Just as in France where painting and sculpture were controlled and influenced by the Salon, in 19th century Russia, the equivalent was the Imperial Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg. And just as in France, where the Impressionists rebelled against the conservatism of the Salon, in Russia a group of artists who became known as the Peredvizhniki (Itinerants or Wanderers) rebelled against the Academy’s classical tendencies. Instead of the mythological theme proposed for the annual painting competition in 1863 (“The entrance of Odin into Valhalla”), the Peredvizhniki were far more interested in exploring themes of real life in Russia: the Russian peasantry, the Russian landscape, the Russian clergy. Thus, the Itinerants broke away, created their own group, and painted as they pleased.
A leading member of the Peredvizhniki was Ilya Repin (1844–1930), and here we look at his sublime masterpiece, the Volga Boatmen. Repin takes the physical labour and fatigue of the common man as his subject, and it’s hard to imagine a more physically demanding and oppressive labour than that carried out by burlaks, the men (and women) who hauled barges along the river Volga.
The eleven figures in the group have been called metaphors for Russia itself, and there is allegory aplenty for art scholars, but the piece is powerful enough on a straightforward reading: Life for the downtrodden is tough; and there is no hope…
…or is there? In the middle of the dark and beaten-down figures of the haulers, a young man has lifted his head and is staring off out of the picture. His is the only visage to be illuminated. The meaning is clear: he is raising his head in an act of defiance, a symbol of hope and the promise of a better future. With the benefit of hindsight it might even be seen as a foreshadowing of the Revolution that would free the proletariat nearly fifty years later.
For a little extra atmosphere, how about listening to this 1936 recording of Russian opera singer Feodor Chaliapin singing the dirgy folk song, Song of the Volga Boatmen?
