# Vassily Maximov

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Russian painter (1844–1911)

For other uses, see [Maximov](/source/Maximov).

Vassily Maximov Vassily Maximov; portrait by Ivan Kramskoi (1878) Born (1844-01-17)January 17, 1844 Lopino, Novoladozhsky Uyezd, Saint Petersburg Governorate Died November 18, 1911(1911-11-18) (aged 67) Saint Petersburg Education Member Academy of Arts (1878) Alma mater Imperial Academy of Arts (1866) Known for Painting Style Realism Movement Peredvizhniki

**Vassily Maximovich Maximov** ([Russian](/source/Russian_language): Васи́лий Максимо́вич Макси́мов; 29 January [[O.S.](/source/Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates) 17 January] 1844 – 1 December [[O.S.](/source/Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates) 18 November] 1911) was a Russian painter, a prominent member of the [Peredvizhniki](/source/Peredvizhniki) group.

## Biography

Maximov was born to a peasant family in the village of [Lopino](/source/Volkhovsky_District) in the [Saint Petersburg Governorate](/source/Saint_Petersburg_Governorate), near [Novaya Ladoga](/source/Novaya_Ladoga). He became an orphan early and worked for an [Iconpainting](/source/Icon) shop, where he first learned to paint. In 1863 he entered the [Imperial Academy of Arts](/source/Imperial_Academy_of_Arts) and in 1864 he became a member of an [Artel of Artists](/source/Artel_of_Artists) created by P.N. Krestonovtsev by the example of [Ivan Kramskoi](/source/Ivan_Kramskoi). The artel existed only one year and was then disbanded. Maximov painted the *Sick Child* (1864) at that time, when received a Gold Medal of the Academia.

He completed all the courses of the Academy in three years. In 1865 he (like the group of fourteen led by Ivan Kramskoi had done earlier) refused to take part in the competitions for the Major Gold Medal by Academia. He argued that he did not need to study abroad (that was a part of the prize) but rather would study the Russian village. Indeed, after graduation from the Academia he moved to the village of Shubino, in the [gubernia](/source/Gubernia) of [Tver](/source/Tver), where he painted the peasant life, earning money as a painting teacher of the Princes Golenischev-Kutuzov (descendants of [Mikhail Illarionovich Kutuzov](/source/Mikhail_Illarionovich_Kutuzov)).

His painting *Grandmother's tales* (1867) was shown at an exhibition of the [Imperial Society for the Encouragement of the Arts](/source/Imperial_Society_for_the_Encouragement_of_the_Arts), where it won a prize and was bought by [Pavel Tretyakov](/source/Pavel_Tretyakov). In 1872 he was admitted to the Peredvizhniki group, and soon became one of its most prominent and rigorous members. [Ilya Yefimovich Repin](/source/Ilya_Yefimovich_Repin) described Maximov as "the most uncrushable stone in the foundation of *peredvizhnechestvo*". Maximov painted many paintings of the peasant life.

In the last twenty years of his life, realism paintings fell out of fashion. Maximov still painted almost exclusively scenes of the peasant lives that had almost no buyers. The artist lived a life full of poverty and illnesses. He died in [Saint Petersburg](/source/Saint_Petersburg).

## Selected works

		- *[Grandma's Fairy Tales](/source/Grandma's_Fairy_Tales)*, 1867

		- *Boy-engineer*, 1871

		- *[A Sorcerer Comes to a Peasant Wedding](/source/A_Sorcerer_Comes_to_a_Peasant_Wedding)*, 1875

		- *Sick husband*, 1881

		- *[Everything is in the past](/source/All_in_the_past)*, 1889

## References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to [Vassily Maximov](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Vassily_Maximov).

- [Biography at Старатель.com](http://staratel.com/pictures/ruspaint/373.htm) (in Russian)

Authority control databases International ISNI VIAF 2 GND FAST WorldCat National United States Czech Republic Poland Israel Artists ULAN RKD Artists Musée d'Orsay People Deutsche Biographie Other IdRef Open Library Encyclopedia of Modern Ukraine

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