What is the name of the Russian realist art movement formed in 1870?

The Russian realist art movement formed in 1870 was the Peredvizhniki, commonly known in English as The Wanderers or The Itinerants. It was an artists’ cooperative created in opposition to the restrictive academic system of the Imperial Academy of Arts.

The group grew out of the Petersburg Cooperative of Artists, which had roots in the 1863 “revolt of the fourteen,” when students left the Academy after objecting to its conservative rules and rigid competition subjects. The Peredvizhniki aimed to bring art beyond Moscow and Saint Petersburg by organizing traveling exhibitions in provincial cities.

Their paintings emphasized contemporary Russian life, including peasants, workers, landscapes, portraits, and social hardship. Important members included Ivan Kramskoi, Ilya Repin, Vasily Perov, Isaac Levitan, Ivan Shishkin, and Vasily Surikov. Between 1871 and 1923, the society organized 48 traveling exhibitions. “The Wanderers” describes the group’s traveling exhibitions, not an unrelated avant-garde movement.