Pyotr Pavlovich Ossovsky (1925–2015) was a Soviet painter, academician of the Russian Academy of Arts, Laureate of the USSR State Prize, and honorary citizen of Pskov. He was awarded the Orders of Honor and Friendship, and the badge “For Services to the Fatherland” of the 3rd and 4th classes.
Pyotr Ossovsky graduated from the Surikov Moscow Art Institute. In this institution he studied under Sergey Vasilyevich Gerasimov, Nikolay Khristoforovich Maksimov, Dmitry Konstantinovich Mochalsky, and Vera Vasilyevna Favorskaya.
Ossovsky’s name became known to a wide audience after the Moscow Young Artists’ Exhibition of 1956. His painting “In the District Center” was deemed by viewers and critics as one of the most interesting works of young Muscovites. They saw in it an unembellished, authentic image of a small district town, captured in its ordinary course of life.
Pyotr Ossovsky was distinguished by the scale of his talent and at the same time by his romanticism. He entered the art scene as a “Severe” style artist — it was a trend in Soviet art of the late 1950s and early 1960s. Representatives of this artistic direction sought to contrast the falseness and officiousness of Socialist Realism with sincerity and the harsh truth of life.
Their paintings were based on the juxtaposition of large, somewhat gloomy color accents, and the compositions were distinguished by a type of expressiveness characteristic of poster art. A muted color scheme was typical of this style. All this can be found in the presented painting by Pyotr Pavlovich Ossovsky.
All his life he was surrounded by geometric lines of buildings and iron structures. Based on them, he created his own aesthetics of life. The artist gravitated towards the heroic monumental image, which can also be observed in the painting “Blue Domes of the Suzdal Kremlin”.
In the composition, everything is precise and thought out. The images are laconically expressive and echo the appearance of poster symbols.
The viewer sees the ensemble of the Suzdal Kremlin. The artist was fond of the town’s connection to national epics. Pyotr Ossovsky was captivated by the Kremlin and conveyed its power and beauty. The artist’s manner is broad and energetic. The color palette is determined by a dark brown contour with highlights and precise and sharp reflections. The severity of the landscape exhibits the theme of the centuries-old history of Suzdal.
