Alexander Alexandrovich Deineka

Moscow, Leningrad, Aleksandr Aleksandrovich Deineka, 1899-1969. Vystavka proizvedenii k 80-letiyu so dnya rozhdeniya, 1980
Moscow, Aleksandr Aleksandrovich Deineka, 1899-1969. Zhivopis', skul'ptura, grafika. Vystavka proizvedenii k 90-letiyu so dnya rozhdeniya, 1990

Exhibition catalogue Aleksandr Aleksandrovich Deineka, 1899-1969. Vystavka proizvedenii k 80-letiyu so dnya rozhdeniya, Moscow: Izobrazitel'noe iskusstvo, 1980, p.29 listed
I.Nenarokomova, 'Lyublyu bol'shie plany...'. Khudozhnik Aleksandr Deineka, Moscow: Sovetskii khudozhnik, 1987, p.172 illustrated; p.207, no.172 listed
Exhibition catalogue Aleksandr Aleksandrovich Deineka, 1899-1969. Zhivopis', skul'ptura, grafika. Vystavka proizvedenii k 90-letiyu so dnya rozhdeniya, Moscow: Sovetskii khudozhnik, 1990, p.49 listed
N.Aleksandrova, E.Voronovich, Aleksandr Deineka: Zhivopis’, Grafika, Skul’ptura, Moscow: Interrosa, 2010, p.124, no.207 listed and illustrated; p.377 illustrated

Original canvas on its original stretcher. There are frame abrasions at the edges with some associated paint loss. Fine craquleure is visible in places, notably around the the crown of the tree on the right, the areas of impasto and the fence in the lower right quadrant, where it is lifting slightly but appears stable. There is a small stain between the green fence posts. A vertical scratch with minor associated paint loss runs down from the top edge above the lilacs and paint shrinkage is visible in the lilacs. There is a layer of surface dirt. Inspection under UV light reveals no apparent signs of retouching. Held in a black and gold frame. Unexamined out of frame.
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In 1947 Deineka was made a full member of the USSR Academy of the Arts, but the immediate post-war period was difficult for the artist, as it was for the rest of the country. ‘Do not think’, he wrote at the time, ‘that my days run smoothly and are filled with roses, no, but when I am in front of the canvas in my studio I try to forget about what has angered me in the street or in conversation with a foolish person. I think that, in life as in painting we must discard the unnecessary'.

1947 witnessed the reinstatement of Socialist Realism by the bureaucrat Andrei Zhdanov after the relative artistic freedom of the war years. Despite Deineka’s best efforts, his friend and fellow teacher at the Moscow State Institute, the former head of VKhUTEMAS Vladimir Favorsky was hounded out of the Institute on charges of Formalism. Deineka responded by abandoning contentious subjects and seeking solace in depictions of the beauty of nature both at the dacha outside Riga to which he took his students and in the series of still-lifes he painted in his Moscow studio.