Konstantin Korovin, 1861-1939

Paintings, decorative panels for exhibitions, and set designs convey the spectrum of talent of an artist whose career extended across the last decades of the nineteenth and first decades of the twentieth century. Hovering between impressionism (e.g., Crimea at the Fountain, 1914) and realism (e.g., Portrait of Fedor Shaliapin), Korovin had the techniques of two great schools at his command. His paintings of interior scenes are especially vivid: figures in the interior create the immediate focus of attention, but open windows draw the viewer outdoors into the sunlight. A Russian Museum exhibition catalogue. -- Summary written by John W. Emerich, Bronze Horseman Literary Agency.