Editing Viktor Vasnetsov (section)

==Biography==

===Childhood (1848–1858)===
Viktor Vasnetsov was born in the remote village of Lopyal in [[Vyatka Governorate]] in 1848, the second of the seven children (his only sister died 4 months after her birth).<ref name="smr">{{cite web 
| url =http://www.centre.smr.ru/win/artists/vasnec_v/biogr_vasnec1.htm
| title = Богатырь русской живописи| publisher = centre.smr.ru| access-date = 1 January 2011}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last1=Vasnet︠s︡ova|first1=O. A. (Olʹga A.)|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1222809052|title=Vasnet︠s︡ovshchina|last2=Васнецова, О. А. (Ольга А.)|year=2019|isbn=978-5-6042722-0-6|location=Moskva|pages=46–47, 63|oclc=1222809052}}</ref> His father Mikhail Vasilievich Vasnetsov (1823–1870), known to be philosophically inclined, was a member of the priesthood,<ref name=brit/> and a scholar of the [[natural sciences]] and [[astronomy]]. His grandfather was an [[icon]] painter. Two of Mikhail Vasnetsov's six sons, Viktor and [[Apollinary Vasnetsov|Apollinary]], became remarkable painters, three becoming schoolteachers and one a Russian folklorist.<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Vasnet︠s︡ova|first1=O. A. (Olʹga A.)|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1222809052|title=Vasnet︠s︡ovshchina|last2=Васнецова, О. А. (Ольга А.)|year=2019|isbn=978-5-6042722-0-6|location=Moskva|pages=64, 78, 88–89, 98|oclc=1222809052}}</ref> It was in Lopyal that Viktor started to paint, mostly landscapes and scenes of village life. Recalling his childhood in a letter to [[Vladimir Stasov]], Vasnetsov remarked that he "had lived with peasant children and liked them not as a [[narodnik]] but as a friend".<ref name="smr"/>

===Vyatka (1858–1867)===
From the age of ten, Viktor studied in a [[seminary]] in Vyatka, each summer moving with his family to a rich merchant village of Ryabovo. During his seminary years, he worked for a local [[icon]] shopkeeper. He also helped an exiled Polish artist, [[Michał Elwiro Andriolli]], to execute [[fresco]]es for Vyatka's [[Alexander Nevsky]] cathedral.

Having graduated from the seminary, Viktor decided to move to [[Saint Petersburg]] to study art.<ref name=brit/> He auctioned his paintings of ''Woman Harvester'' and ''Milk-maid'' (both 1867) to raise the money required for the trip to the Russian capital.

===Saint Petersburg (1867–1876)===
[[File:Wiktor Michajlowitsch Wassnezow 003.jpg|thumb|left|Self-portrait, 1873]]
In August 1867 Viktor tried to enter the [[Imperial Academy of Arts]], but failed. He succeeded one year later in August 1868.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Ярославцева|first=Нина Александровна|title=Виктор Михайлович Васнецов: Письма. Дневники. Воспоминания. Суждения современников|publisher=Iskusstvo|year=1987|location=Moskva|pages=475}}</ref> Already in 1863 a group of fourteen students left the Academy, finding its rules too constraining. This led to the [[Peredvizhniki]] movement of realist painters rebelling against [[Academism]]. Vasnetsov befriended their leader [[Ivan Kramskoi]] during his drawing classes before entering the Academy, referring to him as his teacher.<ref name=brit/> He also became very close to fellow student [[Ilya Yefimovich Repin]].

Viktor, whose name would subsequently be associated with historical and mythological paintings, initially avoided these subjects at all costs. For his graphic composition of ''Christ and [[Pontius Pilate]] Before the People'', the Academy awarded a small silver medal to him. In the early 1870s he completed a large number of [[engraving]]s depicting contemporary life. Two of them (''Provincial Bookseller'' from 1870 and ''A Boy with a Bottle of Vodka'' from 1872) won him a bronze medal at the [[World Fair]] in London (1874).  During this period he also started producing [[Genre works|genre paintings]] in oil. Such pieces as ''Peasant Singers'' (1873) and ''Moving House'' (1876) were warmly welcomed by democratic circles of Russian society.

===Paris (1876–1877)===
In 1876 Repin invited Vasnetsov to join the Peredvizhniki colony in Paris. While living in France, Viktor studied classical and contemporary paintings, academist and [[Impressionism|Impressionist]] alike. During that period, he painted ''Acrobats'' (1877), produced prints, and exhibited some of his works at the [[Paris Salon|Salon]]. It was in Paris that he became fascinated with fairy-tale subjects, starting to work on ''[[Ivan Tsarevich]] Riding a Grey Wolf'' and ''The Firebird''. Vasnetsov was a model for [[Sadko]] in Repin's celebrated painting ''[[Sadko (painting)|Sadko]]''. In 1877 he returned to Moscow.

===Moscow (1877–1884)===
In the late 1870s Vasnetsov concentrated on illustrating Russian fairy tales and the epic narrative poem [[Bylina]]s, executing some of his best known pieces: ''The Knight at the Crossroads'' (1878), ''[[Prince Igor]]'s Battlefield'' (1878),
''Three princesses of the Underground Kingdom'' (completed 1884 ), ''The Flying Carpet'' (1880), and ''Alionushka'' (1881). These works were not appreciated at the time they appeared. Many radical critics dismissed them as undermining the realist principles of the [[Peredvizhniki]]. Even such prominent connoisseurs as [[Pavel Mikhailovich Tretyakov]] refused to buy them. The vogue for Vasnetsov's paintings would spread in the 1880s, when he turned to religious subjects and executed a series of icons for [[Abramtsevo Colony|Abramtsevo]] estate of his patron [[Savva Mamontov]].

===Kiev (1884–1889)===
[[File:Viktor Vasnetsov by S.Malyutin (1915, Vyatka).jpg|thumb|Portrait of Vasnetsov by [[Sergey Malyutin]], 1915]]
In 1884–1889 Vasnetsov was commissioned to paint [[fresco]]es in [[St Volodymyr's Cathedral|St Vladimir's Cathedral]] in [[Kiev]]. This was a challenging work which ran contrary to both Russian and Western traditions of religious paintings. The influential art critic [[Vladimir Stasov]] labelled them a sacrilegious play with religious feelings of the Russian people. Another popular critic, [[Dmitry Filosofov]], referred to these frescoes as "the first bridge over 200 years-old gulf separating different classes of Russian society".

While living in Kiev, Vasnetsov made friends with [[Mikhail Vrubel]], who was also involved in the cathedral's decoration. While they worked together, Vasnetsov taught the younger artist a great deal. It was in Kiev that Vasnetsov finally finished ''[[Ivan Tsarevich]] Riding a Grey Wolf'' and started his most famous painting, the ''[[Bogatyr]]s''.<ref name=brit/> In 1885 the painter travelled to Italy. The same year he worked on stage designs and costumes for [[Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov]]'s opera ''[[Snegurochka (opera)|The Snow Maiden]]''.<ref name=brit/>

===Later Years (1890–1926)===
The following two decades were productive for Vasnetsov. He increasingly turned to other media during this period. In 1897 he collaborated with his brother Apollinary on the theatrical design of another Rimsky-Korsakov premiere, ''[[Sadko (opera)|Sadko]]''.

At the turn of the century, Vasnetsov elaborated his hallmark "fairy-tale" style of [[Russian Revival]]ist architecture. His first acclaimed design was a church in [[Abramtsevo, Sergiyevo-Posadsky District, Moscow Oblast|Abramtsevo]] (1882),<ref name=brit/> executed jointly with [[Vasily Polenov]]. In 1894, he designed his own mansion in Moscow. The Russian pavilion of the World Fair in Paris followed in 1898. Finally, in 1904, Vasnetsov designed the best known of his "fairy-tale" buildings – the façade of the [[Tretyakov Gallery]].

Between 1906 and 1911, Vasnetsov worked on the design of the mosaics for [[Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, Warsaw]]; he was also involved in the design of [[Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, Moscow]].  In 1912, he was given a noble title by [[Czar Nicholas II]]. In 1914, he designed a revenue stamp intended for voluntary collection for victims of World War I.

Even prior to the [[Russian Revolution of 1917|Russian Revolution]], Vasnetsov became active as a regent of the Tretyakov Gallery. He allocated a significant portion of his income to the [[State Historical Museum]], so that a large part of the museum's collection was acquired on Vasnetsov's money. After the [[October Revolution]] he advocated removing some of the religious paintings (notably those by [[Alexander Ivanov (painter)|Alexander Ivanov]]) from churches to the Tretyakov Gallery.

In 1915, Vasnetsov participated in the designing of a military uniform for the Victory parade of the Russian army in Berlin and Constantinopole. Vasnetsov is credited with the creation of the [[budenovka]] (initially named ''bogatyrka''), a military hat reproducing the style of [[Kievan Rus']] cone-shaped helmets.<ref name=brit/>

Vasnetsov  died in Moscow in 1926, he was 78.