Repair Work on the Railway

Repair Work on the Railway
ArtistKonstantin Savitsky
Year1874
MediumOil on canvas
Dimensions103 cm × 180,8 cm (41 in × 712 in)
LocationState Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

Repair Work on the Railway is a painting by Russian artist Konstantin Savitsky (1844–1905), completed in 1874. It is held in the State Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow (Inventory 590). The dimensions of the painting are 103 × 180.8 cm[1] (100 × 175 cm, according to other sources).[2] The titles Railway Repair,[3] Railway Workers[4] and Repair on the Railway are also used.[5]

The idea for the painting came to Savitsky in the summer of 1873, when he was observing the work of repairing the tracks of the Moscow-Kursk railway near the station of Kozlova Zaseka in the Tula Governorate, where he lived with the artists Ivan Shishkin and Ivan Kramskoi.[6] Savitsky continued to work on the painting until the end of 1873, making the final revisions in January 1874.[7]

The painting Repair Work on the Railway, was presented at the third exhibition of the Society for Travelling Art Exhibitions (Peredvizhniki),[8] which opened in St Petersburg in January 1874 and subsequently relocated to Moscow in April of the same year.[9] Savitsky's work was well received[8] and subsequently purchased by Pavel Tretyakov.[10] In 1878, the painting Repair Work on the Railway was included in the Russian exposition at the World's Fair held in Paris.[11][12]

The artist and critic Alexandre Benois wrote that Savitsky became "an important pillar of the Peredvizhniki" with the creation of the painting Repair Work on the Railway in 1874, and noted that this canvas was "homogeneous in spirit and theme" with Ilya Repin's Burlaks on the Volga.[3] According to art historian Sofia Goldstein, Savitsky's Repair Work constituted "the first significant work by the novice master, which brought him well-deserved recognition."[13] In the opinion of art historian Dmitry Sarabianov, the works Burlaks on the Volga and Repair Work are "a significant milestone in the history of Russian art, in the development of the theme of the people in Russian painting."[14]

  1. ^ State Tretyakov Gallery catalogue, vol. 4, book 2 (2006, pp. 264–265)
  2. ^ Levenfish (1959, p. 157)
  3. ^ a b Benois (1995, p. 279)
  4. ^ Zonova (1958, p. 120)
  5. ^ Russian Art Culture, Book 2 (1969, p. 47)
  6. ^ Roginskaya (1989, p. 100)
  7. ^ Zonova (1958, p. 118)
  8. ^ a b Levenfish (1959, p. 27)
  9. ^ Roginskaya (1989, p. 418)
  10. ^ Zonova (1958, p. 119)
  11. ^ Zonova (1958, p. 122)
  12. ^ Seleznyova (2006, p. 27)
  13. ^ Goldstein (1965, p. 314)
  14. ^ Sarabianov (1955, p. 134)