Ivan.

“Tell me more about 19th century Russian art, please daddy!” Ok, ok, calm down son… Here’s some Ivan Kramskoj:

When studying at the S:t Petersburg Academy of Art, Ivan and some other students wanted to pick their own subjects for their paintings, which of course led to them being expelled (no fun allowed!).  They instead founded the Peredvizhniki guild, which was inspired by liberal ideas and thoughts that art should have a moral and social responsibility. They rebelled against academic traditions and focused mainly on painting ordinary people, often at work. Kramskoj was one of the most talented portrait artists of his time, and his paintings provide a good example of how painting, in certain aspects, has an advantage over photography. His portraits carry with them a strong expressiveness, manifested through depth, volume and composition, that can’t easily be captured by a camera. Much like Lucian Freud, he seems to somehow capture something in the essence of his subjects, that expresses itself through the paintings.