Painting as text: Developments in Russian art during the second half of the nineteenth century

This study is a critical examination of Russian cultural assumptions about literature and their impact upon Russian painting during the second half of the nineteenth century. A particular attention is placed on explicating the crucial role of Vladimir Stasov in re-shaping attitudes toward Russian painting. Working independently from the Academy-bound art establishment, he was instrumental in building the ideological construct that eventually become known as Russian Realism from a number of vague concepts originally labeled the "new" Russian art.;The title of this study--"Painting as Text"--alludes to two specific aspects of the subject: first, the cosmopolitan orientation and literary-bound practice of the Imperial Academy which encouraged its preferred genre of history painting to be viewed as a visual explication of a text--a sort of reverse ekhprasis; and second, the literary bias of Russian culture which tended to reduce developments in Russian painting to literary analogies. This literary bias, invoked by Stasov as well as his critical opponents, insured that the boundary between Russian literature and painting has remained ill defined. An attempt will be made here to bring clarification into this relationship by casting a critical eye upon the notion of the painting as text upon which the ideological construct known as Russian Realism ultimately rested.;This study is organized around three distinct yet closely related themes. First, there is the institutional history of Russian art. It, so to speak, forms the frame in which developments in the second half of the nineteenth century are illustrated. Second, there is the analysis of the critical assertions of Stasov and his contemporaries which have been greatly abridged to eliminate conceptual vagueness. Finally, there is the close analysis of three works: The Major's Courtship by Pavel Fedotov, Volga Barge Haulers and The Unexpected Return by Il'ia Repin. These paintings have been selected for their historical and critical significance. They stand as milestones in the development of what would become known as Russian Realism illustrative of the power and limitations of that concept.