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Drawings have a very special place in Russian Impressionist art. Traditionally, first year students at Russian and Soviet art schools were permitted to do nothing but draw. Their six years’ intensive academic training was built on a foundation of great drawing. An observer at the small (but very impressive) museum at the Ilya Repin St. Petersburg State Academic Institute Of Fine Arts, Sculpture And Architecture (the “Repin Institute”) can see academic drawings (with the grades attached) from student works starting from 1769.

The result of this emphasis on mastering drawing as the basis of great art can be seen in the museum exhibitions of student drawings from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The exhibit includes student works of some of Russia’s greatest artists, including Ivan Shishkin, Arkady Plastov, Vasily Nechitailo, Nikolai Timkov, Eugenia Antipova, Alexander Sokolov, Nikolai Baskakov, Oleg Lomakin, Boris Ioganson, and many others.

Russians have maintained this great drawing discipline even today. Even contemporary students at Russia's prestigious academies must first master drawing for at least a year before they are allowed to move on to other forms. It is this strength in drawing technique that makes possible the uncompromising realism of Russian art.

We are thrilled to be presenting the first show of Russian academic drawings in Utah. It is a wonderful collection, and we hope you will stop by the Gallery to enjoy some of the master works of Russian drawings.

Ilya Repin St. Petersburg State Academic Institute of Fine Arts, Sculpture and Architecture

The Arts Academy was founded in 1757 and is the largest arts educational institution and one of the most important scientific centers in Russia. For almost two and a half centuries the Academy has been promoting the traditional and classical fine art of Russia and plays a key part in the preservation of its native style. Presently there are more than seven hundred students during the day and over five hundred attending evening courses at the Academy. About 100 professors, associate professors, and 60 teach at the Academy. The Academy has 5 faculties: Fine Art, Graphic Arts, Sculpture, Architecture, and Art Theory and History.

The Library of The Russian Fine Arts Academy is the oldest art library in Russia. During the first decades of the Library's existence many important books on painting, sculpture and architecture and on adjacent and subsidiary brunches of art such as anatomy, perspective and so on were acquired by the Library. Today the Library houses editions from the XVIth, XVIIth and XVIIIth centuries, some of which have the monogram and the coat of arms of the founder of The Arts Academy Ivan Shuvalov. Many of the books contain remarkable examples of Russian and Western European polygraphic art.

There are two exhibition halls, one called "Raphael," and the other "Titian". The reason behind this is the fact that each individual hall displays frescos of these two fantastic artists. Temporary exhibitions are mostly held there - for example, the "Exhibition of Diploma Works" and the "Exhibition of the Academy Professors."