Art education and provincial painting of the late 18th - early 19th century

The article is devoted to the history of art education in provincial Russian territories in the 18th-19th centuries. The purpose of the study is to identify different approaches to teaching provincial painters. For the first time, the influence of textbooks and teaching methods of the 18th-19th centuries on the painting techniques and the artistic image of provincial portraiture (a bright, but insufficiently researched phenomenon of national art) is considered. The methodology of the research is based on the historical, cultural, formal, stylistic and iconographic analysis of provincial painting, as well as on the results of restoration and technical analysis. Two approaches in provincial art education are distinguished, corresponding to two periods. The first period, covering the 1750s-1800s, inherited an archaic system of apprenticeship dating back to the traditions of the Moscow Armory. The technique of painting and the artistic originality of portraits from this period correlate with icon painting and the traditions of parsuna painting. The second period, the 1810s-1850s, was primarily marked by the strengthening of cultural ties between the capital and the provincial territories. In this period, the provincial art schools which took after the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts flourished. One the one hand, provincial portraiture is influenced by the academic school, updating its own painting technique and artistic image. On the other hand, the diversity of artistic trends marked by inconsistent quality becomes obvious, indicating the complicated social structure of society, the growth of welfare, and the strengthening of the position of the lower classes, serving as consumers of paintings. The expansion and growth of the art market of the Russian province stimulated schools and workshops and led to the appearance of a number of artists who found themselves in the center of attention of the broad strata of provincial society. Dilettantism arose and developed, marked by a specific painting technique. The creative path of many Russian painters began in the provinces. A striking example is the Chuguev period of I.E. Repin’s work, which is placed in the context of the history of provincial painting for the first time.