News



Pohitonov Ivan Pavlovich

Image7?sha=1c5867e4

08.02.1850 – 23.12.1923

Ivan Pavlovich Pokhitonov – Russian artist, landscape master. Member of the Association of Wanderers.

The artist was born in the village of Matrenovka, Kherson province, in a family of hereditary military men. Since childhood, I.P. Pokhitonov was fond of drawing, painted Ukrainian huts, Kherson steppes, his relatives and friends in watercolor and oil. Later peered into the painting of the Wanderers and the French “Barbizon”.

Pokhitonov did not receive special education. He had to learn all the secrets of the painter’s skill on his own.

In the autumn of 1876, at the Traveling Exhibition held in Elizavetgrad, Pokhitonov first became acquainted with the paintings of A.I. Kuindzhi, I.I. Shishkina, A.P. Bogolyubova, A.K. Savrasova, M.K. Klodt, N.N. Ge, I.N. Kramskoy, V.E. Makovsky, who made a huge impression on him. The dream of becoming a participant in such an exhibition one day determined all his further aspirations to achieve professionalism. He decided to study in Paris.

To improve mastery at the end of 1876, the artist traveled to Italy, and in 1877 settled in Paris. The following year, his landscapes were taken to the exhibition of the Champs Elysees, in which participation testified to the international recognition of the artist.

Constructiveness, a free pictorial manner, amazing fidelity and clarity of tonal and color relations made him the most French among Russian landscape painters. It was not by chance that Ilya Repin gave Pokhitonov the exact definition of “wizard-artist”.

The French, however, admired the harmony and clarity of its landscapes, the ability to convey to an illusion the subject form, the virtuoso technique thanks to which the artist managed to combine the direct perception of nature with the technique of miniature painting.

Ivan Pokhitonov created his miniatures on small plates of red or lemon wood, using a magnifying glass. He painted with thin brushes; he achieved surface smoothness by polishing with fish bone. Most often, the author created landscapes, but in addition he also worked on portraits, still lifes and genre scenes.

It so happened that in the homeland Pokhitonov did not have such success as abroad. However, the artist’s work was highly appreciated by V.A. Serov, V.M. Vasnetsov, K.A. Savitsky, V.D. Polenov, I.N. Kramskoy. In 1904, Pokhitonov became a full member of the Academy of Arts.

At different times, the artist lived in Paris, in the suburbs of the Belgian town of Liege. From 1913 to 1917 he lived in Russia, in St. Petersburg and the Kuban, then again left for Belgium.

Pokhitonov died on December 12, 1923 in Brussels.

I.P. Pokhitonov
Vicinity of Liege
1908
© VOKhM im. I.N. Kramskoy