Lot 453: Georgi Rublev , At the Dacha, 1934

dated 1934 (on the reverse) oil on canvas

measurements 35 1/2 by 31 3/8 in. alternate measurements 90.2 by 79.7 cm

Moscow, State Tretyakov Gallery, Georgi Rublev , 2002
Brussels, L'Idealisme sovietique: Peinture et cinéma, 1925--1939 , 2006

Collection of the Artist's Family

From 1919 to 1922, Georgi Rublev worked as a draftsman in Lipetsk. He moved to Moscow in 1922 and studied at VKhUTEMAS (State Art-Technical Studios) under such important avant-garde artists as Alexander Osmerkin and Ilya Mashkov. Rublev took part in the exhibitions of Bytie (1926), Krylo (1927), and OMKh (Society of Young Artists; 1928). From 1935 on, he began working in the area of monumental painting. He was one of the liberal voices in Stalin's art establishment and, as a deputy chairman of the Moscow Artist's Union in the late 1940s, he was fired for allowing "cosmopolitan" views to be expressed during a discussion of naturalism.

In recent years, Rublev has been recognized as one of the key painters of the period between 1927 and 1937, known as the Great Breakthrough (Velikii perelom). His neo-primitivist style fully answered to the state's demands for an accessible "proletarian" art. Surviving paintings from this period are extremely rare. Rublev's famous portrait of Stalin with a dog at his feet is on permanent display at the State Tretyakov Gallery.