This book addresses the little-studied area of Russian genre painting in the first three-quarters of the nineteenth century. Rosalind Gray begins by examining artistic patronage and published texts which engaged with the visual arts, in order to illustrate the context in which Russian artists were working. Five major painters - Venetsianov, Bryullov, Ivanov, Fedotov and Perov - are then discussed in detail.Dr Gray identifies the vital contribution which these artists made to Russian intellectual life, as genre painting was appropriated as a medium in the dissemination of popular values and social change. At the same time, the relationship between Russian and European art is explored. The book demonstrates that, far from being a self-contained movement, Russian genre painting instead engaged in a fluid and complex dialogue with the art of the West.