10 Russian Painters You Should Know
Bryullov was born into a family of artists. He especially loved Italy where he completed one of his masterpieces, The Last Day of Pompeii. The painting gained him recognition, and he returned back to Russia a hero.
Aivazovsky’s path into art was a combination of talent and luck. Among his many nautical masterpieces is The Ninth Wave, the painter’s most famous work.
Vereshchagin began his career in the military, but soon his passion for art took over and he began studying at the Academy of Arts. He dedicates a lot of his work to the topic of war.
Repin completed a number of works during his lifetime, including many portraits of his contemporaries. He also received an order from the government to complete one of his largest paintings, Ceremonial Meeting of the State Council on May 7, 1901.
His last painting, The Prophet, was inspired by a poem of Alexander Pushkin. His completed it as mental illness was overpowering him and as he was approaching complete blindness.
The main object of Levitan’s paintings were landscapes. His style of painting them has a special term “mood landscapes.” Many of his famous works were completed near the Volga river where the painter was travelling.
The bulk of Serov’s paintings consist of portraits. He painted many well-known figures of the time, among them members of the royal family. His later works explore new themes, mainly taken from classical mythology.
Kandinsky was part of the expressionism and abstract art movement that simplifies shapes and forms, making the object independent from visual references. An example of such works are Kandinsky’s Compositions that he completed over the course of 30 years.
Even as a young boy, he knew he wanted to become a painter, so Kustodiev entered the Academy of Arts, where he studied under Ilya Repin.The illness took his life at the age of 49. But painted some of the most joyous and colourful paintings in his career, The Beauty and The Merchant’s Wife.
Petrov-Vodkin, many of his works were not welcomed by critics; they were labelled as blasphemous and too erotic. His work was still in demand in Soviet Russia, and he was elected the first president of the Leningrad Union of Artists.
