Lot 79: Nikolai Petrovich Krymov, 1884-1958 , country house in Tarusa

signed in Cyrillic l.l. and dated 1924 oil on canvas

54.5 by 69.5cm., 21½ by 27¼in.

In the history of Russian art, Nikolai Krymov (1884-1958) is known not only as one of Russia?s best twentieth-century landscape painters, but also as a leading art theoretician and teacher. Born into an artistic family, he began his education with his father and continued at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture under Viktor Vasnetsov and later at the studios of Valentin Serov and Konstantin Korovin. Krymov painted mainly provincial towns and village landscapes, focusing prominently on the countryside. In his early days he was noticeably influenced by primitive folklore, though later his style changed to a more classical approach. When working en plein air Krymov always aimed to portray the scene as close to reality as possible. However his excellent knowledge of nature also allowed him to paint from memory, artistically conveying his emotions. Krymov followed the traditions of the Russian Realist painters of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, such as Ilya Repin and Isaac Levitan and by the 1920s, he had already established himself as one of the masters of this genre. From 1928 Krymov spent his summers in Tarusa ? a small provincial town in the Kaluga region of Russia. The artist fell in love with this place and the views of the city and countryside became favourite themes for his compositions. The imagery in Country House in Tarusa was repeated by Krymov in a number of his works, the most famous examples of which are now in the collections of the State Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow (fig. 1) and the State Russian Museum in St Petersburg. The offered lot is a superlative example of Krymov landscape painting displaying all the artist's characteristic features such as finesse of execution and the overall decorative effect of the work.