Автопортрет

1868–1876

Friendship with Repin and the “evenings” at Antokolsky’s

In St Petersburg he grew very close to Ilya Repin; he attended the “evenings” at the apartment of Repin and the sculptor Mark Antokolsky, where the student Ivan Savenkov read bylinas in a slow chant, in the northern accent so familiar to Vasnetsov — and so his interest in early Russian culture and folk epic finally took shape.

1868–1876

Friendship with Arkhip Kuindzhi

In St Petersburg he grew especially close to Arkhip Kuindzhi: the taciturn Vasnetsov found the key to his reserved nature, and when Kuindzhi painted “Ukrainian Night” he exclaimed that it was the very night Gogol had spoken of — “now we see it”.

summer 1871

He meets his future wife, Alexandra Ryazantseva

In the summer of 1871, home in Vyatka on academic leave, he met Alexandra Ryazantseva in the local library — a merchant’s daughter who would become one of the first women from Vyatka with a higher medical education; he was struck by “her eyes — stern and extraordinarily kind”.

autumn 1871

“The Rooks Have Returned” at the Peredvizhniki exhibition

In the autumn of 1871, at the first exhibition of the Peredvizhniki, he was deeply struck by Savrasov’s “The Rooks Have Returned”: “Here she is, my beloved homeland. Unadorned, just as she is” — the picture, with its poetry of the Russian spring, became for him a symbol of the revival of Russian art.

1873–1875

He leaves the Academy before graduating

In 1873, a year before the end of the course, he almost stopped attending the Academy and went only to Chistyakov’s studio: Chistyakov told him he had already got from the Academy all it could give, and Kramskoi advised the same; on 4 (16) February 1875 he was formally discharged, receiving a certificate that listed two small silver medals and one large one.

1874

“Tea-drinking in a Tavern” with the Peredvizhniki

In 1874 he took part for the first time in an exhibition of the Peredvizhniki, showing “Tea-drinking in a Tavern” (“Over Tea”).