Ilya Mashkov was a pupil of the best teachers of painting of his time, Konstantin Korovin and Valentin Serov. His creative path went from Primitivism, inspired by the pictures of Henri Rousseau, to Socialist Realism, as seen in the artist’s compositions from the 1930s.

Mashkov was inspired by a form of Russian folk art -- Zhostov tray painting. He defined his style as “picturesqueness itself”. Mashkov painted portraits, impregnating them with emotiveness and the Fauvists' colour palette. Mashkov’s pictures strike one with vigour and vehemence; they praise the power and beauty of the Earth.