Artist of the week: Nicholas Feshin
ARTinvestment.RU   01 марта 2012

Today, GRM offers a large exhibition of Nikolai Feshin. AI talks about the life work of a remarkable Russian-американского artist, as well as about auction successes of his work

world-renowned artist Nicholas Feshin Nicholas (1881-1955) have We do not know so well how to , for example, but the attention this Russian impressionist, deserve, of course, no less. Americans as much as we believe his Feshin artist and have every right to do: in 1923 he left Russia for the sake of the New World, and half of its artistic heritage refers to the period of the transatlantic. But nurtured the talent we have, first on the Tartar, and then to St. Petersburg soil.

first artistic flair, Nicholas said, and began to bring his father - a carver of wooden iconostasis in Kazan. Then there was a spot Kazan Art School, where he studied the boy for five years, until 1900, and the St. Petersburg Academy Arts, where talented young man was enrolled in a class . During his studies at the Academy Feshin been searching for their own pictorial style, and a wise teacher has always supported him in this desire for originality. artistic manner Feshin gradually began to take more or less clear features: a broad free stroke, characteristic of Impressionism, and a realistic portrayal of individual elements - especially those in the portraits.

Nicholas Feshin can be considered a true patriot of his native Kazan province. After graduating from the Academy of Fine Arts in 1909 he chose a career in Moscow or St. Petersburg artist modest teacher at the Kazan Art School. Feshin was the only member of the Academy of Fine Arts, who lived not in the capital. Neither austere beauty of St. Petersburg, or southern flavor of Italy (where he went to the pensioner's trip) is not inspired by him as the nature and the inhabitants of villages along the middle reaches of the Volga. to their lives and the life he had not only an art but an ethnographic interest. While still a student at the Academy Feshin repeatedly traveled to the village of Mari, where nature was doing sketches of local customs.

In 1908, he created one of his most famous paintings - "Cheremis wedding." The canvas depicts Cheremis (Mari) Rite abduction of the bride groom from home. Interestingly, this pattern is partly determined the fate of the artist. Work very well received, not only in Russia but also abroad. That it shall Feshin acquaintance with a few Americans, who later helped him to emigrate to the United States. Samu "Cheremis wedding" in 1911 at an exhibition in Pittsburgh, bought the American collector George Arnold Hearn. In the 1975 film "settled" in the National Museum of the cowboys, who last fall decided to voluntarily part with it and put it up for auction Sotheby's, where she had gone with a score of 3.33 million dollars. This is one of the highest prices for works Feshin at public auction, but not an absolute record - which is worth mentioning separately below.

So, in 1923, brokered by the American Salvation Army and Collector U. S. Stimmela Feshin with his wife Alexandra (which, incidentally, was the daughter of the director of the Kazan Art School), he emigrated to America. I can not say that the artist did not take the Soviet regime. On the contrary, at first he even welcomed it. But famine and devastation of the Civil War did their job - he wanted to leave. His father died of typhoid fever, followed by his mother left, at school, where he worked as an artist, there was no heating and normal conditions, Feshin wrote in a letter to the United States, which gradually loses its useless and creative energy, as if all art was used only for propaganda. After the departure of the name of the Union Feshin not remembered until the Khrushchev thaw. And the artist has started a completely different life - the American.

first family Feshin lived in New York, in the bohemian neighborhood not far from Central Park. There, the artist painted his first portraits of black women, participated in exhibitions and won a reputation among the local art community. But poor health (Feshin have developed tuberculosis) forced him to leave the bustling New York City and move to a small town in Taos, New Mexico, where the climate was drier.

in Taos Feshin gained its second home, it inspired the surrounding nature and simplicity of lifestyle of the local population. He painted portraits of Indians, cowboys, black women. A few years after moving to the artist built a wonderful house, which has put his heart and soul and all the free money - about twenty thousand dollars. Feshin was not only a great painter, but also a talented designer: the house he decorated their own thread "neofolklornogo" design (affected father's lessons).

Feshin Nicholas House in Taos, New Mexico Source: m.wikitravel.org

interior of the house of Nicholas Feshin in Taos, New Mexico Source: skinet.com

however, had only to establish a life in a new place, as his retinue had to leave the nest. In 1933, his wife asked for divorce. In a letter to his brother Feshin mentioned that Alexander was fascinated by some writer, and she wanted to become a writer. Twenty years of living together has proven to have been wasted, life had to be rebuilt. Luxury home in Taos Feshin left his wife, and he moved first to New York and then in Santa Monica, California. Iya's daughter followed him around and took his side. But when she had my own family, Feshin left alone. Sadness loneliness he tried to dispel the hard work, which was enough: his portraits were in vogue, he wanted to pose for many famous Americans. At the same time the artist began to travel, he visited Mexico, in Java and Bali. And everywhere he went on to write that it was interesting of all - the human face.

Feshin thinking about going home, but before his death in 1955 did not have time to implement the target. Fulfilling last wishes of his father, the daughter of Ia and later transported his remains were reburied in Kazan.

So was the fate of the two continents of the artist Nicholas Feshin. In America it is considered a classic, at his home in Taos in 1981 was opened with the Institute of Museum and educational center. A well-deserved reputation in Russia for Feshin began to come just now. A sure sign of this - opened today scale retrospective of the artist in the Russian Museum . The exhibition features one hundred paintings and drawings, not only from the Russian and Tatar, but also of American and Swiss collections.

ARTIMX price index for paintings of Nicholas Feshin (from March 2001) Source:

Over the past three years, auction prices for works Feshin steadily growing.

Results over million dollars in the bank until four Feshin: they showed work "Indian girl with sunflowers" (2005), Tonita "(2007), the already mentioned" Cheremis Wedding "(November 1, 2011, Sotheby's, 3,33 million) and the painting" Small Cowboy "(December 1, 2010, Macdougall's, London, 6.9 million pounds (10.8 million)). last result even for a good many Feshin seemed surprisingly high. By the way," Little Cowboy "Muscovites can be seen even today: a portrait hanging Gallery Ildar Galeev at the annual exhibition of fine art Collectors Club . only need to hurry: the exhibition will run until March 10, 2012.

NICHOLAS Feshin Little Cowboy Oil on canvas. 76 x 51 Macdougall's. 12/02/2010. Lot number 313 Estimate: 0.5-0.7 million pounds results: 6.9 million pounds Source:

So, while enjoying Petrograders Feshin works in the exhibition at the Russian Museum (which, incidentally, in 2012 promises to bring in the Tretyakov Gallery ), Muscovites have a unique opportunity to see one of his work - but how!

Prepared by Mary Onuchina, AI

Source: taosartmuseum.org , ggallery.ru , forum.artinvestment.ru , artinvestment.ru