Pavel Dmitrievic Korin Sold at Auction Prices

Portrait painter, b. 1892 - d. 1967

Pavel Dmitriyevich Korin (8 July [O.S. 25 June] 1892 - 22 November 1967) was a Russian painter and art restorer. He is famous for his preparational work for the unimplemented painting Farewell to Rus.
Pavel Korin was born in the village of Palekh (now in Ivanovo Oblast) to a family of a professional icon-painter Dmitry Nikolayevich Korin. In 1897, when Pavel was only five years old, his father died. In 1903-1907, he studied at the School for Icon Painting at Palekh getting a formal certificate as a professional icon-painter. In 1908, he moved to Moscow and until 1911 worked there at the icon shop of the Don Monastery.

In 1911, he worked as an apprentice to Mikhail Nesterov on frescoes of The Intercession Church at the Convent of Martha and Mary (Marfo-Mariinsky) on Bolshaya Ordynka Street in Moscow. Nesterov insisted that Korin gain a formal education in easel painting and arranged his admission to the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture in 1912. Pavel graduated from that school in 1916, having been a student of Konstantin Korovin and Leonid Pasternak.

In 1916, he worked on frescoes for the mausoleum of Grand Duchess Elizabeth Fyodorovna at The Intercession Church at the Convent of Martha and Mary. In accordance with the wishes of the Grand Duchess, he traveled to Yaroslavl and Rostov to study traditional frescoes of antique Russian churches.

In February 1917, he started to work in his attic studio on Arbat Street in Moscow and worked there until 1934.

In 1918-1919, he taught at the 2nd State Art Studios (2-?? ????). In 1919-1920 he worked at the Anatomic theatre of Moscow State University, as he thought that, as a painter, he needed deeper knowledge of the human anatomy. In the evenings he copied paintings and sculptures of the Museum of Fine Arts.

In 1923, he traveled over Northern Russia, visiting Vologda, Staraya Ladoga, Ferapontov Monastery, and Novgorod. In 1926-1931, he worked as an instructor of painting classes for beginners at the Museum of Fine Arts.

In 1926, the Convent of Martha and Mary was closed by the Soviets and all the art there was to be destroyed. Pavel and his brother Alexander managed to smuggle out and save the iconostasis and some of the frescoes. On March 7 of that year he married Praskovya Tikhonovna Petrova, a disciple of the Convent of Martha and Mary.

In 1927, Korin's aquarelle Artist's studio and his oil landscape My Motherland were bought by the Tretyakov gallery, showing recognition from the Soviets.

In 1931, Korin's studio was visited by Maxim Gorky, who supported Korin since. In 1932, Korin followed Gorky to Sorrento, painted Gorky's portrait, and visited Italy and Germany.

In 1931, Korin started to work as the Head of the Restoration Shop of Museum of the Foreign Art (former Museum of Fine Arts later Pushkin Museum). He held this position for until 1959. After this he held the position of the Director of the State Central Art Restoration Works (?????) until his death. As one of the most senior Russian restorers of the time he contributed enormously to the saving and restoration of famous paintings.

In 1933, Korin moved to the studio on Malaya Pirogovka Street in Moscow where he worked until his death. Now the building is Korin's museum.

In the 1940s, he painted many portraits of members of the Soviet intelligentsia (including Leonid Leonidov, Mikhail Nesterov, Alexey Tolstoy, Kachalov and Nadezhda Peshkova (Gorky's daughter in law)). He painted the fresco Match to the Future for the Palace of Soviets in the Moscow Kremlin and a Triptych devoted to Alexander Nevsky.

In the 1950s, Korin worked on mosaics for the Moscow Metro. His mosaics decorate the stations Komsomolskaya-Koltsevaya, Arbatskaya (Arbatsko-Pokrovskaya Line) and Novoslobodskaya, and also the Main Hall (??????? ???) of Moscow State University. He also won an impressive list of Soviet awards in the 1950s and 1960s: