Alexander Moravov was an Honoured Artist of the USSR and a member of the Wanderers Group. He was born in a doctor’s family in Ukraine. The whole atmosphere of his childhood motivated him to become a painter, as famous Nikolai Ge and Mikhail Vrubel were his father’s friends. Moravov was a student at the Kiev Drawing School and later on studied at the Moscow School of Painting with Nikolai Kasatkin and Konstantin Korovin as his mentors.
Moravov’s works mostly touched the historical events and peasants’ everyday life. The artist spent most of his life in the Tver Governorate where in more than 30 years he created a multiple number of paintings illustrating the village life and the beauty of Russian nature. The artist’s son Alexey Moravov recollected, “As far as I know, my father”s best years passed there. There he discovered the artistic success, there he got to love hunting and the northern nature, there he got to know many great people”. Moravov did a lot for developing the local culture of Udomelsk district: he decorated clubs and revolutionary celebrations and was actively engaged in the teaching activities.
In his autobiography the artist wrote, “In my works I have always followed the subject. The thematic content of my paintings of that period was mostly life, casualty and work of our peasants against the background of native land. In my paintings I wanted to show hard and primitive peasant labour on the landlord”s fields and on their own small pieces of land, the unsecured half-starved existence of the country underclass. I greatly enjoyed depicting the sunlight and the joyful feeling of life connected with corresponding bright colours”. The painting On the Private Land is a sketch painted in the best traditions of Russian realistic school. Apparently it was primarily painted for the same-name painting which is now in the funds of the Tver Regional Art Gallery.
Moravov’s works mostly touched the historical events and peasants’ everyday life. The artist spent most of his life in the Tver Governorate where in more than 30 years he created a multiple number of paintings illustrating the village life and the beauty of Russian nature. The artist’s son Alexey Moravov recollected, “As far as I know, my father”s best years passed there. There he discovered the artistic success, there he got to love hunting and the northern nature, there he got to know many great people”. Moravov did a lot for developing the local culture of Udomelsk district: he decorated clubs and revolutionary celebrations and was actively engaged in the teaching activities.
In his autobiography the artist wrote, “In my works I have always followed the subject. The thematic content of my paintings of that period was mostly life, casualty and work of our peasants against the background of native land. In my paintings I wanted to show hard and primitive peasant labour on the landlord”s fields and on their own small pieces of land, the unsecured half-starved existence of the country underclass. I greatly enjoyed depicting the sunlight and the joyful feeling of life connected with corresponding bright colours”. The painting On the Private Land is a sketch painted in the best traditions of Russian realistic school. Apparently it was primarily painted for the same-name painting which is now in the funds of the Tver Regional Art Gallery.
