The painting Riding with Borzois from the collection of the Khanty-Mansiysk State Museum of Fine Arts was created by Sergei Vinogradov in 1913. A year before, the artist had been granted the title of academician of painting.
Sergei Vinogradov was an active member of the Union of Russian Artists. The oeuvre of representatives of that group was dominated by impressionistic and plein air techniques, with contours replaced with tiny contrasting strokes. Work in the open air allowed them to convey color nuances in natural lighting.
The picture Riding with Borzois was painted in the heyday of Vinogradov’s artistic career. The large genre painting was exhibited at the 1914 art show of the Union of Russian Artists and was reproduced in the book Exhibitions of Paintings of the Union of Russian Artists.
The canvas shows riders coming back the hunt on a sunny autumn day. They are accompanied by their hounds. In the foreground, the artist depicted a man in a trench coat riding a bay horse. He is holding two greyhounds, or borzois, on leashes. Behind him, in the background, there is a second horseman, also in a uniform. On the outskirts of the village, the huntsmen are met by the countryfolk — women and children dressed in Mordovian national costumes. Vinogradov placed his characters amidst a beautifully painted modest autumn scenery, which has multiple prevalent and accentuated horizontal lines. In the distant view, one can see a field, haystacks, a few standalone trees and a strip of forest. Vinogradov’s works are usually distinguished by an abundance of air and light.
The painting has a warm color range. Vinogradov’s brushstrokes are free and diverse in terms of their direction and shape. He left some parts of the canvas unpainted. The active verticals of the figures of the riders, women and children make the composition more dynamic, while the details of the clothes glistening in the sun and glossy hair of the animals give an impressive pictorial effect to the entire canvas.
Sergei Vinogradov was a gifted Russian painter, master of impressionist landscape, pupil of Vasily Polenov, professor at the Stroganov School of Industrial and Applied Arts and exhibition organizer. Although he was considered a representative of Russian impressionist painting, in his last period he reverted to Realism.
After his death, Vinogradov was nearly forgotten. An interest in the painter revived during the Perestroika, when his pictures started to emerge at Sotheby’s or Christie’s, and were sold at auctions for substantial sums.
