In 1978, Stanislav Mikhailovich Nikireev created the etching “An Apple Tree in Bloom”. Thousands of white petals, like the wings of butterflies, has unfolded on the branches of the tree. The artist in general liked to portray trees and could do it vividly and accurately.
Nikireev’s ability to show numerous shades of light makes his works unique. We can easily distinguish the deep night from the evening dusk or the hour before dawn, the midday sun from the early morning or the fading day. The etching “An Apple Tree in Bloom” demonstrates this skill of the artist very well. Nikireev fills the entire space of his work with the smallest details that are sometimes hard to see with the naked eye. As always, the role of the animate participants of the composition is of great importance, for instance, insects hovering over the blossoms of the tree and a human figure in the background of the painting. Stanislav Mikhailovich was very fond of depicting insects and even had a unique entomological collection, numbering hundreds of boxes with butterflies and beetles, thousands of unique exhibits.
Entomology (the science of insects) was not just a hobby for Nikireev, but practically his second profession. Stanislav Mikhailovich loved traveling around the world. And he tried to bring new exhibits to his collection from everywhere he traveled: from Central and Western Europe, from South-East Asia, which he visited in 2005, and from other places he toured. His collection is interesting not only for the beauty of the butterflies themselves, not only for who collected them, but also for its scientific merits. There is also the Nikireev butterfly: Stanislav Mikhailovich himself caught, studied and described it, by which he also made his name in entomology. The existence of such a collection in Russia contributes to the development of Russian entomology, is a curious gift for scientists involved in the discipline, and also shows the versatile interests of the Michurinsk etcher and traveler.
In the lower right corner, there is a signature in the form of a moth, the artist’s hallmark on etchings starting from the 1970s.
Nikireev’s ability to show numerous shades of light makes his works unique. We can easily distinguish the deep night from the evening dusk or the hour before dawn, the midday sun from the early morning or the fading day. The etching “An Apple Tree in Bloom” demonstrates this skill of the artist very well. Nikireev fills the entire space of his work with the smallest details that are sometimes hard to see with the naked eye. As always, the role of the animate participants of the composition is of great importance, for instance, insects hovering over the blossoms of the tree and a human figure in the background of the painting. Stanislav Mikhailovich was very fond of depicting insects and even had a unique entomological collection, numbering hundreds of boxes with butterflies and beetles, thousands of unique exhibits.
Entomology (the science of insects) was not just a hobby for Nikireev, but practically his second profession. Stanislav Mikhailovich loved traveling around the world. And he tried to bring new exhibits to his collection from everywhere he traveled: from Central and Western Europe, from South-East Asia, which he visited in 2005, and from other places he toured. His collection is interesting not only for the beauty of the butterflies themselves, not only for who collected them, but also for its scientific merits. There is also the Nikireev butterfly: Stanislav Mikhailovich himself caught, studied and described it, by which he also made his name in entomology. The existence of such a collection in Russia contributes to the development of Russian entomology, is a curious gift for scientists involved in the discipline, and also shows the versatile interests of the Michurinsk etcher and traveler.
In the lower right corner, there is a signature in the form of a moth, the artist’s hallmark on etchings starting from the 1970s.
