Russian impressionism is the trend of the Russian school of painting of the late 19th - early 20th centuries, which shows distinct features of the French impressionism, however, with no less pronounced national specifics.The latter tràits include gravitation towards the deeper meaning and implications of an artistic image, as well as materiality, objectivity, and the cult of etude.
Periods of creativity of outstanding Russian artists, namely Isaac Levitan, Ilya Repin, Vasily Polenov, Vasily Surikov, Fedor Vasilyev, Konstantin Korovin,Valentin Serov, Igor Grabar, Abram Arkhipov, and Arkhip Kuinji are classified as "Russian impressionism". Besides, vivid periods of impressionism can be found in lives of Victor Borisov-Musatov, Nikolai Bogdanov-Belsky, Pyotr Nilus, Konstantin Yuon, Dmitry Nalbandyan and other eminent masters.As you know, impressionism originated in France. The exhibition "Salon of Les Miserables", which was organized by brilliant French painters in the studio of the photographer Nadar in the spring of 1874, is considered the starting point in its existence, as opposed to the official "Paris Salon".
Impressionism made a real revolution in painting at the turn of the century, having gained rapid recognition among artists and art lovers in Europe, America and Russia. In this country, impressionism unexpectedly acquired completely new features in the creativity of domestic painters.
Russian impressionism kept the external techniques of the French school, such as painting in pure colors, special attention to depicting the play of light, and fast manner of painting necessarily in the open air. Russian impressionismt painting tended to very meaningful artworks. Against the background of a fleeting emotion, the inner world of the artist in person should have been revealed.
Ilya Repin, Vassily Polenov, and Isaac Levitan are considered the founders of Russian impressionism. Undoubtedly, Vassily Polenov played a special role in the development of "Russian impressionism". It was he who raised Konstantin Korovin and Valentin Serov as artists, being a teacher at the Moscow Painting School.
Russian Impressionism won worldwide recognition in 1898 after an exhibition organized by Sergei Diaghilev in Germany, at which Serov's Girl with Peaches and Korovin's landscape In Winter made a splash.
As for the brilliant landscape painter Arkhip Kuinji, he was influenced by the ideas of the Itinerants until 1876 However, after a trip to France he got carried away with Impressionism, creating such masterpieces as "Dnieper in the Morning" (1881) and "The North" (1879). Russian artist, art historian and art critic Alexander Benois compared Arkhip Kuinji to Claude Monet.
Some art critics believe that after World War I, the avant-garde, with Kazimir Malevich' "Black Square" at the forefront, completely supplanted Russian impressionism, which passed away as unexpectedly as it was born.