Nikolai Ivanovich Feschin

Nikolai Ivanovich Feschin ( Russian Николай Иванович Фешин ; English Nicolai Fechin , scientific. Transliteration Nikolai Ivanovich Fešin * November 26 ^{. Jul} / 8. December  1881 ^greg. In Kazan , Russian Empire ; † 5. October 1955 in Santa Monica , California, USA ) was a Russian or American artist . He worked as a painter , writer , graphic artist , sculptor and was a representative of impressionism and modern art .

Feschin was well known in Russia and the USSR, in the USA he is considered a national painter. Known for his portraits, his motifs of Native Americans, he was referred to as "the Tatar painter" because of his origins . He created more than 2,000 works, which can be seen in the collections of more than 30 museums in the United States. The largest Russian collection of Feschin's works is in the Museum of Fine Arts of Tatarstan (“Hazine” Art Gallery) in the Kazan Kremlin.

Life

Feschin's father was a wood carver and designed altars, with his son helping him from the age of 11. At the age of 13, Nikolai attended the newly opened Kazan Art School, a branch of the Imperial Art Academy. Because of his talent, he was admitted to study in Saint Petersburg, where he studied with Ilya Repin and Filip Maljavin. Since a trip to Siberia in 1904 he was fascinated by landscapes and their inhabitants.

After an excellent university degree in 1909 at the Imperial Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg , he received the Prix ​​de Rome scholarship and traveled to the art centers of Europe. In 1910 he won the gold medal at the International Art Exhibition in Munich and was invited to present his works for the first time in the United States at the International Painting Exhibition of the Carnegie Museum in Pittsburgh .

He then became a painter and teacher in his hometown of Kazan. Konstantin Chebotaryov was among his students . In 1913 he married Alexandra Belkowitsch (1896–1983), the daughter of the director of the art school. This marriage ended in divorce in 1933.

In 1910 he became a co-founder of an artists' commune. In 1916 he became a full member (academician) of the Imperial Art Academy. Between 1912 and 1922 he exhibited his works together with the Peredwischniki , then until 1926 with the Association of Artists of Revolutionary Russia (AChRR).

In 1923 he emigrated with his family to New York , where he lived and worked for a few years. When he got tuberculosis , he moved to Taos, New Mexico , in search of a drier climate . Here he came into contact with the indigenous culture and was fascinated by the landscape there, where his best works were created in the American period. The house he converted in Taos, in which he lived until 1933, is made of adobe bricks and is now a museum and is a listed building. After that, Feschin lived in Southern California until his death in 1955.

In 1976 his daughter - Ija Nikolajewna Feschina-Branham (1914–2003) - had her father's ashes buried in Kazan.

He has received several awards (1st Prize of the Council of the Art Academy (1903), 1st Kuindschi Prize (1909); Prix Thomas R. Proctor (1924)) and was awarded the Order of St. Stanislaus, 3rd class.

Web links

Commons : Nikolai Ivanovich Fechin  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files