Happy Holidays to All 2025 !

Konstantin Gorbatov, “A Winter Landscape”, 1896-1945, Pencil and Gouache on Paper Laid Down on Board, 36.1 x 48.2 cm, Private Collection

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Born at the Volga River town of Stavropol (now Tolyatti) in May of 1876, Konstantin Ivanovich Gorbatov was a Russian Post-Impressionist painter known for his vibrant landscapes. Interested in art at an early age, he sketched the churches, houses and river landscapes of his hometown. In the 1890s, Gorbatov trained with the local artists in Samara and later relocated to Riga in 1896.

While studying civil engineering in Riga, Gorbatov continued his art training with evening classes. In 1904, he relocated to St. Petersburg and initially enrolled at the Baron Stieglitz School for Technical Draftsmanship before transferring to the Imperial Academy of Arts where Gorbatov studied under landscape painters Nikolay Dubovskoy and Alexander Kiselev. He began exhibiting his work in 1908 and was acknowledged for his distinctive style, a fusion of realism and the emerging impressionist style.

Critics praised Konstantin Gorbatov’s celebration of everyday Russian life and the harmony found in every detail of his work. The influence of the French Impressionists can be seen in his loose brushwork and plein-air light effects. Gorbatov drew on the Peredvizhniki (Wanderers) realist tradition while embracing modern impressionism. Thus, his landscapes appealed to those who loved the post-impressionist Russian art and those with a sentimental connections to old Russian locales. 

Gorbatov left Russian in 1922, unwilling to adapt to the new Soviet regime, and sought refuge in Italy, eventually settling in Venice. He frequently traveled around Italy and painted local scenes, architecture and seascapes as well as Russian landscapes from memory. Gorbatov moved to Berlin in 1926 where there was a thriving community of Russian émigré artists.During the late 1920s, he began selling and exhibiting his work internationally.

The rise of the Nazi regime in the 1930s led to a decline in interest for Konstantin Gorbatov’s work as it did not align with the austere cultural ideology of Nazi art policies. Still a Soviet citizen, he was forbidden to leave German and soon fell into poverty. Despite the hardship of his life, Gorbatov continued to paint for himself.

After enduring the war years in besieged Berlin, Gorbatov died in May of 1945, shortly after the Allied victory in Europe. His final act, one of generosity to his homeland, was the bequest that all his unsold artwork be given to the Academy of Arts in Leningrad. Many of Gorbatov’s paintings are also housed in the collection of the Moscow Regional Art Museum.