One of the brightest and most original Simferopol artists, Nikolai Semyonovich Samokish, is considered to be the founder of the Crimean School of Painting. He became famous during his lifetime, and gallerists and collectors, including Pavel Tretyakov, began to buy up his works, when Nikolai Samokish was a student.
He was born in 1860 in a small Ukrainian town of Nezhin. He spent his childhood in the family estate of his maternal grandfather, and from the age of eight he lived with his parents. He got his first drawing skills in the gymnasium, but considered painting a hobby and preferred history. After graduation from the gymnasium he entered the Nezhin Institute of History and Philology, but after the fourth year he applied to the Imperial Academy of Arts.
He did not pass the selection and became an unenrolled student of the battle painting workshop of artist Bogdan Willewalde. In many ways that predetermined the direction of the work of Nikolai Samokish, who in a few decades became famous as a talented battle painter, author of such paintings as Napoleon leaving the army in Smorgon, Crossing of Neman, Episode of Battle of Maloyaroslavets. Later, the artist repeatedly returned to the theme of war, often making sketches during battles of the First World War. He went to the front as a war correspondent.
In search of his direction of art Nikolai Samokish tried his hand in graphics and etching, illustration and animal painting. His works adorned books by Nikolai Gogol and Alexander Pushkin, Lev Tolstoy and Peter Yershov. At the age of 30 he was awarded the title of academician for the painting Herd of Orlov Trotters.
He was born in 1860 in a small Ukrainian town of Nezhin. He spent his childhood in the family estate of his maternal grandfather, and from the age of eight he lived with his parents. He got his first drawing skills in the gymnasium, but considered painting a hobby and preferred history. After graduation from the gymnasium he entered the Nezhin Institute of History and Philology, but after the fourth year he applied to the Imperial Academy of Arts.
He did not pass the selection and became an unenrolled student of the battle painting workshop of artist Bogdan Willewalde. In many ways that predetermined the direction of the work of Nikolai Samokish, who in a few decades became famous as a talented battle painter, author of such paintings as Napoleon leaving the army in Smorgon, Crossing of Neman, Episode of Battle of Maloyaroslavets. Later, the artist repeatedly returned to the theme of war, often making sketches during battles of the First World War. He went to the front as a war correspondent.
In search of his direction of art Nikolai Samokish tried his hand in graphics and etching, illustration and animal painting. His works adorned books by Nikolai Gogol and Alexander Pushkin, Lev Tolstoy and Peter Yershov. At the age of 30 he was awarded the title of academician for the painting Herd of Orlov Trotters.
Animal painting became the favorite direction of his work for many years. He created a whole series of works dedicated to horses. The painting Trio of horses, painted in 1917, fully conveys the restless and wayward character of these freedom-loving animals.
