Russian artist Piotr Aleksandrovich Suhodolsky, a Member of the Royal Academy of Arts, is a celebrated landscape, portrait and battle painter, as well as the creator of the folk-themed genre paintings.
The artist was born into a noble family, in Mosalskiy Uyezd, Kaluzhskaya province. Не received an excellent education. Initially, he entered St. Petersburg University; later on, he graduated from the Academy of Arts, where his diligence was annually awarded with gold and silver medals. His instructors in the landscape painting class were the leading Russian landscape painters: Lev Lagorio, Aivazovsky’s apprentice, Maksim Vorobyov, who was commissioned by Prince Vorontsov and Count Benkendorf, and Grigory Chernetsov, one of the pioneers of the Russian realistic landscape genre.
Piotr Suhodolsky was awarded the title of the First-degree class painter in 1864, for the painting A view of Zhelna Village, Kaluzhskaya Province, which became the theme of his final exam at the Academy.
Piotr Suhodolsky was keen on travelling, which is confirmed by numerous landscapes in the academic style, with neat drawing and a perfectly chosen tonality. What is more, Piotr Aleksandrovich was one of the few Russian artists who attained perfection in the technique of sepia drawing.
His harmonious landscapes, often compared to crude coloured woodcuts, were called by the art criticists the precursors of the ingenious paintings of the greatest artists of Russia. As for the genre paintings, they are typified not only by the immaculate elaboration of the drawing, but also by the academic approach to forming up the composition. The battle paintings are few, but it was these paintings, that made Piotr Suhodolskiy one of the favourite artists of Emperor Alexander III, who personally commissioned paintings from him.
In the 1880-s, Piotr Suhodolskiy put all his heart and effort to creating the genre compositions devoted to peasants' daily life. The Bear Hunt undoubtedly represents this type of paintings.
The action takes place in summer, late in the evening, as evidenced by the moon rising above the villagers’ houses. The dead bear is in the centre of the painting, surrounded by a group of peasants. Two women in the colourful traditional folk costumes are standing closest to the bear. There are also two peasant women holding sticks, one with rakes, and the third on the left is an old man, holding a gun in his hands. The bear must have killed a cow, which disturbed the village people, and was shot thereafter. The dramatic tension of the situation is accentuated by the dark clouded sky, lit with the sparkles of the alarming red rising moon.
The artist enjoyed creating paintings depicting rural life, as well as unpretentious landscapesб the outskirts of Russian villages. Yet, however much he was drawn to the village life, there was no demand for such paintings among the wealthy collectors. It should be noted, though, that such a celebrated collector as Pavel Tretyakov, held the works of Piotr Suhodolskiy in high esteem and purchased them for his art gallery.
The paintings of Piotr Suhodolskiy are now represented in the State Tretyakov Gallery and Russian Museum collections, in the State Art Museum of Nizhniy Novgorod and the National Museum of Art of the Republic of Belarus. There are quite a number of his paintings in private collections as well.
The artist was born into a noble family, in Mosalskiy Uyezd, Kaluzhskaya province. Не received an excellent education. Initially, he entered St. Petersburg University; later on, he graduated from the Academy of Arts, where his diligence was annually awarded with gold and silver medals. His instructors in the landscape painting class were the leading Russian landscape painters: Lev Lagorio, Aivazovsky’s apprentice, Maksim Vorobyov, who was commissioned by Prince Vorontsov and Count Benkendorf, and Grigory Chernetsov, one of the pioneers of the Russian realistic landscape genre.
Piotr Suhodolsky was awarded the title of the First-degree class painter in 1864, for the painting A view of Zhelna Village, Kaluzhskaya Province, which became the theme of his final exam at the Academy.
Piotr Suhodolsky was keen on travelling, which is confirmed by numerous landscapes in the academic style, with neat drawing and a perfectly chosen tonality. What is more, Piotr Aleksandrovich was one of the few Russian artists who attained perfection in the technique of sepia drawing.
His harmonious landscapes, often compared to crude coloured woodcuts, were called by the art criticists the precursors of the ingenious paintings of the greatest artists of Russia. As for the genre paintings, they are typified not only by the immaculate elaboration of the drawing, but also by the academic approach to forming up the composition. The battle paintings are few, but it was these paintings, that made Piotr Suhodolskiy one of the favourite artists of Emperor Alexander III, who personally commissioned paintings from him.
In the 1880-s, Piotr Suhodolskiy put all his heart and effort to creating the genre compositions devoted to peasants' daily life. The Bear Hunt undoubtedly represents this type of paintings.
The action takes place in summer, late in the evening, as evidenced by the moon rising above the villagers’ houses. The dead bear is in the centre of the painting, surrounded by a group of peasants. Two women in the colourful traditional folk costumes are standing closest to the bear. There are also two peasant women holding sticks, one with rakes, and the third on the left is an old man, holding a gun in his hands. The bear must have killed a cow, which disturbed the village people, and was shot thereafter. The dramatic tension of the situation is accentuated by the dark clouded sky, lit with the sparkles of the alarming red rising moon.
The artist enjoyed creating paintings depicting rural life, as well as unpretentious landscapesб the outskirts of Russian villages. Yet, however much he was drawn to the village life, there was no demand for such paintings among the wealthy collectors. It should be noted, though, that such a celebrated collector as Pavel Tretyakov, held the works of Piotr Suhodolskiy in high esteem and purchased them for his art gallery.
The paintings of Piotr Suhodolskiy are now represented in the State Tretyakov Gallery and Russian Museum collections, in the State Art Museum of Nizhniy Novgorod and the National Museum of Art of the Republic of Belarus. There are quite a number of his paintings in private collections as well.
