Russian Visual Arts Project

Pseudonyms: A.Z.; A.Z.L.; Led.; Khud. A.Z. Led.; Khud. A.Z. Led-ov, etc.
[Source: Bespalova N.I., Vereshchagina, A.G., Russkaia progressivnaia khudozhestvennaia kritika vtoroi poloviny xix veka. Moscow: Izobrazitel'noe iskusstvo, 1979.]

Maikov, Apollon Nikolaevich (1821-1897)

Son of the artist N.A. Maikov, chiefly known as a poet, although he was himself an artist in his youth. With the poets Iakov Petrovich Polonskii and Afanasii Afanas'evich Fet Maikov advanced the principle of 'art for art's sake', and adhered to the doctrine of neo-classicist aesthetics.

Makovksii, Sergei Konstantinovich (1877-1962)

Art critic, publisher and poet. Son of Konstantin Egorovich Makovskii, who was an Academician and a member of the Association of Travelling Art Exhibitions. In the late 1890s Sergei Makovskii became acquainted with Aleksandr Benua and other members of the World of Art group, whose aestheticism and the interest in European art Makovskii shared. His first article devoted to the works of Viktor Vasnetsov in Vladimirskii Cathedral in Kiev was published in 1898 in the journal God's World (Mir Bozhii). In 1906, 1909 and 1913 Makovskii published three volumes of his Pages of Art Criticism (Stranitsy khudozhestvennoi kritiki). In 1907 he was one of the founders of the journal The Bygone Years (Starye Gody) devoted to the study of Russian art of the eighteenth and nineteenth century. The journal Apollon, which was edited, sponsored and published by Makovskii between 1909 and 1917, continued the tradition of The World of Art and the symbolist journals of the previous decade. Having emigrated from Russia, Makovskii concluded his analysis of Russian art of the second half of the nineteenth and early twentieth century in the book Silhouettes of Russian Artists published in Prague in 1922. His pamphlet entitled The Last Results of Painting (Poslednie itogi zhivopisi), published in Berlin in 1922, harshly criticised modernism and 'extremism' in contemporary Russian art.

Pseudonym: Essem.

Matushinskii, Apollon Mikhailovich (1828-85)

Art critic, published in the conservative journal The Russian Messenger (Russkii vestnik) and moderately liberal newspaper The Voice (Golos). His main interest was the history of Western European art. He was elected an honorary free member by the Academy of Arts.

Pseudonym: Em.
[Source: Bespalova N.I., Vereshchagina, A.G., Russkaia progressivnaia khudozhestvennaia kritika vtoroi poloviny xix veka. Moscow: Izobrazitel'noe iskusstvo, 1979.]

Mikeshin, Mikhail Osipovich (1836-96)

Artist and the designer of the monument to the Thousand Years of Russia in Novgorod. From 1876 Mikeshin was editor and subsequently publisher of the journal The Bee (Pchela) devoted to the visual arts. He wrote recollections about T.G. Shevchenko published in Kobzar' in 1876.

Pseudonyms: Misha M., etc.
[Source: Bespalova N.I., Vereshchagina, A.G., Russkaia progressivnaia khudozhestvennaia kritika vtoroi poloviny xix veka. Moscow: Izobrazitel'noe iskusstvo, 1979.]

Mikhailovskii, Nikolai Konstantinovich (1842-1904)

Sociologist and publicist, one of the theoreticians of the populist movement, editor of the journals Notes of the Fatherland (Otechestvennye zapiski) and The Russian Wealth (Russkoe bogatstvo). Mikhailovskii reviewed the exhibitions of the Itinerants of 1890, 1891 and 1898, he also wrote the article entitled 'In Memory of N.A. Iaroshenko' ('Pamiati Iaroshenko') published in The Russian Wealth, 1898.

[Source: Bespalova N.I., Vereshchagina, A.G., Russkaia progressivnaia khudozhestvennaia kritika vtoroi poloviny xix veka. Moscow: Izobrazitel'noe iskusstvo, 1979.]

Mikheev, Vasilii Mikhailovich (1859-1908)

Born in Siberia, Mikheev began his literary career during the 1870s in the newspaper The Eastern Review (Vostochnoe obozrenie). In 1891 he published a series of stories under the title The Artists. From 1889 until 1895 Mikheev was the main contributor of art criticism to the journal Artist.

Pseudonyms: A., Angarin, V.M., M.K.Ia-snovidets, etc.
[Source: Bespalova N.I., Vereshchagina, A.G., Russkaia progressivnaia khudozhestvennaia kritika vtoroi poloviny xix veka. Moscow: Izobrazitel'noe iskusstvo, 1979.]

Mikhnevich, Vladimir Osipovich (1841-99)

Journalist, art critic and musical critic. Mikhnevich contributed to the newspapers The Voice (Golos), News and Stock-Exchange Newspaper (Novosti i birzhevaia gazeta), etc. in which he reviewed the Academy and the Itinerants' exhibitions and commended the development of realist art.

Pseudonyms: Kolomenskii Kandid, Vl.-Mch., V.O.M., etc.
[Source: Bespalova N.I., Vereshchagina, A.G., Russkaia progressivnaia khudozhestvennaia kritika vtoroi poloviny xix veka. Moscow: Izobrazitel'noe iskusstvo, 1979.]

Minaev, Dmitrii Dmitrievich (1835-89)

Poet, translator, journalist, art critic. Minaev contributed to the radical journals of the 1860s and 1870s, such as The Spark (Iskra), Hooter (Gudok), Russian Word (Russkoe slovo), Notes of the Fatherland (Otechestvennye zapiski) and Delo. Towards the end of his career Minaev disassociated himself from radical views on art and literature.

Pseudonyms: Oblichitel'nyi poet, Temnyi chelovek, etc.
[Source: Bespalova N.I., Vereshchagina, A.G., Russkaia progressivnaia khudozhestvennaia kritika vtoroi poloviny xix veka. Moscow: Izobrazitel'noe iskusstvo, 1979.]

Murashko, Nikolai Ivanovich (1844-1909)

Artist. Murashko studied at the Academy of Arts from 1863 until 1867, where he met Il'ia Repin and Mikhail Antokol'skii. In 1875 Murashko founded in Kiev a School of Drawing which was instrumental in disseminating realist art in the Ukraine. During the 1880s he regularly contributed articles on art to a provincial newspaper The Dawn (Zaria).

Pseudonym: Staryi uchitel'.
[Source: Bespalova N.I., Vereshchagina, A.G., Russkaia progressivnaia khudozhestvennaia kritika vtoroi poloviny xix veka. Moscow: Izobrazitel'noe iskusstvo, 1979.]

Petersen, Vladimir Karlovich (1842-1906)

Military engineer, journalist, frequent contributor to The New Time (Novoe vremia).

Pseudonyms: A-t, N. Ladozhskii, etc.
[Source: Bespalova N.I., Vereshchagina, A.G., Russkaia progressivnaia khudozhestvennaia kritika vtoroi poloviny xix veka. Moscow: Izobrazitel'noe iskusstvo, 1979.]

Petrov, Petr Nikolaevich (1827-91)

Writer, art historian and art critic. At the end of the 1850s he studied in the Academy of Arts and in 1864-1866 he published a comprehensive Collection of Documents on the History of the Academy of Arts for the Centenary of its Existence. (Sbornik materialov po istorii Akademii khudozhestv za 100 let ee sushchestvovania). Petrov edited the art section of the journal The Arts (Iskusstva) in 1860 and published more than one thousand articles on the art of the eighteenth and nineteenth century in Northern Lights (Severnoe siianie), Library for Reading (Biblioteka dlia chteniia), The Stock-Exchange Gazette (Birzhevye vedomosti), The World Illustration (Vsemirnaia Illustratsiia), Russian Antiquity (Russkaia starina) and The Herald of the Fine Arts (Vestnik iziashchnykh iskusstv).

Pseudonyms: P.N., P.P. etc.
[Source: Bespalova N.I., Vereshchagina, A.G., Russkaia progressivnaia khudozhestvennaia kritika vtoroi poloviny xix veka. Moscow: Izobrazitel'noe iskusstvo, 1979.]

Polevoi, Petr Nikolaevich (1839-1902)

Writer, historian of literature, art critic. In 1882-88 he was editor and publisher of the weekly illustrated journal Pictorial Review (Zhivopisnoe obozrenie), in which he published articles supportive of realist art.

Pseudonyms: Malen'kii khudozhnik, Pepo, etc.
[Source: Bespalova N.I., Vereshchagina, A.G., Russkaia progressivnaia khudozhestvennaia kritika vtoroi poloviny xix veka. Moscow: Izobrazitel'noe iskusstvo, 1979.]

Ramazanov, Nikolai Aleksandrovich (1818-67)

Sculptor, art historian and art critic. Taught at the Moscow School of Painting and Sculpture from 1847, where he was appointed professor of sculpture. In 1863 Ramazanov published in Moscow the first volume of Materials for the History of Arts in Russia (Materialy po istorii khudozhestv v Rossii). He contributed articles on art to the Moscow based periodical Contemporary Chronicle (Sovremennaia letopis') published by M.N. Katkov.

Pseudonym: Khudozhnik.
[Source: Bespalova N.I., Vereshchagina, A.G., Russkaia progressivnaia khudozhestvennaia kritika vtoroi poloviny xix veka. Moscow: Izobrazitel'noe iskusstvo, 1979.]

Remezov, Mitrofan Nilovich (1835-1901)

Fiction writer, journalist, member of the editorial board of the journal Russian Thought (Russkaia mysl'), in which he wrote reviews of contemporary art from 1885. His writings focused on visual arts and theatre.

Pseudonyms: An., M.N.P., M. Aniutin, etc.
[Source: Bespalova N.I., Vereshchagina, A.G., Russkaia progressivnaia khudozhestvennaia kritika vtoroi poloviny xix veka. Moscow: Izobrazitel'noe iskusstvo, 1979.]

Repin, Il'ia Efimovich (1844-1930)

Renowned artist associated with the Itinerant movement, author of numerous articles on art.

Saltykov-Shchedrin, Mikhail Evgrafirovich (1826-1889)

Satirist, radical journalist and critic, associated with the journals Sovremennik and Otechestvennye zapiski.

Sementkovskii, Rostislav Ivanovich (1846-1918)

Conservative publicist and critic. He contributed to The Messenger of Europe (Vestnik Evropy), The Messenger of History (Istoricheskii vestnik), The Spectator (Nabliudatel'), etc.

[Source: Bespalova N.I., Vereshchagina, A.G., Russkaia progressivnaia khudozhestvennaia kritika vtoroi poloviny xix veka. Moscow: Izobrazitel'noe iskusstvo, 1979.]

Sobko, Nikolai Petrovich (1851-1906)

Art historian, editor of the journal Art and Applied Art (Iskusstvo i khudozhestvennaia promyshlennost') published from 1898 until 1902. He compiled A Dictionary of Russian Artists from Ancient Times until the Present (Slovar' russkikh khudozhnikov s drevneishikh vremen do nashikh dnei) published between 1893 and 1899. Together with Mikhail Botkin he published an illustrated catalogue of the art department of the All-Russian exhibition in Moscow in 1882. Sobko compiled a series of illustrated catalogues of the Itinerant art exhibitions. From 1884 until 1900 he was the secretary of St Petersburg Society for the Encouragement of the Arts.

[Source: Bespalova N.I., Vereshchagina, A.G., Russkaia progressivnaia khudozhestvennaia kritika vtoroi poloviny xix veka. Moscow: Izobrazitel'noe iskusstvo, 1979.]

Solov'ev, Mikhail Petrovich (1842-1901)

A state official. From 1896 until 1900 Solov'ev was a member and the chief of the Council of the Main Directorate of the Press Affairs. He was known as a dilettante artist and one of the conservative art critics. Solov'ev published in Moscow Gazette (Moskovskie vedomosti) and The Russian Review (Russkoe obozrenie).

[Source: Bespalova N.I., Vereshchagina, A.G., Russkaia progressivnaia khudozhestvennaia kritika vtoroi poloviny xix veka. Moscow: Izobrazitel'noe iskusstvo, 1979.]

Somov, Andrei Ivanovich (1830-1909)

Honorary free member of the Academy of Arts. During the period 1883-90 Somov edited the journal The Herald of Fine Arts (Vestnik iziashchnykh iskusstv) and the newspaper Art News (Khudozhestvennye novosti) in which he published reviews of the exhibitions of the Academy and the Itinerants. He published The Hermitage. A Catalogue of the Picture Gallery and A Catalogue of Original Works of Russian Painting and articles on Karl Briullov (1876) and Pavel Fedotov (1878).

Pseudonym: A.S., etc.
[Source: Bespalova N.I., Vereshchagina, A.G., Russkaia progressivnaia khudozhestvennaia kritika vtoroi poloviny xix veka. Moscow: Izobrazitel'noe iskusstvo, 1979.]

Suvorin, Aleksei Sergeevich (1834-1912)

Fiction writer, dramatist, journalist, publisher, art critic. During the 1860s Suvorin contributed to liberal periodicals. In 1876 he bought the newspaper The New Time (Novoe vremia), which became one of the most reactionary periodicals in Russia since the end of the 1870s. Suvorin's friendship with Stasov turned into open animosity in the late 1870s and the 1880s when The New Time attacked the war paintings by Vasilii Vereshchagin. However, Suvorin maintained the friendship of Ivan Kramskoi who advised Suvorin about writing of art criticism. Despite its reactionary views, The New Time and its art critics, such as Viktor Burenin, had significant influence on public opinion well into the first decade of the twentieth century. Sergei Diagilev, who regularly contributed notes to The New Time, remarked, however, in his reply to Suvorin's invitation to celebrate the twenty-fifth anniversary of the newspaper: 'I wish with all my heart that, on looking back on its completed path, this most important of Russian newspapers would at last realise that throughout the entire quarter of a century of its publication Russian art has been developing separately from and counter to the views of The New Time.' [Quoted in: Sergei Diagilev i russkoe iskusstvo. Stat'i, otkrytye pis'ma, interv'iu. Perepiska. Sovremenniki. Moscow: Izobrazitel'noe iskusstvo, 1982. vols. 1-2. Sostaviteli, avtory vstupitel'noi stat'i i kommentariev I.S. Zil'bershtein i V.A. Samkov, p. 128]

Pseudonyms: A. Bobrovskii, Neznakomets, Timon Afinskii, etc.

Tiutriumov, Nikanov Leont'evich (1821-77)

Portraitist and genre painter, academician. On behalf of the Academy Tiutriumov published a response to Vasilii Vereshchagin's demonstrative rejection of the Academic professorship in The Russian World (Russkii mir) in 1874, no. 265, 27 September, accusing him of using the labour of other artists to produce his canvases.

Tolbin, Vasilii Vasil'evich (1821-69)

Writer, journalist and art critic. Tolbin contributed to conservative periodicals, such as The Northern Bee (Severnaia pchela) and The Son of the Fatherland (Syn Otechestva). However, he also published articles devoted to Pavel Fedotov (Pantheon, 1854) and the school of Karl Briullov (Illustration, 1861). Pseudonyms: T-n'', etc. [Source: Bespalova N.I., Vereshchagina, A.G., Russkaia progressivnaia khudozhestvennaia kritika vtoroi poloviny xix veka. Moscow: Izobrazitel'noe iskusstvo, 1979.]

Trubachev, Sergei Semenovich (1864-1907)

Publicist.

Pseudonyms: R.B., S.T., S. Tr-v, etc.
[Source: Bespalova N.I., Vereshchagina, A.G., Russkaia progressivnaia khudozhestvennaia kritika vtoroi poloviny xix veka. Moscow: Izobrazitel'noe iskusstvo, 1979.]

Urusov, Aleksandr Ivanovich (1843-1900)

Lawyer, literary and art critic. His writings were influenced by democratic ideas. Urusov published articles on art in The Library for Reading (Biblioteka dlia chteniia), the newspapers News and Stock-Exchange Newspaper (Novosti i birzhevaia gazeta), News of the Day (Novosti dnia), Courier (Kur'er), Order (Poriadok), etc. During the 1890s he contributed to The Theatre Newspaper (Teatral'naia gazeta) and The World of Art (Mir iskusstva).

Pseudonyms: Aleksandr Ivanov, A.I., etc.
[Source: Bespalova N.I., Vereshchagina, A.G., Russkaia progressivnaia khudozhestvennaia kritika vtoroi poloviny xix veka. Moscow: Izobrazitel'noe iskusstvo, 1979.]

Uspenskii, Gleb Ivanovich (1843-1902)

Writer, critic, journalist, associated with the populist movement of the 1880s.

Vagner, Nikolai Petrovich (1829-1907)

Scholar and writer. Professor of zoology of Kazan' (from 1860) and St Petersburg (from 1871) Universities. During the period 1877-79 he published and edited the popular scientific journal The Light (Svet). His main articles on art include: Schools of Landscape Painting (Peizazh i ego techeniia v zhivopisi) published in 1871; What is Art? (Chto takoe iskusstvo?) published in 1877; The Beauty of the Human Face (Krasota chelovecheskogo litsa) published in 1877; Russian Painting on Its Way to the World Exhibition (Russkaia zhivopis' na puti na Vsemirnuiu vystavku) published in 1878.

Pseudonyms: Petrov, N, Kot-Murlyka, etc.
[Source: Bespalova N.I., Vereshchagina, A.G., Russkaia progressivnaia khudozhestvennaia kritika vtoroi poloviny xix veka. Moscow: Izobrazitel'noe iskusstvo, 1979.]

Vasilevskii, Ippolit Fedorovich (1850-1920)

Journalist, publicist. Vasilevskii began his literary career during the 1860s in The Spark (Iskra), St Petersburg Newspaper (Peterburgskaia gazeta) and other periodicals published both in the capitals and in the provinces, to which he contributed feuilletons, reviews, etc. From 1879 until 1894 he edited the satirical journal The Dragon-Fly (Strekoza). In 1882 Vasilevskii became a regular contributor to The Russian Gazette (Russkie vedomosti), in which he systematically published articles devoted to the exhibitions of the Academy and the Itinerants and supported the development of realist art.

Pseudonyms: B., B-a, Bukva, etc.
[Source: Bespalova N.I., Vereshchagina, A.G., Russkaia progressivnaia khudozhestvennaia kritika vtoroi poloviny xix veka. Moscow: Izobrazitel'noe iskusstvo, 1979.]

Zhemchuzhnikov, Lev Mikhailovich (1828-1912)

Artist and art critic. Zhemchuzhnikov contributed to the journal Foundations (Osnova) where he published, for instance, Recollections about T.G. Shevchenko. His Death and Burial (Vospominaniia o T.G. Shevchenko. Ego smert' i pogrebenie), etc. In 1893 Zhemchuzhnikov published in the journal Artist the article entitled Recollection about P.A. Fedotov (Vospominaniia o P.A. Fedotove).

[Source: Bespalova N.I., Vereshchagina, A.G., Russkaia progressivnaia khudozhestvennaia kritika vtoroi poloviny xix veka. Moscow: Izobrazitel'noe iskusstvo, 1979.]