Robert Rafailovich Falk was born in Moscow in 1886. His father was the lawyer and chess player Rafail Alexandrovich Falk. Robert Falk studied fine arts in the studios of Konstantin Fyodorovich Yuon and Ivan Osipovich Dudin, in the private studio of Ilya Ivanovich Mashkov, and later at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture where he was particularly influenced by Valentin Alexandrovich Serov and Konstantin Alexeevich Korovin.

The Khimki Art Gallery houses a double-sided painting by Robert Falk. On one side, the artist depicted “Still Life. Vegetables and a Jug”, on the other — “The Portrait of a Woman”.

Such double-sided paintings were not uncommon among the works of avant-garde artists and Robert Falk in particular.

The painting is ornate, featuring bright and saturated colors. On the sloping surface of the table covered with a tablecloth, there are vegetables of various shapes — an orange carrot, a yellow turnip, a beet, a red cabbage, a potato, green onions, and a white horseradish or parsnip. Behind the vegetables, there is a blue vase with a small bouquet. The bright red cloth with green leaves around the edges serves as a background.

Robert Falk represented a symbolism of a whole new level, where color seeks to become a thing in itself. In his works, the artist relied on the ability of color to convey the texture and shape of objects. The natural and straightforward manner of Falk’s still lifes was manifested in their unusual compositions. They could appear guided by natural rhythms, in a free and casual manner, as if by chance.