Tobolsk
1834-1882 village of Kuzminki, near Moscow
Vasilii
Grigorievich Perov received his initial art training in the provincial
Arzamass School of Art run by A.V. Stupin, who inculcated his students
with his early, and in many ways still naive, realist skills. From 1853
until 1861, Perov studied at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture,
and Architecture. After that he lived in Paris (1862-1864), studying the
works of the Old Masters while enjoying life in the outlying areas of
the city. Perov returned to Moscow in 1864, where he headed a group of
young artists-realists and became a founding member of and an active
figure in the Circle of the Itinerants. In 1866 he received the title of
member of the Petersburg Academy of Arts. A leading painter of genre
scenes and portraits in the 1860s and 1870s, Perov exercised an enormous
influence on the development of Russian realism in the second half of
the nineteenth century.
"...
What a talent! What an imposing, independent figure! What a marvelous
choice of subjects! What an eye and a talent for observation! Such a
rich gallery of types this original Siberian has brought into our
art" (V.V. Stasov).
