Travelling Art Exhibitions, Society for

Categories / Art/Fine Arts/Art and Literary Associations
TRAVELLING ART EXHIBITIONS, The Society for (TPHV), an artistic association. It was established in 1870 by St. Petersburg and Moscow artists N. N. Ge, I. N. Kramskoy, K. E. Makovsky, G. G. Myasoedov, V. G. Perov, I. M. Pryanishnikov, A. K. Savrasov and I. I. Shishkin, among others. The society aimed to arrange exhibitions with the purpose of developing a love for art in society and making it easier for artists to sell their works. It represented a new type of cooperative art union. Almost all the outstanding artists of the second half of the 19th century were either members or exhibitors of the Society for Travelling Art Exhibitions (they were called Peredvizhniky – the Wanderers). Such outstanding artists as V. M. Vasnetsov, I. I. Levitan, V. D. Polenov, I. E. Repin, V. A. Serov, V. I. Surikov belonged to the Peredvizhniky. St. Petersburg was considered to be the residence of the Society for Travelling Art Exhibitions because the majority of its members lived here. The Society for Travelling Art Exhibitions greatly influenced the development of the Russian artistic culture for several decades. Its artistic and aesthetic principles developed under the influence of democratic ideas of V. V. Stasov and were opposed to the official art centre of the Academy of Arts. In the 1870-90s, annual exhibitions of the Society for Travelling Art Exhibitions were held in St. Petersburg: in the halls of the Academy of Arts, Academy of Sciences and Artists Encouragement Fund, in the mansion of Princess Yusupova at 86 Nevsky Prospect, in the apartments of the Highest Women’s (Bestuzhev) Courses at 7 Sergievskaya Street (today Tchaikovskogo Street). They then expanded to Moscow and further into the provinces. Genre Artists predominated in the Society for Travelling Art Exhibitions during those years, the interest in people's life and history, in the sphere of everyday life and folk was expressed in their works, they depicted a wide range of social and psychological, moral and philosophical problems; subjects from the Gospel were treated in an new way. Many works were purchased by Moscow collector P. M. Tretyakov and formed the basis of the Tretyakov Gallery founded by him. Later paintings by the members of the Society for Travelling Art Exhibitions enriched the collections of the Russian Museum. Several outstanding members of the Society for Travelling Art Exhibitions (V. E. Makovsky, Repin and Shishkin) joined the professoriate of the Academy of Arts after its reform in 1893. This event marked the end of the confrontation between the Society for Travelling Art Exhibitions and the Academy of Arts. Later the social pathos of the exhibitions was lost in many respects, social and genre art gradually gave a place to the salon portraits and plain-air landscapes. At the same time insularity became apparent in the society, making it difficult for young artists to take part in the exhibitions. The crisis gained strength after the death of a number of veterans and especially after the group of Moscow artists A. E. Arkhipov, A. M. Vasnetsov, K. A. Korovin, L. O. Pasternak and V. A. Serov et al. left the Society for Travelling Art Exhibitions at the beginning of the 1900s and established the Union of the Russian Artists. From 1906, exhibitions of the Society for Travelling Art Exhibitions were opened in Moscow, and then demonstrated in St. Petersburg; 1909 marked the end of provincial exhibitions. The last Petrograd exhibition (the 46th) was held in December 1917, the last Moscow exhibition (the 48th) was held in 1923. In that very year members of the Society for Travelling Art Exhibitions formed the main body of the Association of the Artists of Revolutionary Russia (AHRR). The declaration of the Society for Travelling Art Exhibitions (1922) stressing the aspiration for documental and true depiction of everyday life of present-day Russia became the basis for the ideological programme of the Association of the Artists of Revolutionary Russia.

References: Бурова Г. К., Гапонова О. И., Румянцева В. Ф. Товарищество передвижных художественных выставок: Перечень произведений и библиогр. обзоры выставок в периодич. печати: В 2 т. М., 1952-1959; Товарищество передвижных художественных выставок (1869-1890): Письма, док.: В 2 кн. М., 1987; Рогинская Ф. С. Товарищество передвижных художественных выставок: Ист. очерки. М., 1989.

O. L. Leykind, D.Y. Severyukhin. Arkhipov Abram Efimovich
Ge Nikolay Nikolaevich
Korovin Konstantin Alexeevich
Kramskoy Ivan Nikolaevich
Levitan Isaak Ilyich
Makovsky Konstantin Egorovich
Makovsky Vladimir Egorovich
Myasoedov Grigory Grigorievich
Pasternak Leonid Osipovich
Perov Vasily Grigorievich
Polenov Vasily Dmitrievich
Pryanishnikov Illarion Mikhailovich
Repin Ilya Efimovich
Savrasov Alexey Kondratievich
Serov Valentin Alexandrovich
Shishkin Ivan Ivanovich
Stasov Vladimir Vasilievich
Surikov Vasily Ivanovich
Tretyakov Pavel Mikhailovich
Vasnetsov Apollinary Mikhailovich
Vasnetsov Viktor Mikhailovich
Yusupova Zinaida Nikolaevna, Duchess
Nevsky prospect/Saint Petersburg, city, house 86
Tchaikovskogo St./Saint Petersburg, city, house 7
Бурова Г. К., Гапонова О. И., Румянцева В. Ф. Товарищество передвижных художественных выставок: Перечень произведений и библиогр. обзоры выставок в период. печати: В 2 т. М., 1952-1959
Рогинская Ф. С. Товарищество передвижных художественных выставок: Ист. очерки. М., 1989
Товарищество передвижных художественных выставок (1869-1890): Письма, док-ты: В 2 кн. М., 1987 Russian Academy of Sciences
Academy of Arts
Academy of Arts
Society for the Encouragement of the Arts
Bestuzhev's Courses
Russian Museum, State
1870
1871