Viktor Vasnetsov

yer: Vyatka

Doğmuş: 1848

Ölüm: 1926

Biyografi:

Viktor Mikhaylovich Vasnetsov was a Russian artist who specialized in mythological and historical subjects. He is considered a co-founder of Russian folklorist and romantic nationalistic painting, and a key figure in the Russian Revivalist movement. Viktor Vasnetsov was born in the remote village of Lopyal in Vyatka Governorate in 1848, the second of the seven children (his only sister died 4 months after her birth). His father Mikhail Vasilievich Vasnetsov, known to be philosophically inclined, was a member of the priesthood, and a scholar of the natural sciences and astronomy. His grandfather was an icon painter. Two of Mikhail Vasnetsov's six sons, Viktor and Apollinary, became remarkable painters, three becoming schoolteachers and one a Russian folklorist. It was in Lopyal that Viktor started to paint, mostly landscapes and scenes of village life. Recalling his childhood in a letter to Vladimir Stasov, Vasnetsov remarked that he 'had lived with peasant children and liked them not as a narodnik but as a friend'. From the age of ten, Viktor studied in a seminary in Vyatka, each summer moving with his family to a rich merchant village of Ryabovo. During his seminary years, he worked for a local icon shopkeeper. He also helped an exiled Polish artist, Michał Elwiro Andriolli, to execute frescoes for Vyatka's Alexander Nevsky cathedral. Having graduated from the seminary, Viktor decided to move to Saint Petersburg to study art. He auctioned his paintings of Woman Harvester and Milk-maid (both 1867) to raise the money required for the trip to the Russian capital.