Andrei Ryabushkin (1861–1904)

Ryabushkin A. Seventeenth-Century Moscow Street on a Public Holiday. 1895

The Russian way of life in the seventeenth century was the theme of many paintings by Andrei Ryabushkin in the second half of the 1890s.

Recreating the historical setting, the artist accurately conveys the costumes and architecture of that period. Interpreting the subject as a vivid urban scene, Ryabushkin paints an internally dynamic image of a street after a downpour, transformed into a fast flowing river.

Ryabushkin A. Seventeenth-Century Merchant Family. 1896

This picture occupies a prominent place in the art of Andrei Ryabushkin. The artist paints a general image of a patriarchal Russian family, addressing the traditions of Old Russian art. The monumental composition, flat modelling of forms and the heavy and static figures were typical of the first period in the history of secular portraiture in Russia — the turn of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The bright patterns and rich tones lend a decorative ring to this work. The picture was highly praised at the Exposition Universelle in Paris in 1900.