Petrov-Vodkin, Kuzma (1878-1939) - 1920 Still Life with Blue Ashtray (Private Collection)

            Oil on canvas;    37 x 48 cm.

Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin was born in Khvalynsk into the family of a local shoemaker. His first exposure to art was in his early childhood, when he took some lessons from icon painters and a signmaker. He took a summer job at a small shipyard with plans to get into railroad college in Samara. After failing his exam, he turned to "Art Classes of Fedor Burov" in 1893. By chance, his mother's employer invited a well-known architect, R. Meltzer. Petrov-Vodkin was introduced to the guest and impressed him enough to get an invitation to study art at Saint Petersburg. He also met at this time Borisov-Musatov, an important painter resident in Saratov, who encouraged Petrov-Vodkin to continue his studies. He stayed in Saint Petersburg from 1895 to 1897 studying at the Baron Stieglits School, before moving to the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. There Petrov-Vodkin was a student of Valentin Serov, Isaak Levitan and especially Konstantin Korovin.

Even during his college years, he managed to enter into conflict with the Russian Orthodox Church, which discarded his work on a chapel in Samara. A number of his early works were deemed too erotic. His first well-known work was The Dream (1910), which sparked a discussion among contemporary Russian artists. Other major works of that time include Boys at play, and, notably, Bathing of a Red Horse, his most iconic work. The latter became an instant classic. During this stage he extensively used an aesthetic of Orthodox icon together with brighter colors and unusual compositions.

Taken on: February 29, 2012

Tags:

kuzma petrov-vodkin

petrov-vodkin

20th century

russian

1920

1920s

still life with blue ashtray

private collection

still life

cubism « less

Sets appears in: • Russia and Ukraine 1900-1950 • Still-Life more » • Cubism and Futurism « less

Stats: 5,307 views

go back

close tools panel

Badge creator

Use Flickriver Badge Creator to create a badge linking to your photos, your group or any other Flickriver view.

You can place your badge on your Flickr profile, Blog or Website.

Add to your iGoogle or Netvibes page

Flickriver widget for iGoogle or Netvibes can display almost any Flickriver view - most interesting today, by user, by group, by tag etc. Once added to your personalized homepage, just edit widget settings to select your desired view.

Clickr on one of the buttons below to install:

Embed on your Web site

To embed this view, Copy and Paste the following HTML code:

Black background (preview):

White background (preview):

Firefox and Chrome addons

Adds a 'Flickriver' button to your browser. While viewing any Flickr photos page, click on this button to open the same view on Flickriver.

Install in Firefox
Install in Chrome

Search plugin

Add 'Search on Flickriver' to your browser's search box. Works with Firefox and Internet Explorer. Install search plugin

"View on Flickriver" Greasemonkey script

A Greasemonkey script that adds Flickriver links to various Flickr photo pages - user photos, favorites, pools etc, allowing to quickly open the corresponding Flickriver view.

Also, allows quickly viewing any Flickr photo on black background in large size.

Install "View on Flickriver" script

Bookmarklet

While viewing any Flickr photos page, click on the bookmarklet to open the same view on Flickriver.

To install: drag and drop the following link to your Bookmarks toolbar.
IE users - add the link to your Favorites under the Links folder