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The initiative to create an association of Russian artists independent of the Academy, which would exhibit works of art not only in St Petersburg and Moscow, but also in the provinces, belonged to the artist Grigorii Miasoedov (1835-1911). Nikolai Ge, one of the founding members of the Association of Itinerant Art Exhibitions, indicated that Miasoedov discovered the idea of travelling exhibitions during his visit to England, where such exhibitions were held in the aftermath of the World Fair in Paris in 1867 'with the aim to improve the level of taste in English painting'. In a letter written by Moscow artists to the St Petersburg Artel' of Artists in 1869 the draft statute of the new organisation was outlined and the next year the Association was formed. The founding members comprised painters from both Russian capitals, several of whom, such as Ivan Kramskoi, Aleksei Korzukhin, Karl Lemokh and Konstantin Makovskii, had taken part in the Revolt of the Fourteen in 1863. Artists as Nikolai Ge, Vasilii Perov, Grigorii Miasoedov, Aleksei Savrasov, Illarion Prianishnikov and Ivan Shishkin represented the avant-garde in the development of Russian realist art. The Statute of the Association of Itinerant Art Exhibitions, also known as the Peredvizhniki, the Wanderers and the Itinerants, declared its philanthropic mission to disseminate the knowledge and love of art in society, which reflected the ideology of the progressive Russian intelligentsia of the 1860s. However, the greater part of the document is devoted to the delineation of the financial arrangements and the bureaucratic structure of the organisation. The Peredvizhniki became one of the most commercially successful and long-lasting artists' societies in Russia and existed until 1923.
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acknowledgements