Konstantin Savitskii

Born May 25 (June 6), 1844, in Taganrog; died Jan. 31 (Feb. 13), 1905, in Penza. Russian painter.

Savitskii studied at the St. Petersburg Academy of Art from 1862 to 1873; he was made a member of the academy in 1895. He joined the Society of Wandering Art Exhibitions (the peredvizhniki—a progressive art movement) in 1878. From 1891 to 1897 he taught at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture. In 1897 he became a teacher at the Penza Art School, where he also held the position of director. His pupils included G. N. Gorelov, G. K. Savitskii, and K. F. Iuon.

Savitskii’s works, most of which are genre paintings, have denunciatory overtones. The artist rendered the complex psychology of the people, depicted striking folk types, and effected a masterly arrangement of figures. Savitskii did a number of plein-air paintings (Repair Work on the Railroad, 1874; Receiving the Icon, 1878—both in the Tret’iakov Gallery). In many of his works scenes of folk life have a tragic quality (Going to War, 1880–88, Russian Museum, Leningrad) and portray the sharpness of the social conflict (Boundary Dispute, 1897, Museum of the Revolution of the USSR, Moscow). Savitskii was also an illustrator, etcher, and lithographer.