Mykhailo Andrіyovich Berkos ( uk, Михайло Андрійович Беркос, 1861 in

Odessa Odesa (also spelled Odessa) is the third most populous city and municipality in Ukraine and a major seaport and transport hub located in the south-west of the country, on the northwestern shore of the Black Sea. The city is also the administrativ ...

– 1919 in

Kharkiv Kharkiv ( uk, wikt:Харків, Ха́рків, ), also known as Kharkov (russian: Харькoв, ), is the second-largest List of cities in Ukraine, city and List of hromadas of Ukraine, municipality in Ukraine.Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...

artist of Greek origin. He worked mainly in the genre of

landscape art Landscape painting, also known as landscape art, is the depiction of natural scenery such as mountains, valleys, trees, rivers, and forests, especially where the main subject is a wide view—with its elements arranged into a coherent compos ...

and experienced a significant influence of European

Impressionism Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by relatively small, thin, yet visible brush strokes, open Composition (visual arts), composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating ...

. He painted in oils and watercolors. In his works he often turned to the subject of Ukrainian nature.

Biography

Berkos was born on September 3, 1861 in

. His father Andrey Ignatievich Berkos, a subject of

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders with ...

, served in the firm ''Bellino Fender'', his mother Martha Ivanovna came from a Russian noble family. The family lived in their house on Pushkinskaya. Mykhailo Berkos first studied painting in Odessa Drawing School, graduating in 1877. Then he continued his education at the

Imperial Academy of Arts The Russian Academy of Arts, informally known as the Saint Petersburg Academy of Arts, was an art academy in Saint Petersburg, founded in 1757 by the founder of the Imperial Moscow University Ivan Shuvalov under the name ''Academy of the Thre ...

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

, where he studied from 1878 to 1889 in the studio of Mikhail Clodt and

Volodymyr Orlovsky Vladimir Orlovsky (russian: Владимир Донатович Орловский; 1842, Kiev, Russian Empire – 1914, Genoa, Italy) was a Ukrainian realist painter and academic of Saint Petersburg Academy of Arts. Orlovsky painted for ...

. He got a small and large silver medals (1884–1886), a small gold medal for the painting ''View of one of the oldest parks in St. Petersburg'' (1887), a gold medal for the painting ''Landscape. Forest in the swamp'' (1888). During the holidays he came to

Kharkiv Kharkiv ( uk, wikt:Харків, Ха́рків, ), also known as Kharkov (russian: Харькoв, ), is the second-largest List of cities in Ukraine, city and List of hromadas of Ukraine, municipality in Ukraine. In 1889 he graduated from the academy with the rank of first degree class artist and the right to travel abroad at public expense (pension). From 1890 to 1893 Berkos as a pensioner of the Academy traveled by Europe, studying art of museums in

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

. He painted a lot, perfected his technique, was influenced by

and

en plein air ''En plein air'' (; French for 'outdoors'), or ''plein air'' painting, is the act of painting outdoors. This method contrasts with studio painting or academic rules that might create a predetermined look. The theory of 'En plein air' painting ...

painting. After the expiration of the pension Berkos lived in St. Petersburg for some time and presented his paintings at exhibitions of societies of artists. On the khutir

In the second half of the 1890s he moved to Kharkiv. He lived in a suburb of Mala Danylivka with the General's widow Maria Reinicke. There he wrote sketches, among which ''Greenhouses'' (1895) and ''Landscape with a Church'' (1897) have survived. From 1904 he taught at the school of drawing in Kharkiv. At the initiative of Berkos in 1912 the Kharkiv Art College was opened, where until 1917 he was one of the leading teachers. Berkos put a lot of effort to enrich the collection of the first Museum of Art and Industry in Ukraine. In the early 1900s he worked at the Kharkiv literary and artistic section. As the chairman of the Society of Kharkiv Artists since 1906 he spent a great job of promoting Ukrainian art. In 1907 he participated in the interiors decoration of the Poltava Zemstvo building in the Ukrainian Nouveau style. In 1900 he was exhibited at the Exposition Universelle in Paris. Solo exhibitions of Berkos took place in 1906 and 1908 in Kharkiv, there also was an exhibition of works by Kharkiv artists Serhii Vasylkivsky and Mykhaylo Berkos in 1911 in

Kiev Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the List of European cities by populat ...

. He died of typhus on 20 December 1919 in Kharkiv.

Exhibitions

Works of Berkos were presented at exhibitions-competitions and exhibitions-sales of the Academy of Arts (1890, 1892–1894), St. Petersburg Society of Artists (1894–1903), societies of Russian watercolours (1894–1898, 1900–1905, 1907, 1910, 1914), southern Russian artists, Kharkiv painters (1893, 1894, 1912, 1914–1917), the All-Russia exhibition in Nizhny Novgorod (1896), the Exposition Universelle in Paris (1900). Intravital solo exhibitions of the artist were organised in 1906 and 1908 (Kharkiv Art and Industry Museum), there also was an exhibition of paintings by Serhii Vasylkivsky and Mykhaylo Berkos in 1911 in Kiev. In October 1938 the Kharkiv National Gallery exhibited about 120 paintings created by the artist in the years 1890–1919. Exhibitions of his paintings were also held in the Kharkiv Art Museum in 1962, 1990 and 1996. The exhibition ''Outstanding Ukrainian landscape masters'' in 1990 presented 28 paintings and three drawings from the museum and private collections.

Artworks

Almost all of the works of Berkos which were stored at his home (350 paintings and sketches) after his death were burned by his wife. However, his works have been preserved in museum collections in Kharkiv, Kiev,

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

, St. Petersburg,

Ulyanovsk Ulyanovsk, known until 1924 as Simbirsk, is a city and the administrative center of Ulyanovsk Oblast, Russia, located on the Volga River east of Moscow. Population: The city, founded as Simbirsk (), was the birthplace of Vladimir Lenin (born ...

Stavropol Stavropol (; rus, Ставрополь, p=ˈstavrəpəlʲ) is a city and the administrative centre of Stavropol Krai, Russia. As of the 2021 Census, its population was 547,820, making it one of Russia's fastest growing cities. It was known as ...

Alupka Alupka (Ukrainian and Russian: Алу́пка; crh, Alupka; gr, Ἀλώπηξ, Alòpex) is a resort city located in the Crimean peninsula, a territory of Ukraine currently annexed by Russian Federation (see 2014 Crimean crisis). It is located t ...

North Ossetia North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating direction or geography. Etymology The word ''north'' is ...

, Germany, France and Switzerland. The main theme of the artist's art throughout his career was a Ukrainian landscape, the specific features of nature, the nature of vegetation. Berkos loved to paint during blossoming. Village streets with white houses and lush trees, flowering fields of flax and buckwheat were his favorite motifs: paintings ''Flax in bloom'' (1893), ''Buckwheat in bloom'' (1894), ''July. Poppies are blooming'' (1913), ''Apple tree in bloom'' (1919). His sketches ''Full poppies'' (1885), ''The Valley'', ''Flax'' (1893) noted completeness, reasonableness of the composition, the freshness of colour, special refinement. Particularly noteworthy is a small picture of Berkos from the Kharkov Art Museum, 47 x 66 cm in size called "Budyaki". The picture, like most of the master’s works, captivates one’s eyes, as much life as there is still to be found in these dried weeds! Following the impressionistic principle that “there should be traces of how it was made in the picture,” the master uses a roundish, dotted, dense brushstroke, which creates a flickering, vibrating surface, where sunlight shines through a hot golden under-shadow through a light-air background. In the

Russian Museum The State Russian Museum (russian: Государственный Русский музей), formerly the Russian Museum of His Imperial Majesty Alexander III (russian: Русский Музей Императора Александра III), on ...

of St. Petersburg is a vivid work of nature M. Berkosa "Stream". The size of the painting is 120 by 177 cm, single, oil, year of writing 1889. Landscapes ''Rome'' and ''Sorrento'' (1899) take the romantic colouring of past times by the reproduction of pure blue sky, bright sunshine, rich color shades of green tall trees, flowing enamel-like painting. Sketch ''Haven. Amalfi'' (1899) was depicted in light improvisational manner, it’s an elegant painting, impregnated with a dynamic movement. The colour structure of the landscape ''Winter'' (1907), painted in the Poltava region, was designed in blue and white palette with flashes of pink with elaborate decorative. In his landscapes the display of the usual corner, above all Sloboda Ukraine, turns into a generalised image of Ukraine. In his work ''Street in Uman'' (1895) the picture of a provincial Ukrainian town, its dusty roads, winding streets, ramshackle houses and domes of the churches were reflected with high authenticity. The world that Berkos conveys sparkles with a stream of sun, light and color. The world that Berkos conveys sparkles with a stream of sun, light and color. He paints his paintings quickly, easily, freely. Each picture has its own coloristic find, discovery. There is a phenomenon called the "absolute eye" of the artist. Among the "seasonal predilections" of the master are summer and spring, the period of the lush flowering of everything on earth. With his hedonistic aspirations, the desire to represent the world in its entirety and brightness, the artist is perhaps most attracted to the backgrounds of

Renoir Pierre-Auguste Renoir (; 25 February 1841 – 3 December 1919) was a French artist who was a leading painter in the development of the Impressionist style. As a celebrator of beauty and especially feminine sensuality, it has been said that "Re ...

and

Monet Oscar-Claude Monet (, , ; 14 November 1840 – 5 December 1926) was a French painter and founder of impressionist painting who is seen as a key precursor to modernism, especially in his attempts to paint nature as he perceived it. During ...

, their bright multicolor. Among the paintings of Mikhail Berkos, you can stroll, as in a flowering garden, flooded with midday light.

Literature

* Енциклопедія українознавства. У 10-х томах. / Головний редактор Володимир Кубійович. — Париж; Нью-Йорк: Молоде життя, 1954—1989. * М. А. Беркос. С. М. Ткаченко. П. О. Левченко. Живопис, графіка. Каталог. — Харків, 1991. * Харківська пейзажна школа: остання чверть ХІХ — початок ХХ століття. — Київ: «Родовід», 2009.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Berkos, Mykhaylo 1861 births 1919 deaths Ukrainian people of Greek descent Landscape painters 19th-century Ukrainian painters Ukrainian male painters 19th-century Ukrainian male artists 20th-century Ukrainian painters 20th-century Ukrainian male artists Imperial Academy of Arts alumni Awarded with a large gold medal of the Academy of Arts