Vasily Dmitrievich Polenov was a Russian landscape painter associated with the Peredvizhniki movement of realist artists. His contemporaries would call him the “Knight of Beauty” as he embodied both european and russian traditions of painting. His vision of life was summarized as following: “Art should promote happiness and joy”. As a painter and a humanist, he would truly believe in the civilizing mission of Art, Culture and Education.
As a native of St. Petersburg, he grew up in a wealthy, intellectual and artistic family. During his teenager years, in 1860s, Russia was energized by great minds promoting virtues of democracy, progress, education and they would stand against oppression.
The painter’s dad, Dmitri Polenov (1806-1872), was a well known archaeologist and bibliographer. As a representative of the Academy of Sciences and then as the secretary of the Russian embassy of Athens, he spent 3 years in Greece. There he would meet important personalities at the time linked to the world of Art and Science: the painter Karl Briullov, the architect Roman Kuzmin (some years after, he will help designing and building the Polenov family house at Imotchensy). At his return to Russia, according to the advice he received during his life abroad, Dmitri Polenovo started to do archaeological digs in ancient russian sites. For many years he devoted his knowledge and work to the Secretary of the Russian Archeological Society. In 1860, he travelled with his sons. This long horseback journey led them to Novgorod, Rostov, Yaroslav, Suzdal, Vladimir, Tver. Vasily Polenov was encouraged by his dad to draw sketches of any interesting ancient subject he would witness. His mother, Maria Alekseevna (1816-1995), was a painter and a portraitist, she received her lessons from a partner of Karl Briullov, the academician Moldavski. She also wrote a book in 1852 about the life of a family spending the summertime in a dacha. Summer in Tsarkoye Selo was then re-edited with illustrations made by Vassili Polenov and his younger sister, Elena, also an artist. From both parents and grandparents Vasily and his siblings would receive general knowledge about physics, history, geography and also the biographies of famous painters and musicians and this tradition was stated in this book in order to reach other kids.
His maternal grandmother was also really important during the painter’s childhood. Vera Voeikova (1792-1873) received an excellent education as a young girl thanks to a woman that raised her after her parents’ death. She knew french and russian literature. As a “mamie”, she managed to teach the importance of developing aristical abilities and she was also telling stories about the war of 1812. Her fiancé, the Colonel Alexeï Voeikov, had important missions back in the days as a military. Today, at the Museum-House of Polenovo, we can see a glass cup with the Napoleonic coat of arm: Alexeï retrieved it from a chest containing french army official dinner service.
Other important ancestor of Vasily Polenov was his great grandfather, Alekseï Polenov (1738-1816). As a famous scholar, he was the first russian jurist with a multidisciplinary education (economics, history, philosophy…). He participated to an essay competition organized by the Free Economic Society in 1766 on the following subject: “what is more useful to the State: that peasants should own land or own only property?”. His text was then entitled “On the abolition of the serfdom of russian peasants”, which became effective 100 years after.
Vasily Polenov simultaneously enrolled to the Imperial Academy of Arts and to the Law University in Saint Petersbourg (1863-1871). Polenov studied under Pavel Chistyakov and was a classmate and close friend of Rafail Levitsky, a fellow Peredvizhniki artist and famous photographer. Their letters, which are now stored in the Polenov's House museum, are an interesting account of the many art exhibitions, movements and artists of their time.
As bachelors, Polenov and Levitsky lived and worked together in "Devich'e Pole" (the name of the street "Maiden's Field"), in an attic of the Olsufevsky House (the home of Rafail Levitsky's future wife Anna Vasilevna Olsufevskaya). This house is illustrated by Polenov in his painting “Grandmother's Garden” (1878).
As one of the best students of the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts, he received the Great Medal for his painting The Resurrection of the daughter of Jairus (1871, Museum of the Academy of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg). This work was his first approach to a biblical theme for which the young artist had a deep interest. The price he received for this painting allowed him, along with other laureates, to become a pensioner (scholarship’s owner) abroad and live in Europe at the expenses of the Russian State. At the end of the summer of 1872, Vasily Polenov crossed Germany and Switzerland before settling in Venice and then Rome the following year. His Italian stay did not stimulate him much, he lacked from inspiration and worked very little. Nevertheless there, two major encounters happened and shaped his lifetime work. In "the Eternal City", he felt in love with the young Maroussia Obolenskaya who tragically died the same year of measles. However, Rome, has also been the scene of a fruitful and exciting meeting with Savva Mamontov (1841-1918), a rich entrepreneur, art lover and philanthrope. Together, in Italy, they were already planning to create a circle of multidisciplinary artists. The Mamontov’s estate in Abramtsevo seemed to be the ideal place to set up some artists' studios and a theater.

More...