FEATURES ARCHIVE

European influences, African adventures and U.S. politics infuse these Russian artists’ works with cosmopolitan flavour and flair.

IVAN POKHITONOV
Ivan Pokhitonov spent the majority of his life in France and Belgium, with his Belgian landscapes becoming among the most popular of his oeuvre. This seascape is a beautiful example of the exceptionally detailed, delicate landscape compositions through which the artist distinguished himself. The fame he achieved in France led him to live abroad permanently.

OSCAR RABIN
Oscar Rabin’s sombre painting in homage to the late US president John F. Kennedy, is characteristic of his work in which blacks and browns dominate his palette and lyrical expression and surrealism pervade his canvas. The combination reflects his awareness of expressive Surrealist detail that exposes the fateful absurdity of everyday existence. In 1978, forced to emigrate from the USSR and deprived of his citizenship ‘for behaviour discreditable to the title of a Soviet artist’ he moved to France where he made Paris his home.

KONSTANTIN KOROVIN
Born in Moscow, Konstantin Korovin studied from 1875 to 1882 in Russia. He later travelled to Paris and Spain in 1885 and wrote of his shock at encountering the Parisian Impressionists: ‘In them I found everything for which I was scolded back at home in Moscow.’ This wonderfully colourful composition depicting Paris at night demonstrates this newfound freedom of expression. In 1888 he travelled to Italy and Spain, and later within Russia, the Caucasus and Central Asia. However, Paris became one of his favourite themes, and in 1923 he moved to the city.

NICOLAS KALMAKOFF
Born on the Italian Riviera, the son of a Russian general, Kalmakoff’s oeuvre reveals the heady influence of his childhood governess who, enthralled by fairytales and legends, would recount the tales of the Brothers Grimm and E. T. A. Hoffmann to her young charge. Kalmakoff, who was based in Paris, is sometimes branded a ‘Decadent’ artist; the implications here being themes of decline, hysteria, frenzy and the employment of necrological and erotic motifs.

ALEXEI HARLAMOFF
Alexei Harlamoff studied in Paris at the Ecóle des Beaux Arts under the tutelage of renowned portrait painter Léon Bonnat. Famed for his immense ability to capture the idealised beauty and innocence of his preponderantly young sitters, the Demidoff portrait, painted in Florence, Italy is executed with Harlamoff’s characteristic handling. His subjects are the grand nieces and nephews of Anatole Nikolaevich, 1st Prince of San Donato, an important collector and patron of the arts. The Demidoff family acquired their wealth as iron masters and suppliers of weaponry to the Imperial armies.

ZINAIDA SEREBRIAKOVA
Having received a commission to paint a large decorative mural, Zinaida Serebriakova went to Paris in 1924. Unable to return to the Soviet Union upon completion of her work she endured many years without seeing her family. She travelled extensively, visiting Africa and Morocco in 1928 and 1930. She was fascinated by the landscapes and people she met and her love of beauty both in nature and people is a strong feature in her oeuvre. One of the great painters of women of the 20th century, Serebriakova’s work is distinguished
by an alluring combination of warm femininity and technical excellence. She took French citizenship in 1947.