CHAPTER VII
LANDSCAPE AND FREE REALISM
WE have seen that at the beginning of the nineteenth century Russian landscape was already in existence as an independent branch of painting, which had several remarkable representatives in the past and which promised further development. The evolution of Russian landscape followed two paths. One was the continuation of that somewhat official art of Alexeyev, Ivanov, and other artists who pursued definite "topographical" aims; the other was of a more intimate and poetical character. The main phases of the first current have been mentioned above, M. Vorobyov, Alexeyev's pupil, was the fountain-head of a school, which gave the numerous "parlour" artists, who painted mawkishly exquisite studies of places remarkable for their picturesqueness or historical associations. It is noteworthy, that earlier in the century these landscape painters showed a more rigorous attitude toward their work, and, therefore, their paintings are valuable as topography, if in no other respect. Such are, for example, the
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