Alexander Laktionov

Abilene, Texas, The Grace Museum, Russian Impressionism 1930-1980, November 1998-January 1999
Nashville, Tennessee, Tennessee State Museum, Russian Realism: Paintings From Behind the Iron Curtain, March-May 2000
Minneapolis, Minnesota, The Museum of Russian Art, Colors of a Russian Winter, January-April 2007

Oil on canvas and covered with a layer of slightly yellowed varnish. In overall fine condition. There is some minor paint loss around the edges and a small fleck of white paint (could be original) in the upper left corner. There is a small scratch near the neck of the girl. Under UV no pigment appears to fluoresce but varnish prevents a conclusive analysis. Held in a gold painted wooden frame. Unexamined out of frame.
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'Of all the subjects in Soviet art the most significant was the painting of children' (V.Swanson, Soviet Impressionist Painting, p.307).  Everyday family life, and especially the schooling of the next generation, was as legitimate a choice for post-war Soviet genre painting as major socio-political themes. The meticulous style of the present painting is typical of Alexander Laktionov's work, which can be seen in the context of early photo-realism – extremely popular with the Soviet public, but the source of controversy among his contemporary critics. Laktionov's most famous painting, A Letter From the Front (1947), is bathed in a similarly warm glow. 'True happiness,' according to the artist, was 'to work without too much cleverness, without fuss, constantly learning from nature, drinking in the true source of eternal freshness and understanding life'. Born in Rostov-on-Don and taught at the Leningrad Academy of Arts by Isaak Brodsky, Laktionov finds a legitimate comparison in many ways with the American post-war artist, Norman Rockwell, whose vivid and affectionate portraits of his country were reappraised by serious art critics late in his lifetime.