Alexandre Guerassimov

The painter Alexander Gerasimov (1881-1963) was one of the most famous and successful Soviet artists of the mid-20th century. He was popular among ordinary people and government officials alike. Gerasimov was considered as Stalin’s favourite artist and founder of ‘heroic realism’. He is the painter behind some of the most famous portraits of Lenin and other revolutionaries in the romantic-heroic style, four times winner of the Stalin Prize and many other titles and awards.

Although he considered himself a portraitist, Gerasimov was just as skilful at landscapes and still lifes, revealing himself as a great master of colour and poet of nature. Perhaps those genres were for the artist pure pockets of inspiration, free from political and ideological constraints. Today, Gerasimov’s floral still lifes are part of many museum collections. ‘I’ve always loved painting flowers – roses and peonies, because I saw in them the ultimate concentration of the vital forces of nature and its charm. …Still lifes ‘clear’ the painter’s vision. Painting flowers is like resting after a tiring road with bumps and potholes’, said the artist.