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In Artist’s Studio in Okhotino

Konstantin Korovin

Creation period

1914

Dimensions

87,2x66,7 cm
87,2х66,7 cm

Technique

oil on canvas

Collection

Khanty-Mansiysk State Museum of Fine Arts

Exhibition

Khanty-Mansi Collection of Russian Art

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Konstantin Korovin

In Artist’s Studio in Okhotino

Konstantin Korovin created the painting In Artist’s Studio in Okhotino in 1914. In his art, portrait genre was not the most prominent; he rarely painted strangers and mostly chose his models from among his friends and relatives. In this painting, Konstantin Korovin portrayed his common-law wife, actress Nadezhda Komarovskaya. The artist met her when he was 46 years old. They kept their relationship out of the public eye, and Korovin did not mention it in his autobiographical writings. However, Komarovskaya wrote a book of memoirs About Konstantin Korovin at the end of her life.

The artist painted Nadezhda Komarovskaya in his workshop that was located in a small village of Okhotino in Pereslavl district. This was the artist’s favorite place. In his autobiographical short story, Evening in Spring, he wrote:

“The brushwood burns brightly in the fireplace. The fire lights up the walls of my village workshop; how beautifully the gold and blue porcelain glitter on the window, outside which dark silhouettes of tall fir trees are seen. Everything around is a symphony of a spring night: vases on the blue window, dark spruces, and the figure of a young unknown woman - everything merges into one, in the night. The colors that I put on the canvas sing in unison, and my essential impression is the charm of night silence all around”.

Konstantin Korovin was born in 1861 in Moscow, in the house of his grandfather Mikhail Korovin, merchant of first guild. The future artist’s father had a university education, but did not inherit the head of the family’s business sense and went bankrupt after the death of Mikhail Korovin. After the bankruptcy of his father, Konstantin Korovin moved to Mytishchi, where he first started painting. At the age of 14, the future artist entered the architectural department of Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, then a year later he moved to the department of painting. He studied under Alexei Savrasov and Vasily Polenov. To complete his education, Korovin went to Saint-Petersburg and entered the Academy of Arts, but left it after three months, because he was disappointed with teaching methods. Together with Valentin Serov, he went on a trip to the North. The artists visited Murmansk, Arkhangelsk, the shores of Northern Dvina and Novaya Zemlya, and had a short stay in Sweden and Norway.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the artist created sets for operas, ballets and drama performances, and made sketches for costumes. Korovin designed productions of Mariinsky Theater in Saint-Petersburg, Bolshoi Theater in Moscow and La Scala in Milan. The artist spent the last 16 years of his life in Paris, where he mainly made his living by publishing his memoirs in Russian emigrant press. By the age of 70, the artist almost completely lost his sight. He dictated his memoirs, and then his stories.

In 1939, 10 days after the outbreak of World War II, Konstantin Korovin died of a heart attack. The artist was buried in France at the famous cemetery of Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois.

Khanty-Mansiysk State Museum of Fine Arts