Konstantin Yuon - SKETCHLINE

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1875 - 1958

Konstantin Yuon

description

A Russian painter, master of landscape, art theorist and art critic, theater artist. The artist’s creative career and personal life were happy. He was successful from his student years, appreciated after the revolution, got various honours (prizes, orders, titles); he avoided all the persecutions that swept the country in waves. However, he was never an opportunist – the painter worked in his manner and mainly on “his” themes – landscapes and architecture, paying much less attention to plot and portrait painting.

The style of Konstantin Yuon, close to realism and moderate impressionism, acquired a certain colour either of symbolism or of primitivism, but always remained “living” and genuine.

Numerous works of the master are in the collections of large Russian museums and galleries; they are presented at regional and former republican museums of the post-Soviet territory.

Key ideas:

– Having learned some of the principles and techniques of French Impressionists, Yuon did not break close ties with the traditions of Russian Realism: he did not “dissolve” the shape of objects in the environment and did not abandon the prospect.
– Like Boris Kustodiev, Yuon loved Russian antiquity for its decorative brilliance, applied naive art techniques in his plot paintings.

– Yuon witnessed the discovery of Old Russian icon painting by restorers – those bright and clear colours that were discovered influenced the formation of the artist’s colouristic manner.

– The master loved the joy in nature and life; therefore, he mostly painted the sun, sparkling snow, colourful folk clothes and significant monuments of ancient Russian architecture surrounded by landscape. His main creative credo was, “The contemplation of nature and heaven is always an exalted blessing”.

– Working on paintings on historical themes, Yuon also presented them through landscapes. Generalizing the meanings, he strove to remain extremely plausible; it is typical for the artist’s late works that he created in the village of Ligachevo, near Moscow (the painter often worked there from 1908 to 1958, building himself a house-workshop).

– He created some paintings of his late period remembering his childhood and adolescence. They are characterized by a special lyricism because they are associated with the poetic perception of the life of the old pre-revolutionary Moscow, which brought up the artist. One of the paintings of 1946 is named particularly: “Feeding pigeons on Red Square in the years 1890-1900”.

Konstantin Yuon

On Artist

flow

Symbolism

Realism

Primitivism

Modern

friends

Alexandre Benois

Igor Grabar

artists

Nikolay Kasatkin

Konstantin Savitsky

Abram Arkhipov

Valentin Serov

Isaac Levitan

By Artist

flow

Modern

friends

Ivan Dudin

artists

Lyubov Popova

Olga Rozanova

Otto Skulme

Varvara Stepanova

Nadezhda Udaltsova

Robert Falk

Alexander Vasilievich Kuprin

Vladimir Andreevich Favorsky

Vera Ignatievna Mukhina

Vasily Alekseevich Vatagin

Vesnin brothers

Nikolai Dzhemsovich Collie

Alexey Grishchenko

Mikhail Grigorievich Reuter

Nikolai Borisovich Terpsichorov

Yuri Alekseevich Bakhrushin

Falileev Vadim Dmitrievich

Shaya Noevich Melamud

description

Mediums: oil, canvas. Location: The State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow (Russia).

1947

description

Mediums: oil, canvas. Location: The State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow (Russia).

1929

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Mediums: oil, canvas. Location: The Kharkov Art Museum (Ukraine).

1923

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Mediums: oil, canvas. Location: The Simferopol Art Museum (Ukraine).

1922

description

Mediums: tempera, cardboard. Location: The State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow (Russia).

1921

description

Mediums: oil, canvas. Location: The Donetsk Regional Art Museum (Ukraine).

1917

description

Mediums: watercolor, whitewash, paper. Location: The State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg (Russia).

1913

description

Mediums: oil, canvas. Location: The State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow (Russia).

1907

description

Mediums: oil, canvas. Location: The State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg (Russia).

1903