Nikolay Dubovskoy is one of the most prominent representatives of the Russian landscape school at the turn of 20th century, author of more than four hundred paintings and almost a thousand sketches, and director of the landscape painting class at the Imperial Academy of Arts. Nikolay Dubovskoy is one of the most prominent representatives of the Russian landscape school at the turn of 20th century, author of more than four hundred paintings and almost a thousand sketches, and director of the landscape painting class at the Imperial Academy of Arts.
The popular paintings of the artist were in the largest collections of pre-revolutionary times. Nowadays, Dubovskoy’s works are presented in more than 70 museums in Russia and abroad. He is considered an outstanding author of soulful paintings of Russian nature, the custodian of the panoramic landscape tradition of his teacher Mikhail Clodt and the successor to the works of artists Alexei Savrasov, Fyodor Vasilyev, and Arkhip Kuindzhi. Dubovskoy is one of the few Russian landscape painters who was awarded for participating at international art exhibitions in Paris, Munich, and Rome.
As a master of depicting cloudy skies, he created the monumental epic landscape “Homeland”, celebrating the power of the vastness of his Motherland. Endless fields stretch out against the backdrop of a passing thunderstorm, a village is visible in the background, and through the gaps in the clouds, the sun’s rays are falling to the earth. The horizon line passes exactly through the middle of the picture, dividing the canvas into two parts: the depiction of heaven and earth. Thus is created the illusion of the infinity of space. This work of Dubovskoy presents a peculiar portrait of Russia, a collective image of the Motherland.
In 1911, the painting ‘Homeland’ was exhibited at the International Exhibition in Rome. The strong impact on the audience is eloquently illustrated by the letter of Ilya Repin, which the painter sent to Dubovskoy from Rome: ‘This is the best landscape of the entire international fair in Rome… I congratulate you, Nikolai Nikanorovich: you have never been so magnificent and powerful! This is an original, vibrant and most beautiful painting!!! ’ After the exhibition, the painting was sent to the Museum of the Academy of Arts, and in 1925 it was transferred to the Omsk Museum of Fine Arts.
