Ilja Repin, Pavel Radimov, Pyotr Kelin, Vasilij Svarog etc), as well as other prominent artists of the time (Arnold Lakhovsky, Konstantin Gorbatov, Alexey Isupov, Stepan Kolesnikov, Nikolaos Himonas etc).

The Society for Itinerant Art Exhibitions was formed in 1870 by four prominent St. Petersburg artists: Ivan Kramskoy, Grigory Myasoyedov, Nikolay Ghe and Vasily Perov. Number of members rapidly increased. They saw themselves as bastions of democracy and avant-garde ideals, locked in battle against the more conservative official center of art - the St. Petersburg Academy of Art. They wanted art to be taken out into society and not hidden away in galleries, gained fame for their depiction of the Russian native land, organizing travelling exhibitions throughout the Russian countryside. From 1871 to 1923 the society arranged 48 mobile exhibitions in Moscow and St. Petersburg, after which they were shown in Kiev, Kharkov, Kazan, Orel, Riga, Odessa and other cities. The Peredvizhniki received a variety of support from other Russian artists, as well as the art critic Vladimir Stasov, who promoted their painting and artistic program. The art-collector Pavel Tretyakov bought many of their best works, which later formed the basis of the Tretyakov Gallery which opened in Moscow, in 1892. The Society’s profile grew steadily, culminating in the 1890s. However, at the turn of the 20th century, the society’s influence began to wane, and ceased to exist in 1923, Itinerants made a deep and wide-ranging impact on Russian painting - it never has achieved such heights as at the end of XIX century. In addition to Repin and Kramskoy, famous Itinerant painters included the portraitists Nikolai Gay (1831-94), Vasily Petrov (1834-82), and Nikolai Yaroshenko (1846-98); and the history painter Vasily Surikov (1848-1916). However, landscape and rural genre-paintings were the major part of the Itinerants' agenda. Landscape artists included: Feodor Vasilyev (1850–1873); Ivan Shishkin (1832-98); the luminous landscape painters Arkhip Kuindzhi (1842-1910) and Nikolai Dubovskoy (1859-1918); and the light/colour expert Isaac Levitan (1860-1900).