Alexeï and Sergueï Tkatchev

The Tkachev brothers are a rare example of outstanding creative collaboration. Sergei (born in 1922) and Aleksei (born in 1925) were both bright creative personalities producing splendid joint and individual works. The Tkachev brothers were People’s Artists of the USSR, members of the USSR Academy of Arts and winners of the USSR State Prize. Part of collections of the Tretyakov Gallery and the Russian Museum, their works were exhibited in the Art Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington and in the Guggenheim Museum in New York.

The brothers were born in a village near Bryansk. While each followed his own path towards pictorial arts, the two reunited for their career-defining studies at the Moscow Surikov Art College under the famous Soviet painter Sergei Gerasimov, who shaped an entire generation of remarkable Russian artists of the sixties. (In turn, Gerasimov had studied under Konstantin Korovin, Abram Arkhipov and Valentin Serov – an amazing tale of generational continuity in Russian art!).

Throughout their lives, the Tkachev brothers constantly turn to the images of the Russian countryside: “Our paintings are about our life. The characters are not fantasies: behind each work are real people, real events, stories told by our elders. Each painting represents a piece of our soul.” The Tkachev brothers’ canvases depict the perpetual cycle of rural life and its protagonists.

One such work is Good Morning (1965, oil on canvas. 76×87.5 cm), which depicts village girls riding on a two-wheeled cart on a chilly, sunshine-filled morning.