Lot 141: - Vladimir Archipovich Bondarenko , 1866-1900 forest scene oil on canvas

signed in Cyrillic l.r. oil on canvas

174 by 133cm., 68½ by 52¼in.

Vladimir Bondarenko is a Ukrainian-Russian painter who began his artistic education at the Odessa School of Painting and then studied at the Academy of Arts in St Petersburg under Ivan Shishkin and Arhip Kuindzhi. However it was really his work at Shishkin's studio that developed his skills as a landscape artist. Following in his professors' footsteps and their close links to Valaam, an archipelago on lake Ladoga, Bondarenko was also inspired by the beauty of northern nature. Like Shishkin, who became famous for his forest landscapes, Bondarenko's painting method was based on analytical studies of nature. In Forest scene the artist convincingly depicts the depths of the forest combining different spatial perspectives and contrasting the solidity of objects in the foreground with the ephemeral aspects of the distant woods. Bondarenko's name is also connected with the foundation of the Valaam Art school, where many of the monastery's monks received professional artistic training, and which is reflected in the fine quality of wall paintings in many of Valaam's churches.