In this painting, Sergey Sergeyevich Chekhov depicted a green meadow and drew the outlines of a road with a lead pencil. To the left, there is an arable field painted in dark brown colors, and to the right, there is a large dark tree. The forest and hills in the background are outlined with simplified lines and blurred watercolors. On the back of the sheet, there is an inscription in pencil that reads “Arable land”. This phrase refers to an area of the plowed field that is sown with grain, vegetables, flowers, or herbs every year.
Sergey Chekhov was a graphic artist, grandnephew of Anton Chekhov, and grandson of the writer’s younger brother Mikhail. He took his first drawing and painting lessons from his father, Sergey Mikhailovich Chekhov, a scenic designer, and a teacher at the Moscow Art Theater School who created illustrations for over 130 books. His mother, Valentina Chekhova, was a pianist. After her son and husband had died, she donated their works, including this painting to the museum.
Sergey Sergeyevich Chekhov started drawing and painting when he was a child. He graduated from the Moscow Art School and entered the Surikov Institute where he studied at Alexander Deyneka’s Department of Monumental Art. As his graduation project, he created a mosaic on the building of the Moscow Library Institute.
After graduating in 1961, Sergey Chekhov worked in the monumental workshop at the Palace of the Soviets. He was a talented graphic artist and worked in the techniques of linocut and etching. He also tried his hand at painting and achieved particular success as a muralist. Sergey Chekhov was a brilliant draftsman who mastered the techniques of watercolor and oil painting perfectly.
Sergey Sergeyevich Chekhov and his father visited Sakhalin in 1958, almost 70 years after Anton Chekhov’s research trip to the penal colony. During their journey, they created dozens of paintings and sketches of Sakhalin’s nature. Some of them formed the initial collection of the Museum of Anton Chekhov’s Book “Sakhalin Island”.
Anton Chekhov always had a great admiration for the work of painters. In his own words, he wished he had at least half the talent of his older brother Nikolay who studied at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture with Isaac Levitan and Konstantin Korovin.
