Alexander Gerasimov considered it to be his civic duty to create a portrait of the famous scientist and practitioner of selection Ivan Vladimirovich Michurin. They met when they were still young and the scientist posed for his first portrait. Gerasimov sparked up a conversation with almost every person he portrayed: it was his creative approach to life model painting, which helped the conversation flow in a natural manner. This was especially important for conveying the true-to-life image of the sitter. Today the work is housed in the building of the Moscow State University on Sparrow Hills.
After some time, the artist turned to the image of Ivan Michurin yet again. Gerasimov created the work “Michurin in a Blooming Garden” after the scientist’s death on June 7, 1935, using the impressions left from past meetings. The large canvas with a landscape background is one of Alexander Gerasimov’s rare portraits in a retrospective format. The scientist is depicted against the background of a blooming nursery garden that he organized on the outskirts of the town of Michurinsk and where he conducted his experiments on plant breeding.
The landscape with a blooming garden, which the artist worked on in the 1920s, recreates the special atmosphere of the scientist’s life. The foreground shows a beautifully depicted branch of a blooming apple tree that Ivan Vladimirovich holds in his hand. The painting embodies the idea of the unity of nature and man in a clear and convincing way. One of the main goals of the scientist’s work was to facilitate the acclimatization of the southern varieties of plants when placed in the northern regions of the country. Ivan Michurin devoted years of his career to this. He purposefully created harsh growing conditions so that the plants would “toughen up”. To achieve this, he found a site one and a half kilometers from the town, on the banks of the Lesnoy Voronezh River in 1899. Nowadays, this is the place where the museum of Ivan Michurin is located.
Interestingly enough, in 1949, the portrait was displayed in the VDNKh fruit growing pavilion, where Michurinsk gardeners demonstrated apple varieties that were developed by Michurin.
It should be noted that Alexander Mikhailovich Gerasimov painted the scientist in a blooming garden more than once. In 1948, he made a small study, currently housed in the permanent exhibition of the estate museum, that was a preparatory material for the painting of the same name, created later that year. The main painting is in the Azerbaijan National Museum of Art named after Rustam Mustafayev.
After some time, the artist turned to the image of Ivan Michurin yet again. Gerasimov created the work “Michurin in a Blooming Garden” after the scientist’s death on June 7, 1935, using the impressions left from past meetings. The large canvas with a landscape background is one of Alexander Gerasimov’s rare portraits in a retrospective format. The scientist is depicted against the background of a blooming nursery garden that he organized on the outskirts of the town of Michurinsk and where he conducted his experiments on plant breeding.
The landscape with a blooming garden, which the artist worked on in the 1920s, recreates the special atmosphere of the scientist’s life. The foreground shows a beautifully depicted branch of a blooming apple tree that Ivan Vladimirovich holds in his hand. The painting embodies the idea of the unity of nature and man in a clear and convincing way. One of the main goals of the scientist’s work was to facilitate the acclimatization of the southern varieties of plants when placed in the northern regions of the country. Ivan Michurin devoted years of his career to this. He purposefully created harsh growing conditions so that the plants would “toughen up”. To achieve this, he found a site one and a half kilometers from the town, on the banks of the Lesnoy Voronezh River in 1899. Nowadays, this is the place where the museum of Ivan Michurin is located.
Interestingly enough, in 1949, the portrait was displayed in the VDNKh fruit growing pavilion, where Michurinsk gardeners demonstrated apple varieties that were developed by Michurin.
It should be noted that Alexander Mikhailovich Gerasimov painted the scientist in a blooming garden more than once. In 1948, he made a small study, currently housed in the permanent exhibition of the estate museum, that was a preparatory material for the painting of the same name, created later that year. The main painting is in the Azerbaijan National Museum of Art named after Rustam Mustafayev.
