Humanities & Social Sciences 10 (2016 9) 2383-2397 ~ ~ ~ УДК 72.03(470) Style Moderne and the Rediscovery of the Wooden Architecture of the Russian North: the Photographic Connection William C. Brumfield* Tulane University New Orleans, Louisiana, USA Received 17.06.2016, received in revised form 20.07.2016, accepted 14.09.2016 The pre-Petrine “backwardness” of Russia’s wooden architecture would become a point of interest in the nineteenth century, as Russian intellectuals and artists began to search for origins, antecedents and authenticity in the native culture. <...> Engravings of traditional structures began to be widely distributed and published. <...> Among the first artists to define the wooden vernacular as a stylistic inspiration were Viktor Hartmann and Ivan Ropet, both of whom worked at Abramtsevo in the early 1870s. <...> Other Abramtsevo artists ‒ Vasilii Polenov, Viktor Vasnetsov, Konstantin Korovin, and to some extent Aleksandr Golovin ‒ introduced their painterly conception of mass and space into architectonic form. <...> The prominence of the crafts revival and the use of folk motifs demonstrate a confluence of purpose and understanding among a group of artists, set designers, and architects at the turn of the century. <...> The logical bond between material and structure in the medieval or folk traditions of pre-Petrine Russian architecture was given an aesthetic interpretation in the neo-Russian variant of the style moderne, which spread in the early twentieth century throughout Russia. <...> The work of Sergei Maliutin is particularly significant in this area. <...> The article proposes that photography at the turn of the 20th century played a crucial role in presenting forms of traditional wooden architecture to the Russian public and to architects themselves. <...> Of particular importance was the publication of Igor’ Grabar’s multi-volume History of Russian Art, the first part of which was dedicated to pre-Petrine architecture, including the wooden churches of the North in photographs by artists such as Ivan Bilibin. <...> The article concludes with a discussion of the work of Fedor Shekhtel as seen in the context of photographs of traditional wooden architecture. <...> Keywords: Wooden architecture, Abramtsevo, Viktor Hartmann, Ivan Ropet, Vasilii Polenov, Viktor Vasnetsov, Konstantin Korovin, Sergei Maliutin, Talashkino, style moderne, neo-Russian style, Sergei Diagilev, Igor Grabar, Ivan Bilibin, Fedor Shekhtel, international expositions. <...> All rights reserved * Corresponding author E-mail address: william.brumfield@gmail.com – 2383 – William C. Brumfield <...>