Bracing the Waves (Ivan Aivazovsky, 1890)

If one was to present only one painting a day from Aivazovsky’s ouevre, it would take 22 years to post them all! Whew! That is mass production on the scale of Detroit! Where did he find the time? Did he draft impecunious art students to help? Only the Shadow knows…

Roses (Filipp Moskvitin, 2001)

Let’s end our postings today with a bouquet of flowers.

A Young Girl in Russian Folk Dress (Aleksandr Alekseyev, 1837)

I’m pulling back now to a period closer to the roots of Russian art in the modern sense. No, not Modern Art, but, “modern” art in the meaning of “painting done in the academic Western European style”. However, there appear to be aspects of naive technique, so, this may very well be an untrained artist, or, one who only attended a provincial art school (probably the latter).

A Lady in Red (Fyodor Shapayev, 1957)

Not all art of the Soviet period was “heroic tractor drivers and milkmaids” nor was it all beaming Pioneers and hunky Red Army soldiers. Most of it was dependable realism, and the art faculties turned out many competent artists. This, perhaps, was a blessing in disguise. It spared Russian art much of the pseudo-intellectual trash that hangs in MOMA and other such venues. I still say that I have not seen a man with two noses, or, a woman with three breasts. Such is not art… what it is… I truly can’t say. Oh, well, the “artists” who paint such shlock have found a good “hustle”, if nothing else.

A Cloudy Day (Sergei and Aleksei Tkachev, 1996)

The Tkachev brothers have been painting since the Creation… or, so it seems. These guys are still going strong after starting in the 60s. Yes, all of their works bear the joint crediting. No, I do not know if they are twins or any other such detail. The Tkachevs paint reliable late Soviet Impressionism (the style that overtook “Socialist Realism”). 

A Portrait of Z. I. Yusupova (Konstantin Makovsky, no date (1880s-90s?))

Many members of the Russian aristocracy had their portraits painted in Old Russian garb. It was a fad, started in the reign of Tsar Aleksandr Nikolaevich (1881-94).  

The Feast of Kings (Pavel Filonov, 1913)

This appears, for all the world, just like an avant-garde Last Supper. The figure on the extreme right could be a Christ-figure, as the figure crouching under the table could be a Judas. The three figures at the upper left have their arms crossed over their chests as though they were receiving Orthodox communion. See the main seated figure, he is holding a chalice. Note well the fish on the table, as a fish is an ancient symbol for Christianity. In short, a spiritual (one does not know whether to call it religious or not) painting done in a very modern idiom. 

Birthday (Marc Chagall, 1915)

I thought that a fun piece from Chagall would fill the bill (no pun  intended, Bill, I heard that crack!), and this is just a plain ol’ romp from one of the greats. I LIKE this piece, and that is all there is to say.

Rainbow [Ivan Aivazovsky, 1848]

Here is one of Aivazovksy’s seascapes from near the beginning of his career. Does the title refer to a rainbow forming in the picture, or, is it the ship’s name (Raduga in Russian)?

The Black Sea (Ivan Aivazovsky, 1881)

One of the reasons that Aivazovsky painted so many seascapes is that he was the official painter of the Russian Navy, which would be a good reason for anyone to specialise in such. This appears to be painted from the point of view of the artist being on ship going AWAY from the shore.