Pyotr Konchalovsky

Pyotr Konchalovsky
Self-portait, 1912
Born	Pyotr Petrovich Konchalovsky 21 February  [O.S. 9 February] 1876 Slavyansk, Kharkov Governorate, Russian Empire
Died	2 February 1956(1956-02-02) (aged 79) Moscow, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union
Resting place	Novodevichy Cemetery
Education	Académie Julian Imperial Academy of Arts, 1907
Movement	Knave of Diamonds
Spouse	Olga Surikova ​ (m. 1902)​
Children	2
Relatives	Sergey Mikhalkov (son-in-law) Nikita Mikhalkov (grandson) Andrei Konchalovsky (grandson) Egor Konchalovsky (great-grandson)

Pyotr Petrovich Konchalovsky^a (Russian: Пётр Петрович Кончаловский; 21 February  [O.S. 9 February] 1876 – 2 February 1956) was a Russian and Soviet painter. Konchalovsky was a founding member and chairman of the Knave of Diamonds group.

Pyotr Konchalovsky was born on 21 February 1876 in the village of Slavyansk in Kharkov Governorate of the Russian Empire (present-day Ukraine). His father, Pyotr, was a translator and art publisher with connections to many artists active in Russia during the late 19th century.¹ His brothers were Maxim, a physician, and Dmitry, a historian.

In 1889, the Konchalovsky family moved to Moscow and their house became a part of the Moscow art scene of the 1890s. Their house was often visited by Valentin Serov, Konstantin Korovin, Mikhail Vrubel, Vasily Surikov, and Konchalovsky used to spend every weekend at Tretyakov gallery to study the canvases painted by key Russian artists.²

During his gymnasium years Konchalovsky attended classes of Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. After advice of Konstantin Korovin and Valentin Serov, in 1896–1898 he traveled to Paris to study at the Académie Julian, one of his classmates being Albert Gleizes. In 1899, he returned to Russia and entered the Imperial Academy of Arts in Saint Petersburg, graduating in 1907. At the academy, he studied under Vasily Savinsky, Hugo Salemann and Pavel Kovalevsky.³

In the book Pyotr Konchalovsky (1936) by V. Nikolsky, Konchalovsky recollects that he "found his art" when he visited Paris for the second time in 1907, and discovered Paul Cezanne and Vincent van Gogh. He even made a week-long trip to Arles, to "penetrate even deeper into van Gogh’s world and to learn his art to the bottom".⁴

Working under these influences, he made a public debut at the Salon des Indépendants exhibition in Paris, 1908, but Konchalovsky soon returned to Moscow, bringing with him new ideas (elements of his work from this period have been identified as "Fauvist" and cezannism).¹

By 1909, he was exhibiting frequently, participating in the Golden Fleece, Fraternity, Mir iskusstva, and the New Society of Artists. He was a founding member of the Knave of Diamonds society in 1910, a rebellious, avante-garde group seeking to synthesize the modern art breakthroughs of French and German styles with Russian primitivism. Where Western European looked to African sculptures for artistic refreshment and inspiration, these Russian painters imagined they could turn to "indigenous" Russian works such as icons, provincial tavern and shop signs and street ads, “lubok”-style colorful book illustrations. Konchalovsky was elected as the group's first chairman in 1910.¹

After serving in the Imperial Russian Army in 1914–1916, Konchalovsky returned to his art with moderated intentions. Beginning in 1918, he taught art. In 1922, he had his first solo exhibition at the Tretyakov Gallery.

During that period, he mostly drew still lifes and landscapes. His paintings—as of all other Jacks of Diamond—remained strongly influenced by Paul Cézanne. But he started to paint portraits (often ceremonial portraits) that are considered examples of socialist realism style.⁵

In 1902, Konchalovsky married Olga Surikova (1878–1958), the daughter of painter Vasily Surikov. Konchalovsky and Surikova had two children, the painter Mikhail Petrovich Konchalovsky and the poet and children's writer Natalya Konchalovskaya.

Through his daughter, Konchalovsky was the father-in-law of Sergey Mikhalkov a notable poet, the author of children's poetry and two versions of the State Anthem of the Soviet Union and the present national anthem of Russia. They have two sons: Andrei Konchalovsky, a film writer, director and a painter (whose son Egor is also a notable film director) and Nikita Mikhalkov, also a movie director who, in 1994, won the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar for his film Burnt by the Sun.⁶

Konchalovsky was a very prolific painter, and is known to have created more than five thousand works over the course of his long creative life. His work demonstrates a "complex evolution" of styles.⁷

The influence of Paul Cezanne was "clearly visible" in Konchalovsky's paintings in the pre-WWI period. ⁸

Heralded as a member of Russia's avant-garde, following World War II he became a member of the USSR Academy of Fine Arts and a People's Artist of the RSFSR.⁹

His paintings are considered to have made a significant contribution to "the development of Soviet realistic art."⁷

In 2006, his heirs established the Petr Konchalovsky Foundation, a non-commercial beneficial organization created to consolidate Konchalovsky's legacy. In addition to organizing exhibitions and presentations of Konchalovsky's artworks, the foundation is dedicated to conservation and authentication of the artist's work.¹⁰

A street in Moscow is named after the artist.¹¹

• Pyotr Konchalovsky paintings, pre-WWI
• 
  Natasha Konchalovskaya on a chair (1910) Pyotr Konchalovsky
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  Matador Manuel Gartha (1910)
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  Bullfight (1910)
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  Bridge (1911)
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  Cassis, the view from the window (1913)
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  House in Abramtsevo (1911)
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  Agave (1916)

• Pyotr Konchalovsky paintings, Soviet period
• 
  Tree against the sky (1923)
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  Portrait of Vsevolod Meyerhold (1938)
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  Self-Portrait (1943), shown as on the 1976 Soviet stamp
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  Winter Landscape, birch trees (1947)
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  Rose (1955) Soviet Stamp from 1979