The life and career of Nikolai Rostovtsev as a painter and a teacher are closely associated with the Nizhny Novgorod region. He was born in 1953 in the city of Gorky (nowadays Nizhny Novgorod). At the age of twenty, he graduated from the Gorky School of Arts, and in the late 1980s he received a technical education at the navigational department of the Gorky Institute of Water Transport Engineers. In 2003, he graduated from the Sholokhov Moscow Pedagogical University. Subsequently, he continued to teach at the art school of the town of Bor and at the Nizhny Novgorod School of Arts.
Rostovtsev worked both as a painter and designer, and traveled on ships of the river fleet as a sailor. The yellow stretches of the Volga, wide river floods, sunsets and sunrises, peculiar interplay of clouds over the water: the unique views of the great Russian river stuck firmly upon his memory. He works in a variety of genres and techniques, creating both picturesque landscapes, and easel graphic works dedicated to current social problems, as well as intimate watercolors.
Rostovtsev’s favorite kind of painting is landscape. His works in this genre always make a strong emotional impression due to a very fresh and accurate perception of the world around. Through these paintings it is easy to understand the painter’s thoughts and feelings about his native places: as, for example, it can be seen on the ‘Sketch’ made with oil paints.
In this picture, Rostovtsev depicted a birch grove on a bright and sparkling sunny day. In a forest glade, it is quiet and calm, the rays of the sun barely break through the dense crowns of trees, casting yellow glares on an even carpet of grass. The reflections of the sun move along the trunks and shimmer in the grass: the extraordinary play of light and shadow creates rhythmic dynamics, which literally brings the picture to life. When viewers see the painting, they get overcome with peace, quiet joy, and delight.
Despite the name ‘Sketch’, there is nothing accidental or spontaneous in this work, because it expresses the well-measured style of Rostovtsev. The painter did not depict the birch grove as a whole, but only a fragment of it that could be put into a frame. The only things seen for the viewer are trunks, birch crowns were not intended to be shown: the painter wants the landscape to be painted out by our imagination.
Rostovtsev worked both as a painter and designer, and traveled on ships of the river fleet as a sailor. The yellow stretches of the Volga, wide river floods, sunsets and sunrises, peculiar interplay of clouds over the water: the unique views of the great Russian river stuck firmly upon his memory. He works in a variety of genres and techniques, creating both picturesque landscapes, and easel graphic works dedicated to current social problems, as well as intimate watercolors.
Rostovtsev’s favorite kind of painting is landscape. His works in this genre always make a strong emotional impression due to a very fresh and accurate perception of the world around. Through these paintings it is easy to understand the painter’s thoughts and feelings about his native places: as, for example, it can be seen on the ‘Sketch’ made with oil paints.
In this picture, Rostovtsev depicted a birch grove on a bright and sparkling sunny day. In a forest glade, it is quiet and calm, the rays of the sun barely break through the dense crowns of trees, casting yellow glares on an even carpet of grass. The reflections of the sun move along the trunks and shimmer in the grass: the extraordinary play of light and shadow creates rhythmic dynamics, which literally brings the picture to life. When viewers see the painting, they get overcome with peace, quiet joy, and delight.
Despite the name ‘Sketch’, there is nothing accidental or spontaneous in this work, because it expresses the well-measured style of Rostovtsev. The painter did not depict the birch grove as a whole, but only a fragment of it that could be put into a frame. The only things seen for the viewer are trunks, birch crowns were not intended to be shown: the painter wants the landscape to be painted out by our imagination.
