The Russian Vision: The Art of Ilya Repin by David Jackson (review)

Abstract

720 SEER, 86, 4, OCTOBER 2008 Jackson, David. The Russian Vision:The Art ofIlya Repin. BAI, Schoten, 2006. 304 pp. Chronology. Illustrations. Notes. Select bibliography. Index. ?40.00. One of the joys ofworking as an art historian inRussia is the popular accep tance of the subject (in urban centres, at any rate) as an inalienable part of Russian life.Russian schoolchildren visit museums and galleries in their thousands, and vying for top place in the canon ofworks with which they are familiar is a vast canvas of begrimed and dejected men hauling a boat along a river.That the artist of thispainting, Ilya Repin, is so litde known outside Russia has long concerned both Russians and foreign visitors to those collec tionswhere thebest of hisworks are housed. David Jackson's book The Russian Vision: The Art ofIlya Repin is a welcome and timely attempt to redress this problem, rising as itdoes to the challenge of establishing Repin as a major player in nineteenth-century European art. Jackson iswell qualified towrite such a book. Not only has he carried out lengthy research and teaching on the subject, but he was also involved in the exhibition of Repin's paintings at Groninger Museum, Holland, in 2001-02 which attracted over a quarter of a million people, exceeding even the curators' wildest dreams. Queues of visitors snaked around the building throughout the exhibition's duration, and extra carriages were added to trains running between Amsterdam and Groninger to cope with the crowds. Jackson draws on his experience of this extraordinary cultural phenomenon, as well as his extensive knowledge of Repin's oeuvreand of the literature on the artist, to consider Repin's position as primus interpares among Russian artists, and the difficulties of conveying this success abroad. As is the case in his other recent book, Tie Wanderers and CriticalRealism in Nineteenth-Century Russian Painting (Manchester and New York, 2006), Jackson chooses to organize hismaterial thematically,with core chapters on historical scenes, images of peasant life, political paintings and portraits. Such categori zation works well, allowing as it does a comprehensive analysis of the major genres of painting which Repin tackled when he was at the height of his powers (though for some reason Repin's official portraits are considered as a subcategory of political paintings, which implicitly accredits them with political messages which are not necessarily there). Less successful are the accounts of the early years and the twilight of Repin's career, which stand like bookends at either end of the text. The result ant shift from chronological to thematic arrangement necessitates a clumsy three-page preface to chapters three to six,which provides a biographical summary of the major events of Repin's career. The reasoning is understand able: an audience unfamiliar with the subject requires such an introduction to contextualize the discussion ahead. But much of the information in the preface is reiterated where relevant later in the book, and a reader with the mental agility to tackle an unfamiliar subject is likely to be able to negotiate the changes in time and pace which the thematic account requires. Jackson's claim that this is 'the first full critical analysis of [Repin's] vast output by a Western art historian' (p. 10) is questionable. (Elizabeth K. Valkenier's Ilya Repin and the World ofRussian Art,New York, 1990, seems an REVIEWS 721 obvious contender for that title.) Nevertheless, Jackson's determination to give the aesthetic pretensions ofRepin's paintings due weight is admirable. As he righdy points out, Repin's work is ill-served by photographic reproductions, which convey an impression ofpolished naturalism which isoften at odds with the visceral touch of the artist's brush. Jackson counteracts this with some subtle descriptions of the physical construction of an impressive range of works. More could be made of the excellent holdings inprovincial museums inRussia, but of particular merit is the introduction of little-knownpaintings byRepin which have appeared in themajor Western auction houses in recent years. Indeed, the author and his publishers are to be commended for the courageous decision to put the enigmatic Portrait ofLidiya Kuznetsova (1901, private collection) on the dust jacket, rather than seeking refuge behind...