In his essay, Fyodor Dostoyevsky shares his impressions of a visit to the Academy of Arts exhibition of works to be selected for the Vienna World’s Fair. He begins with the question: “Will paintings by Russian artists be understood abroad?” He resolutely rejects landscapes (“What is so special about them?”) and “the historical theme” (“not even worth talking about”), seeking the answer in an analysis of such genre paintings as “Lovers of Nightingales” and “Psalm Readers” by V.E. Makovsky, “Hunters on Bivouac” by V.G. Perov and “Barge Haulers on the Volga” by I.E. Repin. The writer concludes that while Russian viewers are capable of understanding a scene, for example, from German life, “the Germans will fail to understand the same about us”. At the end of the essay Dostoyevsky notes aconfusion of “notions about reality” – historical and current – in the works of some contemporary artists, citing as an example “The Last Supper” by N.N. Ge.
Key words: F.M. Dostoyevsky, the 1873 Academy of Arts exhibition, the Vienna World’s Fair, V.E. Makovsky, V.G. Perov, I.E. Repin, genre painting.