Russian Painting by Peter. Leek

Author:Peter. Leek [Leek, Peter.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781783107506
Publisher: Parkstone International
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

160. Martiros Saryan, Lake Sevan, 1936.

Oil on canvas, 73 x 53 cm, Private Collection.

161. Ilya Repin, Apples and Leaves, 1879.

Oil on canvas, 65 x 75.5 cm, Russian Museum, St. Petersburg.

162. Mikhail Vrubel, Still Life with Plaster

Mask and Sconce, 1885. Watercolor on paper,

18.5 x 11.7 cm, Museum of Russian Art, Kiev.

Still Life

From the Eighteenth Century to the 1860s

In Russia, still life did not emerge as a separate artistic category until the second half of the nineteenth century. Indeed, until that time there were relatively few Russian painters who devoted their energies primarily to still life. Its most brilliant proponent was Ivan Khrutsky (1810-85), whose decorative pictures of fruit and vegetables were influenced by the Dutch masterpieces displayed in the Hermitage. Dutch and Italian still lifes served as models for most of Khrutsky’s contemporaries — though one or two of them departed from the norm by substituting indigenous vegetables, such as onions, carrots, mushrooms and parsley, in place of the hothouse fruits typically included in the Dutch and Italian compositions.

Some of Venetsianov’s pupils, such as Kapiton Zelentsov (1790-1845) and Alexeï Tyranov (1808-59), painted lively, minutely observed compositions of everyday objects. Still-life elements also figure frequently in portraits and pictures of interiors by these artists — for example, on the desk in the foreground of Soroka’s The Study in a Country House at Ostrovski.

Count Fyodor Tolstoy (1783-1873), a friend and admirer of Venetsianov and relative of the famous novelist, was an exceptionally versatile artist who became known as a sculptor and medallist as well as for his silhouettes. In addition, he produced natural-history studies of birds and flowers, and interior scenes with such titles as At the Window on a Moonlit Night. One of the art forms at which he excelled was the creation of charmingly convincing trompe l’oeil miniatures, in pen-and-ink and gouache, featuring flowers and berries plus butterflies or birds.

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