Petrov-Vodkin

Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin was a Russian painter who attempted to reconcile classical and modern trends. His style was formed under a wide range of influences, often seemingly incompatible: 19th-century Russian painters such as Aleksey Venetsianov, Aleksandr Ivanov and Mikhail Vrubel', the artists of the Munich Secession, Ferdinand Hodler, Maurice Denis, Gauguin, Matisse, the painting of Giovanni Bellini, early Russian frescoes and Russian folklore and popular songs. During his artistic development, Petrov-Vodkin extensively used an aesthetic of Orthodox icon together with brighter colours and unusual compositions. His works were often deemed blasphemous and erotic (sometimes even homoerotic). A main proponent his painting was Alexander Benois, and his main opponent - Ilya Repin.

Petrov-Vodkin was nearly forgotten in the Soviet Union as not true to the spirit of Socialist Realism but after the mid-1960s, he was rediscovered and rightfully reinstalled as one of the major Russian painters.