Artists
Shestopalov Nikolay Ivanovich
1875 (Village Bessonovo, Penza province) — 1954
Nikolay Shestopalov is a well-known Russian Soviet artist, painter, graphic artist, master of watercolor and etching, book illustrator. The author of monumental works and paintings on military historical themes, portraits, landscapes, genre compositions.
He was born in the village of Bessonovo, Penza province. He studied at the school of the Petersburg Society for the Encouragement of Artists, then in the studio of Princess MK. Tenishevoy, where he taught Ilya Repin. At the same time, Nikolai Shestopalov was engaged in etching at the Academy of Arts with Professor V.V. Mate.
During the revolution of 1905 he was one of the founders of the first revolutionary satirical magazine "Spectator". In 1906 he went to Munich, where he worked for prof. G. Knirra. On his return to St. Petersburg he became a participant of the exhibitions "Spring", New Society, TPHV, "World of Art".
Member of the AXR from its founding (1922), participant of all its exhibitions. Participated in exhibitions for the fifth anniversary and decade of the Red Army. Member of the Moscow Union of Artists since 1933.
Nikolay Shestopalov - a disciple of Ilya Repin, - gained fame and recognition in the 1900s and 1920s. In pre-revolutionary times, Shestopalov took part in the exhibitions of the World of Art and actively worked in the sphere of satirical graphics.
After the revolution, in the 1920s he turned to the historical-revolutionary genre and exhibited his works at all exhibitions of the Association of Artists of Revolutionary Russia (AHRR) from the moment of its foundation.
Nikolai Ivanovich Shestopalov received from the official art history a clearly defined place in the history of Soviet art: as a recognized artist of the book, as the author of sketches for Soviet pre-war post cards glorifying heroic work.
Historiographers seemed to forget about the training of the artist in Munich, about his participation in exhibitions of the "World of Art", in the artistic life of Russia in the second decade of the 20th century.
Nikolay Shestopalov communicates with Russian Symbolists and Impressionists, uses their favorite themes, remaining adherent to academic pictorial traditions. In this atmosphere, typical "Six-Pagal" images of the departed Russia are born.
And even the landscapes of Shestopalov of the twenties and thirties reflect not so much the harsh Soviet reality, but recreate the pre-revolutionary way. The artist throughout the entire creative path constantly refers to the pictures of the Russian province.
The painting of Shestopalov in the middle of the 20th century is subjectively returned to the legacy of "miriskusnikov" - colleagues and comrades of his youth; these are provincial manors, dilapidated churches and monasteries, written "in Akhrovsky" pasty, almost illusory.
Nikolay Shestopalov - participant of more than 80 exhibitions, his works are in the collections of the State Russian Museum, the Central Museum of the Red Army, the State Museum of the Revolution of the USSR and other museum collections.
In the summer of 2016, the first large-scale retrospective of Nikolai Shestopalov's works was held in the Russian Museum with the participation of the Vellum Gallery.