Ivan Kramskoy

Born near Ostrogozhsk, Kramskoy worked as a photographic retoucher in his youth. At the Academy of Arts he took part in the Revolt of the Fourteen, demanding freedom to choose competition subjects. He subsequently organised the St Petersburg artists’ cooperative and taught drawing. His activities embraced painting, criticism and the development of independent exhibition networks. He portrayed celebrated contemporaries and peasants, and addressed religious and literary subjects. In the paintings gathered here, bodily placement and small hand movements are particularly important. Meeting the Unknown Woman’s gaze differs from observing the solitary Christ or a woman in mourning. These differences reveal the variety possible within still figures. Kramskoy’s letters preserve his thinking about art and the artist’s relationship with society.