Portrait of an Unknown Woman (1883), by Ivan Nikolaevich Kramskoy. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Works from the mid-1800s that had great impact on Chinese art are being shown in China for the first time. Zhang Kun reports from Shanghai.

The Wanderers was an important art school in Russia in the mid-1800s. It had great impact on Chinese art, but its artworks have never featured in a major exhibition in China.

The Wanderers: Masterpieces from the State Tretyakov Gallery, an exhibition at the Shanghai Museum, which opened on Dec 14, marked the first time these Russian artworks have been presented in China. The exhibition showcasing 68 oil paintings runs through March 4.

Zelfira Tregulova, director-general of the State Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow, says: "We have brought to Shanghai some of the most celebrated pieces in our museum, which have rarely been on touring exhibition.

"And for the upcoming four months, lots of visitors will probably come to us asking about these paintings."

The Wanderers, or Peredvizhiniki, was the most important school in Russia's art history, Tregulova says. In the 1870s, "these artists changed Russian art".

The Wanderers were liberal-minded artists against the strict separation between high and low art in the Imperial Academy of Arts.

They believed art should reflect real life and people. They traveled extensively to showcase their paintings and taught people to appreciate art.