Konstantin Savitsky | |
|---|---|
| Константин Савицкий | |
 Portrait byNikolai Grandkovsky, 1902;Tretyakov Gallery | |
| Born | (1844-05-25)May 25, 1844 |
| Died | January 31, 1905(1905-01-31) (aged 60) |
| Alma mater | Imperial Academy of Arts (1874) |
| Known for | Painting |
| Style | Realism |
| Movement | Peredvizhniki |
| Elected | Full Member Academy of Arts (1895) Member Academy of Arts (1897) |
Konstantin Apollonovich Savitsky (Russian:Константи́н Аполло́нович Сави́цкий; 25 May 1844 — 31 January 1905) was a Russianrealist painter born in the city ofTaganrog in the village Frankovka or Baronovka, named after former governorOtto Pfeilizer-Frank. Today this area is occupied by the Taganrog Iron and Steel Factory TAGMET.[1]
Savitsky's family lived in the building of theTaganrog Gymnasium for Boys, where his father worked as a doctor. In Frankovka the family rented a summer house. Savitsky spent his childhood and youth inTaganrog. He showed an interest for painting in early childhood. Being on the shore ofAzov Sea with his parents, he loved to make sketches, and drawing lessons at the Gymnasium were his favorite subject.
When Konstantin was fifth-grader at Taganrog Gymnasium, his teenager's life changed unexpectedly. Both of his parents died suddenly. Kostya was taken by his uncle who lived in present-dayLatvia and became his guardian. There Savitsky entered a private boarding-school and in 1862 he graduated and left forSaint Petersburg, where he entered TheImperial Academy of Arts inSaint Petersburg. Personal contacts with outstanding representatives of Russian culture –Ilya Repin,Ivan Shishkin,Viktor Vasnetsov,Mark Antokolski,Vladimir Stasov, – had a great influence on the development of the young artist.
Soon Savitsky became one of the best students of the Imperial Academy of Arts. His student paintings were awarded with silver medals and for his paintingCain and Abel (1871) he received a gold medal.
After graduation from the Imperial Academy of Arts and two years abroad, the artist became co-partner of mobile art exhibitions (Peredvizhniki), a group of Russian realist artists who in protest at academic restrictions formed an artists' cooperative, which evolved into the Society for Traveling Art Exhibitions in 1870. The artworkRepairing Railway was one of the first paintings of that time dedicated to the life of the working class.
Konstantin Savitsky is a co-author of the famous paintingMorning in the Pine Forest. On the original Peredvizhniki exhibition the painting was shown by two authorsIvan Shishkin and Konstantin Savitsky. It was assumed that Savitsky had painted the bears and Shishkin the forest but later the scholars found that preparational drawings of the pine forest were made by both Savitsky and Shishkin. Later Savitsky withdrew his signature from the painting and it is currently attributed solely to Shishkin.
The titles of his artworks –Lost all their possessions in the fire,To the War,Herdsmen,Krutchnik,Argument at the Bound – speak about the direction of his art.
After graduation from the Imperial Academy of Arts the artist dedicated more than 20 years to teaching arts in the art schools of Moscow,Saint Petersburg andPenza; including theMoscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. In 1897 Konstantin Savitsky became a member of the Imperial Academy of Arts.
His famous artworks are Repairing the Railroad,Morning in a Pine Forest, To the War, Inok, Travellers in Auvergne, Ikon on the Road & many more. "To War" is a huge painting that took ten years to complete.[2]
![Inok (1897), Penza Savitsky Art Gallery [ru]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=https%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aKonstantin_Savitskiy_Inok_1897.jpg)
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