Nikolai Nikolaievich Modorov (1927-1989) was born in Mstyora. After finishing Mstyora art vocational school and after graduating from Mukhina Leningrad Higher Arts and Crafts College he blended into the team of Vladimir painters in the late 1950s. He was taken on the art workshops of Vladimir department of the USSR Art Foundation and worked at monumental art compositions. 

Big buildings as life forms struck with their might and stand in contrast to small fuss figures of people. The artist’s works provoke discussions about significance and place of technological development in the human life and its environmental impact.

That theme enriched greatly the genre component of Vladimir painting school. Moreover, it showed a contemporary outlook of the person on exciting renewals in the country.

The industrial theme went away in Nikolai Modorov’s creations of the 1980s, the theme of nature and ancient architecture of the native land took its place. Suzdal, Yuryevets on the Volga, Torzhok, Murom, native Mstyora were depicted in his paintings. The picture “Early snow. Vladimir” belonged to that picture series.

The artist created a harmonious composition in one panoramic space, he combined unique samples of Early Russian white-stone architecture, new high-rise buildings, old small houses, the heat power plant, the railway station, a bridge with moving trolleybuses, buses, cars on it. Old traditions and new life features are in good vicinity, creating an image of modern Vladimir.

The picturesque creation “Early snow. Vladimir” was painted by Nikolai Nikolaievich Modorov when Vladimir painting school had already acquired grounds to be called so. Pictures of its representatives took part in all the big art projects.

A big group exhibition visited many cities of the USSR starting with Moscow. Works of Vladimir painting school artists were displayed successfully at the international exhibitions in France, German Democratic Republic, Czechoslovakia, Georgia.