Ivan Fedorovich Choultse
Iwan Fedorowitsch Choultsé ( Russian Иван Федорович Шультце Iwan Fjodorowitsch Schultze ; born October 21, 1874 in Saint Petersburg , † 1939 in Nice ) was a painter of Russian realism .
Life
Adolescence
Choultsé was born on October 21, 1874 in Saint Petersburg to a family of German descent (the Schultzes had lived in Russia since the 18th century).
Choultsé was trained as an engineer and was initially not interested in art, but in generating electricity. He showed his first study drawings to Konstantin Jakowlewitsch Kryschizki (1858–1911) when he was older than thirty. A painter and member of the St. Petersburg Art Academy invited him to study at the Art Academy. In addition to Kryschizki, Choultse's training as a painter was strongly influenced by Archip Ivanovich Kuindschi (1841–1910) and the Swiss painter Alexander Calame (1810–1864). Along with Kryschizki undertook Choultse 1910, a trip to Spitsbergen , where he dated several years with this arctic landscapes painted (the Danish island , the Bear Island , the Magdalena Bay ).
Shortly afterwards Choultsé lost his artistic fathers: Archip Kuindschi died in 1910 and Konstantin Kryschizki put an end to his life in 1911. But Choultsé managed to find his way around without his teachers and began to develop his own artistic language. The Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna Romanowa (1882–1960), one of Kryschizki's other students, founded a society in memory of the deceased artist after the death of her teacher. Choultsé took part in several exhibitions of the Kryzhitsky Society, which took place regularly in the Grand Duchess' palace on Sergeevskaya Street, 46/48 (now Tchaikovsky Street).
In 1916 Choultsé began to enjoy great social recognition: his pictures are bought by members of the Romanov family (including the brother of Nicholas II . Grand Duke Mikhail Alexandrovich (1878–1918) and Grand Duke Georgi Mikhailovich); As Choultsé later emphasized during his emigration, Nicholas II himself was not at all interested in landscapes and still lifes that do not tell stories. Several pictures were acquired by Carl Fabergé (1846–1920), which can be seen from the inventory of his collection drawn up in 1918. The development of postcards made a major contribution to his success: Choultsé's landscapes in the “open letters” could be found all over the country.
After the revolution and emigration
Like many other artists who stayed true to the academic style, Choultsé found himself in a state of uncertainty during the Revolution. He decided to take a long trip to Europe. During his travels between 1917 and 1919, he painted landscapes of the Swiss Alps, as well as southern France and northern Italy. In 1921 the painter made the last attempt to conquer the Soviet public: in Petrograd he joined the Society of Artist-Individualists. Its members included Isaak Israilewitsch Brodskij (1883-1939), Iwan Awgustowitsch Welz (1866-1926), Julius Sergius von Klever (1850-1924) and Alexander Wladimirowitsch Makowski (1869-1924). Choultsé participated in the company's first two exhibitions.
Emigration to France (1921–1927)
Arriving in Paris, Choultsé set up a studio at 121 Boulevard Pereire and tried to find his way into the artistic community of Paris (which at that time was already "oversaturated" by the rise of national painting and immigration). Iwan Fedorowitsch Choultsé's first solo exhibition was opened on November 23, 1922 at 2 rue de Boetie. 50 works by the artist were presented to the public. In 1923 the gallery Léon Gérard exhibited the painting “Soir de Novembre” (“November evening”) at the 136th Salon of the Société des Artistes Français , and a year later at the 137th Salon his work “Derniers rayons” (“The last Sunbeams ”). Choultsé held solo exhibitions together with the Léon Gérard gallery every year, the last time in 1925. At the end of 1927, Choultsé received French citizenship.
Notoriety outside of France
On March 16, 1927, Choultsé's solo exhibition opened at the Arthur Tooth & Sons gallery in London at 155 New Bond Street. The magazine The Studio (1927, Vol. 93) described this event as a sensation in the field of realistic painting. Choultsé showed a degree of reality reproduction in his landscapes that many had never seen before. His extraordinary painting style sparked a wave of interest in the traditional genre.
American Period (1928 – early 1930s)
Europe-wide fame soon turned into international fame. The gallery of the art dealer Édouard Jonas , known on the French and world markets , which had exhibition rooms not only in Paris but also in New York, offered itself as the exclusive representative of Iwan Fedorowitsch Choultsé in America. On December 1, 1928, the exhibition of Choultsé's works opened in the New York gallery Édouard Jonas at 9 East 56th Street, with the slogan "It must be seen to be believed!" From November 15, 1929 to January 1, 1930, a total of 68 works by the painter were presented to the public in the Édouard Jonas Gallery. The paintings were popular, and not just in the United States: some paintings went to Canada, Argentina, and Mexico.
Choultsé remained the "Wizard of Light" for the American audience, as a critic reported on the artist in 1935 on the occasion of the retrospective "One Hundred and Fifty Years of Russian Painting" in the New York Hammer Galleries ("The New York Times", May 25, 1935). He was not forgotten in France either: in the 1930s, many French and international painters tried to imitate the master. Sometimes they just copied his compositions and style, for example the French Serge Sedrac (1878–1974), the Canadian Frank H. Johnston (1888–1949) or the Russian Boris Bessonow (1862–1934).
Life in Nice and death
In the mid-1930s, Choultsé moved to Nice. The last traceable trace of Choultsé is related to his meeting on March 7, 1936 with Alexander Alexandrowitsch Gefter (1885–1956), the writer-marinist, painter, member of anti-Bolshevik underground organizations and prominent Freemason. The meeting took place at Castel Breton Castle on the Route de Saint-Antoine, a popular meeting place for Russian immigrants. Choultsé's tombstone in the Russian Orthodox Caucade Cemetery in Nice shows 1939 as the year of his death.
In the meantime, even after the artist's departure and death, several exhibitions of his works took place in America ( New York , April 1936; Oklahoma City , May – June 1938; New York, April 1940 and May 1943).
Today there are only a few works by Choultsé in Russian museums (including the Russian State Arctic and Antarctic Museum in Saint Petersburg and the Dagestan Museum of Fine Arts), while they are much better represented in American and Canadian museums - for example in Hillwood Museum Washington DC , Washington State University Museum of Art , Indianapolis Museum of Art or Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal . Many works are in private collections.
painting
Choultsé dedicated his life to nature: this includes the earth, the sky, the moon, the flora and of course the key themes in Choultsé's work: snow and water. In the world of Choultsé there are no people, not even animals. The most common of his works are winter landscapes, especially those of Switzerland and not of Russia. He has been called the "Wizard of Light" for the almost magical realism of his works.
literature
- V. Goncharenko: Shisn's weroj v priswanije . Catalog proiswedenij Iwana Fedorowitscha Schultze [ A life for vocation . Catalog of works by Iwan Fedorowitsch Choultsé] // Foundation Choultsé IF Zurich 2016, (in German / Russian)
- E. Gollerbach: Wystawka chudoshnikow-indiwidualistow . [ Exhibition of artist-individualists ] In: Kasansky musejnyj westnik. [Kazan Museum Gazette], No. 3/6. Kazan 1921, p. 141, (in Russian)
- G. Kryzhitskij: Sud'ba chudoshnika [ A painter's fate ]. Kiev 1966, pp. 32, 43, (in Russian)
- D. Yes. Severjuchin, OL Lejkind: Chudoshniki russkoj jemigrazii [ painter of Russian emigration ] (1917–1941). Saint Petersburg 1994, (in Russian)
- Roger Burford Mason, A Grand Eye for Glory: A Life of Franz Johnston, Dundurn, 1998
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Choultsé, Ivan Fedorovich |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Choultsé, Ivan Fedorowitsch; Шультце, Иван Федорович (Russian) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Russian realism painter |
| DATE OF BIRTH | October 21, 1874 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | St. Petersburg |
| DATE OF DEATH | 1939 |
| Place of death | Nice |