"The Music Lesson" Original Oil Painting by Nikolai Bogdonov-Belski Circa 1897

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This painting comes from our collection of original Soviet-era oil paintings. The collection is laid out like a timeline through … Read more This painting comes from our collection of original Soviet-era oil paintings. The collection is laid out like a timeline through Soviet Russian history, starting when the movement began between the late 1920s and early 1930s. The movement, which has three distinctive styles - Classical, Working Class, and Severe - can be traced back to Vladimir Lenin. The philosophy of the Communist leader was that all art produced should be for the people and should be easy to understand, while at the same time reflecting a social ideology. The artists of the Classical period focused on landscapes, still lifes, and portraits. Paintings of Russian field workers and factory workers, produced during the Working Class period, illustrate clearly the propaganda these artists were forced to place in these paintings. During the Severe period, the artists began pushing the edges of what was known as acceptable art. The paintings around this time begin to exude color and the paint quality, brush strokes and compositions all begin to change. Nikolai Petrovich Bogdanov-Belski was born in Shitiki, Smolensk province of Russia in December of 1868. He studied art at the Semyon Rachinsky fine art school, icon-painting at the Troitse-Sergiyeva Lavra in 1883, modern painting at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture in 1884 - 1889, and at the Imperial Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg from 1894 - 1895. He worked and studied in private studios in Paris in the late 1890s. Bogdanov-Belsky painted mostly genre paintings, especially of the education of peasant children, portraits, and impressionistic landscapes studies. Realist art was strongly disfavored by the Soviet Union, compelling the artist to flee to Latvia in 1921. He would eventually relocate to Berlin as a result of the Soviet Occupation of the Baltic States. Bogdanov-Belski was killed in February of 1945 as a result of allied bombing.

Canvas Size: 54" W x 40" H. This oil painting comes in the hand-made, closed corner, gilded frame by Richard Tobey in which it is photographed. Signed and dated on the back. Don't miss the opportunity to own one of these masterpieces. See less