Pavel Gorbuntsov was one of the brightest representatives of the landscape genre in the Mari fine arts. He was a painter and graphic artist, an Honored Artist of the RSFSR, a Merited Worker of Arts and a member of the Artists’ Union of the USSR. Gorbuntsov was born in Yaroslavl Governorate and came to Krasnokokshaysk (present-day Yoshkar-Ola) as a member of the Lunacharsky Cherepovets Theater in 1926. He stayed in the city and worked for almost ten years as a production designer at the Mari Drama Theater named after M. Shketan and became the first professional theater artist in the Mari ASSR.
Gorbuntsov worked a lot on designing books by Mari writers. His paintings and graphic works are kept in the collections of the Rybinsk Museum and in several museums of Yoshkar-Ola. Some paintings are displayed in the Alexander Grigoriev Art and History Museum in Kozmodemyansk.
Gorbuntsov’s works are true gems of the permanent exhibition of the National Art Gallery. His love of nature and long-term work as a graphic designer determined his artistic style: large-scale canvases and plots, original decorative elements, and his ability to convey the joy of life and uniqueness of every moment.
The Mari landscape was fashioned in the artworks of Pavel Timofeevich Gorbuntsov. His art praises one of the main Mari treasures — the untouched nature of the republic. His fellow artists had a very good reason to call him “the patriarch of Mari painting.” The artist was posthumously awarded the State Prize of the Mari ASSR.
The painting “Forest Expanses” depicts a dense forest grove with a small lake. The aerial viewpoint and the high horizon line allow the viewer to feel the depth of space. From the foreground to the horizon, we see a wall of thick forest. In the foreground the painted depicted a mixed forest, where spruce trees are defined in clear vertical lines. In the center, slightly to the left, there is a lake with clouds reflected on its surface. On the second spatial plan and up to the horizon line the viewer can admire the forest expanses, above which the sky is covered with thick, heavy clouds. The artist worked in the impasto technique. The sky is painted with especially thick brush strokes. The color palette of the canvas is dominated by cold tones.
Gorbuntsov worked a lot on designing books by Mari writers. His paintings and graphic works are kept in the collections of the Rybinsk Museum and in several museums of Yoshkar-Ola. Some paintings are displayed in the Alexander Grigoriev Art and History Museum in Kozmodemyansk.
Gorbuntsov’s works are true gems of the permanent exhibition of the National Art Gallery. His love of nature and long-term work as a graphic designer determined his artistic style: large-scale canvases and plots, original decorative elements, and his ability to convey the joy of life and uniqueness of every moment.
The Mari landscape was fashioned in the artworks of Pavel Timofeevich Gorbuntsov. His art praises one of the main Mari treasures — the untouched nature of the republic. His fellow artists had a very good reason to call him “the patriarch of Mari painting.” The artist was posthumously awarded the State Prize of the Mari ASSR.
The painting “Forest Expanses” depicts a dense forest grove with a small lake. The aerial viewpoint and the high horizon line allow the viewer to feel the depth of space. From the foreground to the horizon, we see a wall of thick forest. In the foreground the painted depicted a mixed forest, where spruce trees are defined in clear vertical lines. In the center, slightly to the left, there is a lake with clouds reflected on its surface. On the second spatial plan and up to the horizon line the viewer can admire the forest expanses, above which the sky is covered with thick, heavy clouds. The artist worked in the impasto technique. The sky is painted with especially thick brush strokes. The color palette of the canvas is dominated by cold tones.
