International studio (59.1916)

Studio-Talk

Goldinger, N. Zimaroff and others. Finally mention
should be made of the sculptures of S. Erzya, J.
Koort, and J. Efimoff, as well as the dry-points and
linoleum prints of P. Pavlinoff.
With the death of Vassili Ivanovitch Surikoff, who
died here a few weeks ago, Russian art has lost one
of its most brilliant stars. The deceased painter,
who was born in Siberia in 1848, came from an old
Cossack family which settled in the district of Kras-
noyarsk some centuries ago, and in his whole being as
well as his talent one could discern traces of the deep

artist who has drawn inspiration from distant climes,
such as Bauer, for example, with his etchings
and water-colours full of mystery and fantasy;
Philip Zilcken, at once painter, etcher, and shrewd
art critic, and Legras, who died a little while ago
in the very fulness of life—he was only 51. It is
now some years since Legras came to Laren (where
these notes are written) and settled down in this
village of painters par excellence. He lived in a villa
of good modern design which he built for himself,
and here he enjoyed the pleasures of family life,
but now, alas 1 he is no more, and the big house is

earnestness and virile strength of Siberian Nature.
After studying at the Academy in Petrograd Surikoff
in the eighties of last century began that series of
large historioal paintings which made his name

empty. His canvases are to be found in many
places, for his admirers were numerous, but quite
recently the public were able to see at the
Municipal Museum in Amsterdam a collection

famous and earned for him a
the hierarchy of Russian art.
If in general it is difficult to
define in what precisely the
national element in plastic
art consists, yet in presence
of Surikoff’s masterpieces
one discerns immediately
their national character and
their extraordinary historic
import. This is true alike
of the tragic atmosphere of
The Execution of the Streltsi,
of the deeply pathetic ex-
pression of Menshikoff in
Exile and of the intense
pathos of the Boyarin Moro-
zova in which the great pic-
torial talent of the deceased
artist, his perfect knowledge
of Russian psychology, and
his by no means theatrical
power of dramatic expression
were triumphantly asserted.
His later works fell short
of these, and in this respect
he shared the fate of many
Russian artists who having
spontaneously attained a
certain height are unable to
maintain it for long. P. E.

A MSTERDAM.—
/ % Holland has no
/ ' “ Salon des Ori-
entalistes ” like
Paris, but nevertheless she
can boast! of more than one

leading position in

representing the different periods of his career.

“a street in Algiers” by w. legras


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