Богоматерь с младенцем

1878–1890 · Career

the Peredvizhniki

From 1878 he belonged to the Society of Travelling Art Exhibitions (the Peredvizhniki): he took part in its activity in 1878–1890 and exhibited with it until 1897; he was admitted for the realism and sharp social subjects of his genre paintings.

1884–1889

Friendship with Mikhail Vrubel in Kiev

While living in Kiev he became friends with Mikhail Vrubel, who was also working on the cathedral; while they worked together Vasnetsov taught the younger artist a great deal.

1885–1895

The controversy over the Kiev frescoes: Stasov, Benois, Filosofov

Contemporaries disagreed: Dmitry Filosofov saw in the frescoes “the first bridge over the 200-year-old gulf” between classes of Russian society, Stasov a sacrilegious play with the religious feelings of the people, and Alexandre Benois a “sumptuous and frivolous féerie”; Vasnetsov himself saw the cathedral as a “Bible for the poor”.

1891–1894

He builds a terem-style house in Troitskaya Sloboda

In 1891 he bought land in Troitskaya Sloboda and himself devised a wooden mansion in the style of an ancient Russian terem; construction, carried out by peasants from Vladimir Governorate, was completed in 1894, and the second-floor studio (110 m², six-metre ceilings) became the place where the “Bogatyrs”, “The Snow Maiden” and the “Poem of Seven Fairy Tales” were painted; Governor-General Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich allowed the house to exceed the height limit.