A boat 1880

Vasily Polenov created this landscape painting of a boat with oil paint on canvas. Painted in Russia, it's a beautiful, unassuming work, but it is also an insight into the art world of late 19th century Russia and the institutional structures that shaped it. Thinkers and artists were beginning to question the old social order. The establishment was seen as out of touch. Polenov was part of a generation who aimed to capture the Russian soul by depicting the lives of ordinary people and the beauty of the natural world. Polenov’s involvement with the Abramtsevo Colony is an interesting example. This was a group of artists who gathered at the estate of Savva Mamontov, a wealthy industrialist and patron of the arts. Groups like this helped to create a market for a new kind of Russian art, one which looked away from the grand subjects of the past. To understand this work better, we might look at exhibition records, artists’ letters, and the writings of period critics. What can these tell us about the changing role of art in Russian society?