Sergey Vasilyevich Gerasimov (russian: Серге́й Васи́льевич Гера́симов; in

Mozhaysk MozhayskAlternative transliterations include ''Mozhaisk'', ''Mozhajsk'', ''Mozhaĭsk'', and ''Možajsk''. ( rus, Можа́йск, p=mɐˈʐajsk) is a town and the administrative center of Mozhaysky District in Moscow Oblast, Russia, located to th ...

, current Moscow Oblast – 20 April 1964 in

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 millio ...

) was a Soviet and Russian painter. Gerasimov was a student of artist

Konstantin Korovin Konstantin Alekseyevich Korovin (russian: Константи́н Алексе́евич Коро́вин, first name often spelled Constantin; 11 September 1939) was a leading Russian Impressionist painter. Biography Youth and education Konstan ...

, and as a young artist he later went on to join the Makovets group. His early

watercolor Watercolor (American English) or watercolour (British English; see spelling differences), also ''aquarelle'' (; from Italian diminutive of Latin ''aqua'' "water"), is a painting method”Watercolor may be as old as art itself, going back to ...

s are considered masterpieces and show a tendency toward

modernism Modernism is both a philosophy, philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western world, Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new fo ...

that is less pronounced in his later work. In the 1920s and 1930s, he taught at the state art school Vkhutemas, and designed posters and painted works sympathetic to the new

Communist government A communist state, also known as a Marxist–Leninist state, is a one-party state that is administered and governed by a communist party guided by Marxism–Leninism. Marxism–Leninism was the state ideology of the Soviet Union, the Cominte ...

in a style later known as

Socialist realism Socialist realism is a style of idealized realistic art that was developed in the Soviet Union and was the official style in that country between 1932 and 1988, as well as in other socialist countries after World War II. Socialist realism is c ...

. Despite this he was known throughout the Russian art world to be a liberal thinker whose paintings showed the influences of

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

and other modern movements. Under

Joseph Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secretar ...

these tendencies placed him in aesthetic opposition to his nemesis (and ironic namesake) Aleksandr Gerasimov. During the Stalin era, Sergey Gerasimov was demoted from his position of director of the Russian Artists' Union and replaced by Aleksandr Gerasimov. During the period of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, Sergey Gerasimov, along with most of the faculty and student body of the Surikov Art Institute were moved from Moscow to the ancient

caravan city A caravan city is a city located on and deriving its prosperity from its location on a major trans-desert trade route. The term is believed to have been coined by the great scholar of antiquity, Michael Rostovtzeff, for his work ''O Blijnem Vosto ...

of Samarkand. Some of Gerasimov's most famous works were painted during this period and show scenes of the old oriental city of Samarkand. Many of these paintings are on display to this day at the

Tretyakov Gallery The State Tretyakov Gallery (russian: Государственная Третьяковская Галерея, ''Gosudarstvennaya Tretyâkovskaya Galereya''; abbreviated ГТГ, ''GTG'') is an art gallery in Moscow, Russia, which is considered th ...

in Moscow. With the death of Stalin and the rise of

Nikita Khrushchev Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev (– 11 September 1971) was the First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964 and chairman of the country's Council of Ministers from 1958 to 1964. During his rule, Khrushchev s ...

, Sergey Gerasimov was re-instated as the head of the Russian Artists' Union, a position he held until his death in 1964. Some of Gerasimov's most famous students that he came in contact with and taught at the Surikov Art Institute include; Fedor Z. Zakharov, Vladimir Stozharov, Alexey and Sergey Tkachyov, Yury P. Kugach, Aleksei Gritsai, Gely Korzhev, and many other important Soviet artists.

Selected works

File:Vosstanile_krestian.jpg, ''The Peasant Uprising of 1860'' (1951)

External links

Gerasimov, Sergey Vasilyevich
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gerasimov, Sergey Vasilyevich 1885 births 1964 deaths 20th-century Russian painters People from Mozhaysk Communist Party of the Soviet Union members Vkhutemas faculty People's Artists of the USSR (visual arts) Lenin Prize winners Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner of Labour Russian genre painters Russian illustrators Russian Impressionist painters Russian landscape painters Russian male painters Russian portrait painters Soviet painters Burials at Novodevichy Cemetery