The Itinerants / Передвижники

The Society for Circulating Art Exhibitions (1870-1923), a major democratic association of Russian realist artist, united many progressive-minded personalities of the time. Members of the Society organized annual exhibitions in St. Petersburg and Moscow, which later moved to the provincial towns. The popularization of painting is one of the greatest services to Russian art rendered by the Itinerants (Peredvizhniki), as these artists came to be called. The introductory essay by Andrei Lebedev, a prominent Soviet art historian, describes the creative work of the Itinerants as one of the most brilliant chapters in the history of Russian art. 162 plates, 115 of them in full colour, reproduce some of the best-known works of Kramskoi, Repin, Surikov, Kuinji, Polenov, Yaroshenko, and many other famous painters.