Studio: international art (56.1912)

wing'of the whole body of modern Russian painters,
Ilya Mashkoff being perhaps the most talented
among them. The memorial exhibition of works
by the Lithuanian artist, Nicolas Czurlanis, who
died early, familiarised us with one of those who
never succeed in expressing their fantastic visions
adequately by the medium of paint.

While at the “ Mir Isskousstva ” we had some-
thing in the nature of a “ clou ” in the works of
Seroff, nothing of this kind was forthcoming at this
year’s exhibition of the Soyouz, where nevertheless
a fairly high standard was reached by the works in
general. As usual the bulk of the work shown
came from the landscape-painters—and among the
older generation of these K. Korovine commanded
attention by the temperament and brio of his Paris
views, jotted down with impressionistic freedom,
his flower-pieces, and the somewhat similarly treated
portrait of the celebrated bass singer Shaliapin.

Vinogradoff and Arkhipoff
both had works * of good
average merit, while in the
case of Apollinarius
Vasnetzoff the quality of
his landscapes seemed to
be in inverse proportion to
their quantity. K. Yuon
acquires more and more
mastery in his pictures of
towns, but it must be con-
fessed that this has in-
volved some sacrifice in
artistic feeling; it is a pity
that in his big Moscow
picture the architecture in
the background has been
treated in a different way to
the foreground with its ad-
mirably rendered staffage.

P. Petrovitcheff is ad-
vancing into the front rank
of Moscow landscapists,
and his church interiors
and landscapes shown on
this occasion displayed, in
addition to their customary
individuality of facture,
much more freshness and
delicacy of tone than
formerly. Progress was
also observable in the
works of L. Turjansky. In
N. Krymoff’s pictures self-portrait (Soyouz, Moscow) by mlle. c. goldinger

78

an intensely primitive coloration is blended with
an old-master style of composition; and A.
Yasinsky essays something similar in his Rainbow.
A. Sredin’s interiors of the Chateau of Pavlovsk
struck one as a trifle cold. Mention should also
be made of S. Petroff and M. Yakovleff, among
others, while of S. Shukovsky it should be remarked
that he works more and more to please the general
public.

Portraiture, and indeed figure-subjects generally,
were not over-well represented in this year’s
Soyouz, and sculpture here put painting in the
shade. S. Konenkoff’s monumental head of a man
in marble and his busts in wood were unquestionably
among the most brilliant features of the exhibition.
F. Malyavine showed a study of a peasant woman
belonging to his earlier period—a work of much
strength as regards expression and form but
rather monotonous in colour. He also showed a

Studio-Talk