Page:Benois - The Russian School of Painting (1916).djvu/157

 and resulted only in half-measures, in tragic mutual misunderstanding of the Government and the intelligentzia, and in the relapse of the masses into a state of inert brutality. After a few "liberal" years, during which we seemed to be overtaking mankind in its progress, there ensued a gloomy reaction, which had the saddest effects on our art, as well as on other aspects of the national life. The germs of an original Russian conception of the aims of art, which were contained in the works of Fedotov and Perov, perished before they could sprout. Perov, who went abroad in 1864 after producing his coarse, but pleasant denunciatory pictures, came back at a moment when there could be no question of continuing such bold work. That is why his art, and that of many other painters of that time, has remained something in the nature of a half-uttered word.

Probably the least artistic among Perov's works are his first paintings executed during the "period of the great reforms." But at the same time, these pictures: "The Arrival of the Commissary of Rural Police," "The Village Sermon," "A Tea-Party," and, especially, "The Village Church Procession" are the most valuable portion of his œuvre. As is the case in the contemporary picture "The Convicts' Resting-Place" of Iacobi, the pictorial defects in them are redeemed