ABSTRACT
Voldemars Matvejs study of the relationship of the artist to nature is based on a broad survey of art from the past. He rejects the importance of the Renaissance, proposes a new ideal, 'the primitives' and explains the reasons for his choice. The critic Alexander Benois found Petrov-Vodkin's painting The Dream to be not just the best of all the paintings at the Union of Russian Artists' exhibition but of all of this year's exhibitions. Professor Repin was outraged, and in a published letter to Benois' editor declared that any janitor could paint like that. The artist Bakst replied to Professor Repin and insisted that Petrov-Vodkin's drawing was more serious, bold and artistic than Repin's. Zola's formula that art is nature passing through the prism of temperament is inappropriate for people. In nature, everything is subordinate to laws. In art everything should be permitted.
