Kramskoi, Ivan

Kramskoi, Ivan [Kramskoj] (Kramsky), b 8 June 1837 in Ostrogozhsk, Voronezh gubernia, Russia, d 5 April 1887 in Saint Petersburg. (Photo: Ivan Kramskoi.) Russian realist painter of Ukrainian origin. A graduate (1863) and faculty member (1869–87) of the Saint Petersburg Academy of Arts, he was one of the founders and ideologists of the Peredvizhniki. In the 1850s he visited Kharkiv, and in 1871 he worked in Khotin village in the Sumy region. He made frequent trips to the Crimea. His works include canvases on religious themes such as Christ in the Desert (1872) and Inconsolable Grief (1884); a collection of portraits, including portraits of Taras Shevchenko (Portrait if Taras Shevchenko, 1871), Porfyrii Martynovych (1876), Oleksander Lytovchenko (Portrait if Oleksander Lytovchenko, 1878), and a self-portrait (1867); and a series of genre paintings, such as Beekeeper (1872), Forester (1874), and Peasant with Bridle (1883). His Nymphs (1871) and Moonlit Night (1880) were based on his memories of Ukraine and the impact of Nikolai Gogol's writings on him.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 2 (1989).]