Money, Love, and Friendship in the Late Imperial Artistic World

Abstract

The two books under consideration both explicitly explore the relationship between the creative process of writers and painters and personal, financial, and commercial concerns and contexts. Gregory’s book does this through a richly personal account of the relationship between Anton Chekhov and Isaak Levitan, while Shabanov’s work explores these themes through the prism of the commercial partnership of artists that came to be known as the Peredvizhniki, or Wanderers. The two books under consideration here are connected by Levitan, who himself exhibited with the Peredvizhniki, and the theme of making a living from art. Gregory’s work is primarily a work of literary studies, although it intersects with historical disciplines. Its key sources are letters, memoirs, and diaries. Shabanov’s work is a piece of historical scholarship. Its core primary sources are the catalogues produced to accompany the Peredvizhniki exhibitions.  