Dostoevsky and Russian Painting. Criticism of pictures at exhibitions

Dostoevsky always made a great effort to keep abreast of new trends in Russian literature and art in general. At the exhibitions of paintings organized every year by the St Petersburg Art Academy, he was able to see new works by the leading Russian painters. He wrote and published two articles about these exhibitions in which he expressed his critical opinion about the works on display.

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In the first such article, entitled Academy of Arts Exhibition for the year 1860-61 [25], he analyses the paintings of Valery Jacobi and Vasily Perov.¹⁰ As he says at the outset, the picture that visitors liked the most of all at the exhibition was Jacobi's The Prisoner's Rest (Figure 8), for which the painter had been awarded the highest prize the Academy had to offer, a gold medal.

Figure 8. Valery I. Jacobi: The Prisoner's Rest (1861) [26]

Dostoevsky praises Jacobi's undoubted talent, emphasizing his realism as if we were seeing a scene in a photo or in a mirror, but possession of this skill alone is far from real art. Art demands »something else, bigger, larger, deeper« [25]. Similarly, as in the words of Prince Myshkin quoted above in The Idiot, Dostoevsky here too expresses his belief that a real artist

»be it in a painting or in a story or in a musical piece, has to be seen personally; he reveals himself involuntarily, even if he doesn't want to, with all his opinions, his character and his

10 Vasily Perov in 1872 painted the most famous portrait of Dostoevsky. Dostoevsky’s wife Anna Grigorevna spoke highly of the painter, who came to their house every day for one week to see her husband's different facial expressions caused by his different emotional states. Anna Grigorevna called it »a moment of Dostoevsky’s creating«. The portrait had been made in reply to a request by P. M. Tretyakov, the owner of the Moscow Tretyakov Gallery [8].

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general mindset« [25]. Further, Dostoevsky criticises some of the details depicted, doing it with conviction and a knowledge of the subject that derive from his own personal

experience. In parallel with a story by Pliny the Elder, in which a shoemaker criticized the shoes in a painting by the great painter of antiquity, Apelles, Dostoevsky gave reasons to justify his critical remarks. He reproaches the painter for having painted a ring on the hand of a deceased convict, then for having painted a thief stealing a ring; further, he claims that other convicts would never calmly watch from the sidelines taking in the interesting scene of an officer examining the dead man, adding that he painted shackles without leather pads under them. Who would know better than Dostoevsky that convicts cannot possess property, that a thief cannot steal a ring, because everyone else would like to steal such a treasure, that all convicts would gather round to watch an officer examining a dead man, and that shackles cannot be worn at all unless fitted with leather pads.

Similarly, writing about the exhibition in 1875, [27] he reproaches a painting by Nikolai Ge, The Last Supper (Figure 9), which was due to be sent to the Vienna exhibition, for being too unrealistic, embodying the high gospel theme in the guise of genre painting. Christ should be presented not as an ordinary man, but as a God - just as on Orthodox icons [27]. ¹¹

Dostoevsky worries that in Vienna Russian painting would not be understood at all, even the beautiful emotional, typical Russian landscapes of Arkhip Kuindzhi (Figure 10), for example, being unlikely to strike a chord with the Germans.

11 In his journalism and letters, Dostoevsky several times expressed his opinion on the art of icon painting. In 1880, in a letter to a collector of old icons, E. Opochinin, he stated very clearly that for him an icon is a mediator between man and God [13].

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Figure 9. Nikolai Ge: Last Supper (1863) [28]

Figure 10. Arkhip Kuindzhi: On a Valaam Island (1873) [29]

In 1878, at the sixth exhibition of Russian realist painters – »Peredvizhniki« (»The

Wanderers«) a painting by Ivan Kramskoj,¹² The Contemplator (Figure 11), was displayed. In The Brothers Karamazov (Chapter 6, entitled »Smerdyakov«, of the third book, first part) Dostoevsky uses this painting to describes Smerdyakov, (the illegitimate son of Fyodor Karamazov and lackey and assassin):

»The artist Kramskoy has one amazing painting which is called “Contemplator”: it shows the forest in winter, and in the woods, on the road, in a ragged frock and straw shoes a lost man is standing absolutely by himself; he is standing there as if lost in thought, but he is not really thinking, he is “contemplating” something. If you could just push him, he would flinch and looked at you as if just woken up but not understanding anything.« [30].

Dostoevsky sees in him a type of man, frequently encountered, who only observes, it being impossible to guess what is hidden in the mind of this gloomy and pensive face. He could become a saint or commit something dreadful.

12 Dostoevsky and Ivan Kramskoy (1837- 87) were friends and remained in contact for many years by correspondence [31].

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Figure 11. Ivan Kramskoy: The Contemplator (1876) [30]

Dostoevsky was portrayed (Figure 12) by Vasily Perov - the author of genre paintings and psychological portraits of his famous contemporaries.

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Figure 12. Vasily Perov: Portrait of F. M. Dostoevsky (1872) [32]