Apollinary Mikhaylovich Vasnetsov (russian: Аполлина́рий Миха́йлович Васнецо́в; August 6, 1856 – January 23, 1933) was a Russian painter and graphic artist whose elder brother was the more famous
Viktor Vasnetsov
Viktor Mikhaylovich Vasnetsov (russian: Ви́ктор Миха́йлович Васнецо́в; May 15 ( N.S.), 1848 – July 23, 1926) was a Russian artist who specialized in mythological and historical subjects. He is considered the co-founde ...
. He specialized in scenes from the medieval history of
Moscow
Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 millio ...
.
Vasnetsov did not receive a formal artistic education. He had studied under his older brother, Viktor Vasnetsov, the famous Russian painter. From 1883, he along with his brother lived and worked in
Abramtsevo where he fell under the influence of
Vasily Polenov
Vasily Dmitrievich Polenov (Russian: Васи́лий Дми́триевич Поле́нов; 1 June 1844 – 18 July 1927) was a Russian landscape painter associated with the Peredvizhniki movement of realist artists. His contemporaries would c ...
. In 1898–1899, he travelled across Europe. In addition to epic landscapes of Russian nature, Apollinary Vasnetsov created his own genre of historical landscape reconstruction on the basis of historical and archaeological data. His paintings present a visual picture of medieval Moscow. He was a member of the
Association of Travelling Art Exhibitions (Peredvizhniki) from 1899, and an
academician
An academician is a full member of an artistic, literary, engineering, or scientific academy. In many countries, it is an honorific title used to denote a full member of an academy that has a strong influence on national scientific life. In syst ...
from 1900. He became one of the founders and supervisors of the
Union of Russian Artists
''Mir iskusstva'' ( rus, «Мир искусства», p=ˈmʲir ɪˈskustvə, ''World of Art'') was a Russian magazine and the artistic movement it inspired and embodied, which was a major influence on the Russians who helped revolutionize Eur ...
.
Early life
Vasnetsov had three elder and two younger brothers. His only sister died at the age of four months. Vasnetsov's father played an important role in the upbringing and education of his sons, teaching them to love nature and to become familiar with the life of birds and animals. Vasnetsov's father died in 1870, which came as a terrible blow for him.
The Caucasus and the Urals
In 1890, Vasnetsov made a journey across the North of the
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...
and was able to record beautiful views of
Siberia
Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive region, geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a ...
and the
Urals
The Ural Mountains ( ; rus, Ура́льские го́ры, r=Uralskiye gory, p=ʊˈralʲskʲɪjə ˈɡorɨ; ba, Урал тауҙары) or simply the Urals, are a mountain range that runs approximately from north to south through western ...
, including the paintings:
* Forest on the Slopes of Mount Blagodat, Mid-Urals (1890)
*
Boreal forest
Taiga (; rus, тайга́, p=tɐjˈɡa; relates to Mongolic and Turkic languages), generally referred to in North America as a boreal forest or snow forest, is a biome characterized by coniferous forests consisting mostly of pines, spruc ...
in the Urals (1890)
* Mountain lake in the Urals (1892)
* The Steppes of
Orenburg (1895)
* "Koma" (1895)
In 1895, Vasnetsov visited
the Caucasus
The Caucasus () or Caucasia (), is a region between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, mainly comprising Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and parts of Southern Russia. The Caucasus Mountains, including the Greater Caucasus range, have historically ...
. He was deeply impressed by the beauty of the rugged Caucasus mountains. While there, he climbed the glaciers of Mt.
Elbrus, visited
Tiflis
Tbilisi ( ; ka, თბილისი ), in some languages still known by its pre-1936 name Tiflis ( ), is the capital and the largest city of Georgia, lying on the banks of the Kura River with a population of approximately 1.5 million pe ...
and lived in the
Darial Gorge
The Darial Gorge ( ka, დარიალის ხეობა, ''Darialis Kheoba''; russian: Дарьяльское ущелье; os, Арвыком, ''Arvykom''; inh, Даьра Аьле, ''Dära Äle''; Chechen: Теркан чӀаж, ''Te ...
. He created a great number of his
sketches during this period, including:
* View of Elbrus from Bermomut (1895)
* Red
Cliffs
In geography and geology, a cliff is an area of rock which has a general angle defined by the vertical, or nearly vertical. Cliffs are formed by the processes of weathering and erosion, with the effect of gravity. Cliffs are common on co ...
in
Kislovodsk
Kislovodsk (russian: Кислово́дск, lit. ''sour waters''; ; krc, Ачысуу) is a spa city in Stavropol Krai, Russia, in the North Caucasus region of Russia which is located between the Black and Caspian Seas.
Population:
History ...
(1896)
* Elbrus before Sunrise (1897)
* Darial (1897)
In 1890, Vasnetsov made a journey across
Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...
, visiting
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...
and
Italy
Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...
, where he studied the works of famous masters.
At the beginning of 1920, the Committee of Archaeology (the predecessor of the Community for the Saving of Art Monuments) invited Vasnetsov and several other painters (including
Vikentii Trofimov
Vikentii Pavlovich Trofimov (russian: Викентий Павлович Трофимов; November 24, 1878 in Talizky Zavod, Yekaterinburgsky Uyezd, Perm Governorate – February 10, 1956 in Zagorsk, Sergiyevo-Posadsky District, Moscow Oblast ...
) to draw the old places of
Voronezh
Voronezh ( rus, links=no, Воро́неж, p=vɐˈronʲɪʂ}) is a city and the administrative centre of Voronezh Oblast in southwestern Russia straddling the Voronezh River, located from where it flows into the Don River. The city sits on ...
.
A
minor planet
According to the International Astronomical Union (IAU), a minor planet is an astronomical object in direct orbit around the Sun that is exclusively classified as neither a planet nor a comet. Before 2006, the IAU officially used the term ''mino ...
,
3586 Vasnetsov, discovered by
Soviet
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...
astronomer
Lyudmila Zhuravlyova
Lyudmila Vasilyevna Zhuravleva (russian: Людмила Васильевна Журавлёва, uk, Людмила Василівна Журавльова, Ljudmyla Vasylivna Žuravljova; born 22 May 1946) is a Soviet, Russian and Ukrainian ast ...
in 1978, is named after
Viktor Vasnetsov
Viktor Mikhaylovich Vasnetsov (russian: Ви́ктор Миха́йлович Васнецо́в; May 15 ( N.S.), 1848 – July 23, 1926) was a Russian artist who specialized in mythological and historical subjects. He is considered the co-founde ...
and Apollinary Vasnetsov.
Gallery
File:Boreal forest in the Urals mountaing.jpg, Boreal forest in the Ural mountains (1890)
File:Mountaing lake.jpg, Mountain Lake (1892)
File:Аполлинарий Васнецов Кремль.jpg, Kremlin (1892)
File:Oprichnik by Vasnetsov.jpg, Set for the opera ''The Oprichnik
''The Oprichnik'' or ''The Guardsman'' (russian: Опричник ) is an opera in 4 acts, 5 scenes, by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky to his own libretto after the tragedy ''The Oprichniks'' ( rus, Опричники) by Ivan Lazhechnikov (1792–1869) ...
'' by Tchaikovsky
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky , group=n ( ; 7 May 1840 – 6 November 1893) was a Russian composer of the Romantic period. He was the first Russian composer whose music would make a lasting impression internationally. He wrote some of the most popu ...
(1911)
File:VasnecovA VMoskovskom.jpg, In the Moscow Kremlin
File:Novgorod torg.JPG, Novgorod marketplace
File:Vasnetsov Krasnaya Plocshad 17 vek.jpg, Red Square
Red Square ( rus, Красная площадь, Krasnaya ploshchad', ˈkrasnəjə ˈploɕːətʲ) is one of the oldest and largest squares in Moscow, the capital of Russia. Owing to its historical significance and the adjacent historical build ...
in the second half of the 17th century
File:'Kama'.jpg, Kama River
File:Stamp of USSR 1173.jpg, Painting of "Old Moscow" by Vasnetsov, depicted on a 1947 stamp
See also
*
List of Russian artists
References
Sources
*''Apollinary Vasnetsov'' by Vasnetsova, Yekaterina & Schmidt, Igor (eds.), Izobrazitelnoye Iskusstvo, Moscow, 1980, (Russian/English), Book ID V 1121 31.
* ''Great painters'' by Gordeeva M., "Direct media", Kiev, 2011, (Russian)
Further reading
Short biography 1Short biography 2
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vasnetsov, Apollinary
1856 births
1933 deaths
People from Zuyevsky District
People from Vyatsky Uyezd
19th-century painters from the Russian Empire
Russian male painters
20th-century Russian painters
Russian watercolorists
Peredvizhniki
19th-century male artists from the Russian Empire
Burials at Vvedenskoye Cemetery
20th-century Russian male artists