Vasili Ivanovich Surikov, 1848-1916

The delicate and translucent nature of Surikov’s watercolours stands in stark contrast to the technique of thick impasto used in his large-scale, historical canvases. Indeed, they constitute a completely separate and parallel line in his artistic oeuvre. Watercolour was linked very much to Surikov’s private persona and the medium he turned to for the sheer pleasure of painting. His contemporaries recalled that he hardly ever exhibited these watercolours during his lifetime.