VII. Academism in 19th-century ukrainian painting
In the first half of the 19th century realism began to replace classicism in Ukrainian art, but an eclectic artistic movement referred to as academism continued to flourish, as it did in other parts of Europe, almost to the end of the century. Academism was a style of painting and sculpture produced under the influence of European academies or universities. Most importantly, it was influenced by the standards of the French Academie des Beaux-Arts in Paris, whose representatives followed the movements of Neoclassicism and Romanticism in an attempt to create a synthesis of these styles and traditions. In this context, academism may also be referred to as "L'art pompier" or "eclecticism", and is sometimes linked with "historicism" and "syncretism." The period of academism in Ukrainian painting coincided with the rebirth of Ukrainian art connected with Taras Shevchenko, the national bard of Ukraine, who was a painter and engraver by profession. In the 1840s he turned away from the academism taught at the Saint Petersburg Academy of Arts toward a more realistic depiction of scenes from the daily life of the peasantry, Ukrainian history, and landscape. A number of his followers adopted this approach, eventually giving rise to a Ukrainian ethnographic school of art and genre painting... Learn more about the academic art in Ukraine by visiting the following entries:
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ACADEMISM. Art movement based on ancient Greek esthetics and on the dogmatic imitation of classical art forms. Academism first arose in the art academies of Italy in the 16th century and then in France; later it spread to other countries. Such art schools were founded in Rome, Paris, Vienna, Berlin, Saint Petersburg, Munich, Cracow, and other cities. Many Ukrainian artists graduated from these schools; for example, Ivan Buhaievsky-Blahodarny, Ivan Soshenko, Taras Shevchenko, Dmytro Bezperchy, Volodymyr Orlovsky, Apollon Mokrytsky, Ivan Aivazovsky, Kornylo Ustyianovych, and Teofil Kopystynsky. As advanced schools of art theory and practice, the academies played a positive role, but eventually their conservatism and dogmatism, their restriction of artistic freedom, and their narrow limits on the selection of theme and formal means (composition, color, technique) called forth a strong reaction among progressive artists... |
Academism |
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MOKRYTSKY, APOLLON, b 12 August 1810 in Pyriatyn, Poltava gubernia, d 8 or 9 March 1870 in Moscow. Painter; full member of the Saint Petersburg Academy of Arts from 1849. He studied painting under Kapiton Pavlov at the Nizhen Lyceum and under Aleksei Venetsianov and Karl Briullov in Saint Petersburg (1830-9). After working in Ukraine and visiting Italy he was appointed a professor at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture (1851-70). His paintings, including portraits of Yevhen Hrebinka and Nikolai Gogol, and Italian landscapes, are executed in a lucid, realist style. Mokrytsky played an important role in the process of purchasing Taras Shevchenko's freedom; he introduced Shevchenko to influential Russian and Ukrainian intellectuals in Saint Petersburg, who helped to secure Shevchenko's freedom from serfdom. Mokrytsky left a diary (published in 1975) containing information about Shevchenko... |
Apollon Mokrytsky |
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SHEVCHENKO, TARAS, b 9 March 1814 in Moryntsi, Zvenyhorod county, Kyiv gubernia, d 10 March 1861 in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Ukraine's national bard and famous artist. Born a serf, at the age of 14 Shevchenko became a houseboy of his owner, P. Engelhardt, and served him in Vilnius and then Saint Petersburg. Engelhardt noticed Shevchenko's artistic talent and apprenticed him to the painter V. Shiriaev. Shevchenko spent his free time sketching statues in the capital's summer gardens. There he met the Ukrainian artist Ivan Soshenko, who introduced him to other compatriots and to the Russian painter Aleksei Venetsianov. Shevchenko later met the famous painter Karl Briullov, who donated his painting as the prize in a lottery whose proceeds were used to buy Shevchenko's freedom on 5 May 1838. Soon after, Shevchenko enrolled in the Imperial Academy of Arts and studied there under Briullov's supervision... |
Taras Shevchenko |
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AIVAZOVSKY, IVAN, b 29 July 1817 in Teodosiia, d 5 May 1900 in Teodosiia. Painter. Aivazovsky was descended from a family of Galician Armenians who had settled in the Crimea. He obtained his artistic education at the Saint Petersburg Academy of Arts, becoming an academician in 1845 and an honorary member of the academy in 1887 (he was also a member of four other academies). In 1845 Aivazovsky settled in Teodosiia. A member of the Society of South Russian Artists, he exhibited his work in Odesa, Kyiv, Kharkiv, Mykolaiv, and elsewhere. Aivazovsky produced some 6,000 paintings, depicting mainly scenes on the Black Sea and turbulent seascapes. He also painted sea battles and Ukrainian landscapes. During his student years Aivazovsky often traveled in Ukraine with Vasilii Shternberg. He established an artists' studio and picture gallery in Teodosiia, which he donated later to the city... |
Ivan Aivazovsky |
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KOPYSTYNSKY, TEOFIL, b 15 April 1844 in Peremyshl, Galicia, d 5 July 1916 in Lviv. Monumentalist painter and portraitist. A graduate of the Cracow School of Fine Arts (1871) and the Vienna Academy of Art (1872), he spent his life painting churches, iconostases, and icons in Lviv and the surrounding villages. He was also recognized as a restorer and conservator of old art. From 1878 to 1899 Kopystynsky restored a number of religious masterpieces. In 1888 he cleaned and restored 150 old Ukrainian icons at the Stauropegion Institute's museum in Lviv. Kopystynsky established a reputation as a master portraitist and from 1872 to 1895 he painted 17 portraits of prominent Ukrainian social and cultural figures of the 19th century. Kopystynsky was also a leading book illustrator in Western Ukraine. He taught drawing in secondary schools in Lviv and participated in the exhibitions of the Society of Friends of the Fine Arts... |
Teofil Kopystynsky |
The preparation, editing, and display of the IEU entries associated with the style of academism in 19th-century Ukrainian painting were made possible by the financial support of the CANADIAN FOUNDATION FOR UKRAINIAN STUDIES.