Блаженство Рая

1885–1895

The controversy over the Kiev frescoes: Stasov, Benois, Filosofov

Contemporaries disagreed: Dmitry Filosofov saw in the frescoes “the first bridge over the 200-year-old gulf” between classes of Russian society, Stasov a sacrilegious play with the religious feelings of the people, and Alexandre Benois a “sumptuous and frivolous féerie”; Vasnetsov himself saw the cathedral as a “Bible for the poor”.

1891–1894

He builds a terem-style house in Troitskaya Sloboda

In 1891 he bought land in Troitskaya Sloboda and himself devised a wooden mansion in the style of an ancient Russian terem; construction, carried out by peasants from Vladimir Governorate, was completed in 1894, and the second-floor studio (110 m², six-metre ceilings) became the place where the “Bogatyrs”, “The Snow Maiden” and the “Poem of Seven Fairy Tales” were painted; Governor-General Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich allowed the house to exceed the height limit.

1892

Professor of the Imperial Academy of Arts

From 1892 he was a professor of the Imperial Academy of Arts, and in 1893–1905 a full member of the Academy (under its new statute).