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Sergey Ivanov
Sergey Ivanov was born into the family of an official in the town of Ruza (the Moscow Province) on June 4 (16), 1864. He attended the Moscow Painting, Sculpture and Architecture School (1878–1882 and 1884–1885), with I. M. Pryanishnikov as one of his mentors, and the Petersburg Academy of Arts (1882–1884). The artist intensely traveled across Russia accompanying peasants on their long routes in search of the better lot.
Sergey Ivanov was a member of The Itinerants Association from 1899 and one of the founders of The Russian Artists Union (1903). He lived in Moscow, and spent summers in the village of Svistukha near Dmitrov town.
Unsatisfied with the “sweet scenes” prevailing in the Itinerants’ genre art he aimed at dramatic art that would express the “beat of human soul”. He imprinted scenes of country life in expressly dim and mournful paintings about back-settlers (On the Way. Death of an Immigrant, 1889, the Tretyakov Gallery). 
Sergey Ivanov turned to be the innovator of the historical genre by arranging episodes of the Russian Middle Ages in the spirit of Art Nouveau. They were like action stills that captured the viewer with their dynamic rhythm and participation effect (Foreigners’ Arrival in Moscow of the 17th century, 1901; Campaign of Muscovites. 16th Century, 1903; the Tretyakov Gallery).
The peculiar traits of nervous “protoexpressionism” were most vividly manifested in his paintings about the first Russian revolution. One of them is the well-known Execution painting (1905, the Revolution Museum, Moscow).
Sergey Ivanov was also a fruitful etching and lithograph master, as well as the illustrator of writings by Nikolay Gogol, Mikhail Lermontov, Alexander Pushkin, and others. In addition to that, the prolific artist taught in the Moscow Painting, Sculpture and Architecture School (1900–1910) and the Stroganov Higher Arts and Crafts College (from 1899).
Sergey Ivanov in died the village of Svistukha on August 3 (16), 1910.
