"Standing Figure of a Young Man" Original Oil Painting by Gavriil Gorelov Circa 1940

Original oil painting by master painter Gavriil Nikitich Gorelov.

The piece measures 39" x 47".

Signed and dated on the back.

Closed corner, gilded frame handcrafted by Richard Tobey.

This painting comes from our collection of original Soviet-era oil paintings. 

The history of Russian Impressionist painting is the tale of an extraordinary movement in the art of the twentieth century.  The concept of "Soviet Social Realism," a.k.a. Russian impressionism, emphasized the social role of art; it insisted on the superiority of content over form and required a wholesale return to traditional skills, regarding history and European art from the Renaissance as a living source of inspiration.

In the ensuing years, artists struggled between their duty to reflect the ideals of the State and developing their own stylistic repertoire as party leaders demanded that art should be "understood" by the average person. Somehow, Russian artists managed to perform a delicate balancing act between the requirements of "accepted" working class art by painting poetic scenes in which the worker, farmer, or monumental Russian industry are the primary subjects.

With the death of Stalin in 1953, the darker academic pallet began to lighten and the need to conform to rigid subjects eased. This was the beginning of what is known as the "Severe Style" of Social Realism. The fall of the Soviet Empire took with it the last of the social realist art form. By 1990, all that was left of Russian Impressionism was a body of work created in the five previous decades by a few masters and their progeny.

About Gavriil Nikitich Gorelov:

Gavriil Nikitich Gorelov was born in Pokrovskoe, Moscow in 1880. He studied icon painting as a youth at the Penza Drawing School from 1898-1903. He went onto wrap up his studies at the Imperial Academy of Arts from 1903-1911 in St. Petersburg. Gorelov began exhibiting in 1904. He was a member of the AKhR/R (Association of Artists of Revolutionary Russia) from 1924-1932. Some of the most important shows Gorelov exhibited include "Fifteen Years of the Workers," "Peasants Red Army," and "Industry of Socialism." Gorelov also participated in several "All Union Art Exhibitions," which is considered to be a very high honor. Gorelov was awarded the "Stalin Prize" in 1950. He died in Moscow in 1966.