Ivan Ivanovich Yendogurov painted lyrical landscapes, mood landscapes, seascapes, and watercolors, echoing the style of Isaac Ilyich Levitan. Artists and contemporaries highly praised his talent.

Ivan Yendogurov was born in Kronstadt in 1861. From an early age, he showed a love of drawing, and his parents supported him in every possible way. In 1880, the future artist entered the Law School of St. Petersburg University which he left two years later. His fascination with art turned out to be stronger. In 1884, he started auditing courses at the Imperial Academy of Arts.

Since the late 1880s, due to illness, the young artist spent most of his time in the Crimea and the Caucasus. His paintings were inspired by his memories of traveling across Russia and Europe. The painter was especially fond of early spring and early fall.

Ivan Yendogurov possessed a unique poetic talent but did not have the time to realize his fullest potential due to an illness and untimely death.

“The Beginning of Spring”, the artist’s most famous painting, was one of the 50 works included in the French edition of “Treasures of Russian Painting” (Paris, 1910). The Khimki Art Gallery houses a copy of this work created by the painter himself. A painting under the same title is displayed at the Russian Museum, and a study for the painting is kept in the State Tretyakov Gallery. Ivan Yendogurov often created copies of this work which was admired by the public and sold well.

The artist depicted a river that stretches from the foreground far into the distance. The melting water on its surface reflects the clouded sky and trees. Last year’s dry grass can be seen in the thawed patches along the riverbank. On the left, wide expanses of the village can be seen. There are several wooden houses on a small hill, with their gable roofs covered with snow. Cumulus clouds float across the sky, with rays of the rising sun breaking through them. The morning dawn symbolizes the beginning of a new day, and spring represents the beginning of a new year, when nature wakes up from hibernation, ready to delight people with its new bright colors.