ABSTRACT
In 1870, the Russian tycoon Savva Mamontov (1841–1918) bought the country estate of Abramtsevo, a property about 70 km north-east of Moscow. Mamontov was a keen patron of the arts and, having amassed a fortune in Russia's burgeoning railway industry, he decided to use his money to support an artists' colony on his estate. Much of the ideology of the Abramtsevo artists echo that of William Morris and his colleagues, which later underpinned the major discourses of the Arts and Crafts movement. This chapter examines the way in which their sense of 'brotherhood' was constructed, for despite the fact that Abramtsevo products display a variety of styles and media, ranging from Serov's plein-air Impressionism to Vrubel's Symbolist ceramics, there was a distinct Abramtsevo identity. The obvious starting point for a discussion of the Abramtsevo identity is the figure of Mamontov himself. Mamontov's compelling enthusiasm for the arts contributed enormously to the development of an Abramtsevo identity.
