May 15, 1848
В Vyatka Governorate (now Kirov region), was born into a priest's family Victor Vasnetsov — artist and master of folk art. Author of "Bogatyrs," "Alyonushka," and the famous image of Ivan the Terrible.
It's hard to believe that before 1882, all previous generations of Russian people—children, at least—grew up without Vasnetsov's "Vityaz" in their imaginations. It seems he's always existed, like the steppe itself, like Kyiv, like the Volga, like Russia, like historical stories and fairy tales about it. (writer Vladimir Soloukhin, 1966)
He graduated from the Vyatka Theological School and entered the seminary, taking painting lessons at the same time.
I lived in a village among men and women and loved them simply as my friends and acquaintances - I listened to their songs and stories, listened captivated, sitting on the stove by the light and crackling of a torch
In 1867, with his father's blessing, he left the seminary in his penultimate year and went to St. Petersburg. He studied painting with Ivan Kramskoy, He entered the Imperial Academy of Arts and participated in exhibitions of the Peredvizhniki (Wanderers) artists, who sought to be closer to the people.
His first paintings were dominated by scenes from everyday life: "From Apartment to Apartment," "Military Telegram," and "The Bookshop." Gradually, he became fascinated with the epic tales of bylinas.
During my academic years in St. Petersburg, I was haunted by vague historical and fairytale dreams.
In 1875, after graduating from the Academy, he studied and worked in France for two years, but continued to dream of images of Ancient Rus'. His most famous works from his mature period include "The Flying Carpet," "The Knight at the Crossroads," "After the Battle of Igor Svyatoslavich with the Polovtsians," "Ivan Tsarevich on the Gray Wolf," "Bogatyrs," and "Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich the Terrible."
He called "Alyonushka" one of his favorite paintings. In the original concept, it had nothing to do with a fairy tale and was called "Fool Alyonushka," which was what orphans and holy fools were called in the old days.
"Alyonushka" seemed to have been living in my head for a long time, but I saw it in real life in Akhtyrka, when I met a bareheaded girl who captured my imagination. There was so much melancholy, loneliness, and pure Russian sadness in her eyes.
Many of his contemporaries found his painting style incomprehensible. They found his work "Three Princesses of the Underworld" (1881) particularly controversial and gloomy.
I scare my children with the artist Vasnetsov. His paintings, like "Alyonushka" and "The Three Princesses," are murky, green, clinical, and dirge-like. I think grateful posterity will shrug at this outlandish improvisation. (Anton Chekhov, 1894)
People are horrified—I don't know what to call it—by Vasnetsov's daubings hanging in your gallery. He calls people back to the darkness from which they have just emerged with such effort and sacrifice. He calls them to immobility, superstition, savagery, and is a century behind his time. (Leo Tolstoy to Pavel Tretyakov, 1894)
At the turn of the century, he became interested in religious themes. He painted and prepared sketches for St. Vladimir's Cathedral in Kyiv, Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood in Petersburg, The Church of the Nativity of John the Baptist on Presnya and the Church of Alexander Nevsky in Sofia.
Soon, more balanced assessments of his work began to be heard in professional circles.
Rarely has the Russian public treated any artist with such inconsistency as they did Viktor Vasnetsov. (Nicholas Roerich, 1902)
During the 1905 revolution, he held monarchist views and was close to the Union of the Russian People (Black Hundreds).
We are strong in the Church and the Sovereign!
In 1905, together with Polenov and Serov, he left the Academy of Arts.
Vasnetsov couldn't bear the disrespect of the politically agitated crowd of students who stormed the academic halls. Vasnetsov's own paintings were on display there at the time—his complete exhibition. (Ilya Repin)
In 1912, he received the title of nobleman and participated in the founding of the Society for the Revival of Artistic Rus (Ancient Art). He illustrated the "Books of Russian Sorrow" about the victims of revolutionary terror, published in Tsarist Russia.
During the Soviet era, he continued to work on fairy tale themes. He painted "Baba Yaga," "The Battle of Dobrynya Nikitich with the Seven-Headed Serpent Gorynych," "The Sleeping Princess," and "Kashchei the Immortal."
He died in 1926 in Moscow, at 78.
