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Ivan Ivanovich Dmitriev (1840-67) was a satirist and critic who wrote for various satirical journals, icluding Iskra (The Spark) and Budil'nik (The Alarm-Clock), which he edited until March 1866. His review of the annual Academy exhibition of 1863 was published in The Spark in November 1863, entitled 'Art which bows and scrapes'. It represents one of the most scathing criticisms of the Academy ever published in Russia. The article applies criteria of 'social usefulness' to the works displayed at the exhibition and argues that the paintings by the Academy's artists brought no benefit to the people. The reasons for this lack of connection between art and society are found in the social status of the artist, who must choose between surviving in abject poverty and serving the needs of the rich and powerful. The only painting which elicited a positive response from Dmitriev was Nikolai Ge's Last Supper, which, however, was not analysed. Indeed, the social aspect of art and the subject matter interested the author much more than the formal qualities of works of art, the discussion of which is a parody of conventional art criticism. This perspective on visual arts is characteristic of the radical intelligentsia of the 1860s and reverberated through Russian art criticism of the subsequent decades, particularly that of Vladimir Stasov. Dmitriev's article increased the tension which surrounded the Academy in 1863 and may well have influenced the final year students of the Academy headed by Ivan Kramskoi who petitioned the Academic Council requesting freedom in the choice of subjects for their final examination in November of the same year.
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