Painter Vasily Arlashin made a portrait of a prominent writer and public figure Chinghiz Aitmatov in 1976. On the canvas, Aitmatov is shown leaning against the writing desk with his brooding gaze directed far away, outside the window. His shirt sleeves are casually rolled up, and that detail together with the relaxed posture gives the writer a look of certain easiness and slackness. Behind the writer’s back we see objects associated with literary profession: note pads, stacks of paper, and a pen and pencil holder.

For that portrait, Vasily Arlashin chose the blue and green color palette. Still, the color scheme doesn’t look cold because it is softened by the increased illumination of some planes: the rays of sun fall upon Aitmatov’s face, the table, and the top of the wall. The painter used various shades of green for the background, which makes the space in the painting look deeper.

Vasily Arlashin was born in 1923 in the Ryazan region. He began painting as a child. Paints were expensive and a peasant family could not afford to spend money on paints, so the future artist used coal for his first paintings.

Fleeing from a major famine, which occurred in the USSR in 1932, the Arlashin family moved to a Kyrgyz town of Frunze known today as Bishkek, capital city of Kyrgyzstan. The 11-year-old Vasily Arlashin was overwhelmed by the strange way of life in the Central Asia. He missed his native Ryazan region and often painted the landscapes familiar from childhood.