Barge Haulers on the Volga
Encyclopedia
_-_volga_boatmen_(1870-1873).jpg)
Social realism
Social Realism, also known as Socio-Realism, is an artistic movement, expressed in the visual and other realist arts, which depicts social and racial injustice, economic hardship, through unvarnished pictures of life's struggles; often depicting working class activities as heroic...
painter and sculptor Ilya Repin. The work depicts 11 labouring men dragging a barge
Barge
A barge is a flat-bottomed boat, built mainly for river and canal transport of heavy goods. Some barges are not self-propelled and need to be towed by tugboats or pushed by towboats...
on the Volga River
Volga River
The Volga is the largest river in Europe in terms of length, discharge, and watershed. It flows through central Russia, and is widely viewed as the national river of Russia. Out of the twenty largest cities of Russia, eleven, including the capital Moscow, are situated in the Volga's drainage...
. The men seem to almost collapse forward in exhaustion under the burden of hauling a large boat upstream in heavy, hot weather.
The work is both a celebration of the men's dignity and fortitude, and a highly emotional condemnation of those who sanctioned such inhumane labour. Although they are presented as stoical and accepting, the men are largely defeated; only one stands out: in the centre of both the row and canvas, a brightly coloured youth fights against his leather binds and takes on a heroic poise.
Repin conceived the painting during his travels through Russia as a young man and depicts actual characters he encountered. It drew international praise for its realistic portrayal of the hardships of working men, and launched his career. Soon after its completion, the painting was purchased by Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich
Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich of Russia
Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich of Russia ) was a son of Emperor Alexander II of Russia...
and exhibited widely throughout Europe as a landmark of Russian realist painting. Barge Haulers on the Volga has been described as "perhaps the most famous painting of the Peredvizhniki
Peredvizhniki
Peredvizhniki , often called The Wanderers or The Itinerants in English, were a group of Russian realist artists who in protest at academic restrictions formed an artists' cooperative; it evolved into the Society for Travelling Art Exhibitions in 1870.- History :In 1863 a group of fourteen students...
movement [for]....its unflinching portrayal of backbreaking labour".
Background
Repin graduated from the Academy in St Petersburg in 1863. The academy at the time was known for its deep conservatism and leaning towards academic art, a fact that bred a sense of revolt and desire for change in many of its students.Barge Haulers is inspired by scenes witnessed by the artist while holidaying on the Volga in 1870. He made a number of preparatory studies, mostly in oil, while staying in Shiriaev Buerak, near Stavropol
Stavropol
-International relations:-Twin towns/sister cities:Stavropol is twinned with: Des Moines, United States Béziers, France Pazardzhik, Bulgaria-External links:* **...
. The sketches include landscapes, and views of the Volga and barge haulers.
The characters depicted are based on actual people whom the artist came to know while preparing the work. He had had difficulty finding subjects to pose for him, even for a fee, because of a folklorish belief that a subject's soul
Soul
A soul in certain spiritual, philosophical, and psychological traditions is the incorporeal essence of a person or living thing or object. Many philosophical and spiritual systems teach that humans have souls, and others teach that all living things and even inanimate objects have souls. The...
would leave his possession once his image was put down on paper. The subjects include a former soldier, a former priest, and a painter. Although Repin depicted eleven men, women also performed the work and there were normally many more people in a barge-hauling gang; Repin selected these figures as representative of a broad swathe of the working classes of Russian society. That some had once held relatively high social positions dismayed the young artist, who had initially planned to produce a far more superficial work contrasting exuberant day-trippers (which he himself had been) with the careworn burlaks. Repin found a particular empathy with Kanin, the defrocked priest, who is portrayed as the lead hauler and looks outwards towards the viewer. The artist wrote,
- "There was something eastern about it, the face of a ScythScythiaIn antiquity, Scythian or Scyths were terms used by the Greeks to refer to certain Iranian groups of horse-riding nomadic pastoralists who dwelt on the Pontic-Caspian steppe...
...and what eyes! What depth of vision!...And his brow, so large and wise...He seemed to me a colossal mystery, and for that reason I loved him. Kanin, with a rag around his head, his head in patches made by himself and then worn out, appeared none the less as a man of dignity; he was like a saint."
Description
Barge Haulers on the Volga shows a row of eleven male burlakBurlak
A burlak was a Russian epithet for a person who hauled barges and other vessels upstream from the 17th to 20th centuries. The word burlak originated from Tatar word bujdak, 'homeless'...
s dragging a barge on the Volga River
Volga River
The Volga is the largest river in Europe in terms of length, discharge, and watershed. It flows through central Russia, and is widely viewed as the national river of Russia. Out of the twenty largest cities of Russia, eleven, including the capital Moscow, are situated in the Volga's drainage...
that must be pulled upstream against the current. The men are dressed in rags and bound with leather harnesses. They are rendered as mostly stoical, although in obvious physical discomfort, with their bodies bowed in toil. The scene is rendered in a white, silvery light which has been described as "almost Venetian". In earlier studies, it was dominated by blue tones.
There is a general sense of mounting exhaustion and despair moving from left to right amongst the group; the last hauler seems oblivious to his surroundings and drifts from the line out towards the viewer. The exception is a fair-haired boy in the centre of the group. Set brightly against the uniform muted tones of his companions, his head is raised looking into the distance, while he pulls against his straps as if determined to free himself from his task.
Repin grew up in Chuguev
Chuhuiv
Chuhuiv is a city in the Kharkiv Oblast of eastern Ukraine. Serving as the administrative center of the Chuhuivskyi Raion , the city itself is directly subordinate to the oblast, and is located at around ....
in the Ukraine and was aware of the poverty and hardship of most rural life at that time. He spent two years travelling during which time he observed both the dacha
Dacha
Dacha is a Russian word for seasonal or year-round second homes often located in the exurbs of Soviet and post-Soviet cities. Cottages or shacks serving as family's main or only home are not considered dachas, although many purpose-built dachas are recently being converted for year-round residence...
s of the rich and the toil of the common peasant. As such it can be considered a genre painting, but treated on the heroic scale of history painting
History painting
History painting is a genre in painting defined by subject matter rather than an artistic style, depicting a moment in a narrative story, rather than a static subject such as a portrait...
, as was often the case in 19th-century works, especially after A Burial At Ornans
A Burial At Ornans
A Burial At Ornans is a painting of 1849–50 by Gustave Courbet, and one of the major turning points of 19th-century French art. The painting records the funeral in September 1848 of his great-uncle in the painter's birthplace, the small town of Ornans...
by Gustave Courbet
Gustave Courbet
Jean Désiré Gustave Courbet was a French painter who led the Realist movement in 19th-century French painting. The Realist movement bridged the Romantic movement , with the Barbizon School and the Impressionists...
(1850). Barge Haulers drew direct comparisons from critics with Millet
Jean-François Millet
Jean-François Millet was a French painter and one of the founders of the Barbizon school in rural France...
's works and Courbet's The Stone Breakers
The Stone Breakers
The Stone Breakers was an 1849–50 painting by the French painter Gustave Courbet. It was a work of social realism, depicting two peasants, a young man and an old man, breaking rocks.The painting was first exhibited at the Paris Salon of 1850...
(also 1850), which showed labourers at the side of a road.
The painting is a relentlessly physical description of the men; Repin was attracted by their strength and superhuman effort. According to critic Vladimir Stassov, "They are like a group of forest Hercules with their dishevelled heads, their sun-tanned chests, and their motionlessly hanging, strong-veined hands. What glances from untamed eyes, what distended nostrils, what iron muscles!" In his description of their heavy brows and the lined foreheads, Repin does not neglect their spiritual torment; although he does not concentrate too much on any single man's personal intimate emotions, any sense of personal hardship is of secondary importance to the portrayal of effort and human dignity.
Critical opinion and legacy
Repin considered Barge Haulers to be his first professional painting and it is the work that defined him as a master documentarian of social inequalitySocial inequality
Social inequality refers to a situation in which individual groups in a society do not have equal social status. Areas of potential social inequality include voting rights, freedom of speech and assembly, the extent of property rights and access to education, health care, quality housing and other...
. When first exhibited, it received enthusiastic reviews for its unsentimental depiction of lower-class labourers, which stood in stark contrast to the romanticised, classical or propagandist nature of most contemporary Russian art. The painting paved the way for Repin to join the Peredvizhniki
Peredvizhniki
Peredvizhniki , often called The Wanderers or The Itinerants in English, were a group of Russian realist artists who in protest at academic restrictions formed an artists' cooperative; it evolved into the Society for Travelling Art Exhibitions in 1870.- History :In 1863 a group of fourteen students...
(the Wanderers or Itinerants), an anti-academic
Academic art
Academic art is a style of painting and sculpture produced under the influence of European academies of art. Specifically, academic art is the art and artists influenced by the standards of the French Académie des Beaux-Arts, which practiced under the movements of Neoclassicism and Romanticism,...
realist movement formed in 1870. The Peredvizhniki sought not only to break away from the academic school, but also to subvert the manner in which art was viewed. By depicting scenes from ordinary life and holding exhibitions in the provinces they aimed to enlighten and make art more accessible to the masses.
The painting was widely discussed for its break with the traditions of the Academy. It earned Repin the respect of Stasov who believed that art shaped people's outlook and the way in which they viewed their own political situation. Stasov encouraged Repin to focus on Russian subject matter and after Barge Haulers became a close friend of the artist and enthusiastically praised each of Repin's paintings thereafter. Stasov wrote of the painting, "with a daring that is unprecedented amongst us [Repin] has abandoned all former conceptions of the ideal in art, and has plunged head first into the very heart of the people's life, the people's interests, and the people's oppressive reality... no one in Russia has ever dared take on such a subject". In return, Repin said that Stasov's "cry all over Russia was the first and the mightiest and it was heard in Russia by everyone capable of hearing. It was thanks to him that my glory spread."
Fyodor Dostoyevsky read about Repin's painting in the newspapers and assumed it was another Russian work whose artistry was secondary to its social message. He wrote, "Even the subject itself is terrible... I came expecting to see these barge-haulers all lined up in uniforms with the usual labels stuck to their foreheads... To my delight, all my fears turned out to be in vain... Not a single one of them shouts from the painting to the viewer, 'Look how unfortunate I am and how indebted you are to the people!'" To Dostoyevsky, Repin had avoided a common fault of contemporary Russian art, and in doing so had heightened the work's impact. He concluded, "[I saw] barge haulers, real barge haulers, and nothing more... you can't help but think you are indebted, truly indebted, to the people." Such a feeling of an "unpaid debt" owed by the higher society to the peasantry was a common idea of the Narodniks. Today the painting is regarded as seminal in the formation of Russian realism.
The painting has been criticised both for still bearing hallmarks of academic drawing and for having an overall yellowish tone. Although it won a prize at the Society for the Advancement of the Arts in 1872, Repin continued to rework the canvas until 1873 when it was exhibited at the Academy of Arts in Saint Petersburg.
Because of the work's popularity it has been widely parodied, and is often used as the basis for satirical political cartoons in Russia. It inspired the well-known Russian folk song "The Song of the Volga Boatmen".
According to the art critic Elia Kabanov Repin's painting influenced American orientalist painter Frederick Arthur Bridgman
Frederick Arthur Bridgman
Frederick Arthur Bridgman was an American artist known for his paintings of "Orientalist" subjects.Born in Tuskegee, Alabama, he was the son of a physician...
to produce his "Towing on the Nile" in 1875.
Provenance
Despite its progressive implications, Barge Haulers was bought by the Tsar's second son. It was lent for exhibition at the 1873 International ExhibitionWeltausstellung 1873 Wien
]The Weltausstellung 1873 Wien was the large World exposition was held in 1873 in the Austria–Hungarian capital of Vienna. Its motto was Kultur und Erziehung ....
in Venice, where it won a bronze medal. It was exhibited outside Russia again in 1878, when it was again widely praised by critics for marking a watershed in Russian art. After the Russian Revolution the grand duke's art collection was nationalize
Nationalization
Nationalisation, also spelled nationalization, is the process of taking an industry or assets into government ownership by a national government or state. Nationalization usually refers to private assets, but may also mean assets owned by lower levels of government, such as municipalities, being...
d and transferred from Vladimir Palace
Vladimir Palace
The Vladimir Palace was the last imperial palace to be constructed in Saint Petersburg, Russia. It was designed by a team of architects for Alexander II's son, Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich of Russia...
to the Russian Museum
Russian Museum
The State Russian Museum is the largest depository of Russian fine art in St Petersburg....
.