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Evening |

Trees are Blossoming |

Summer Heat |

On the Lake |

In the Forest |

Going Boating |

In Fall Forest |

Summer |

In the Forest |

After Boating |

Village Girls |

In the Field |
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Almost Home |
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VLADIMIR NASONOV
Russian
Vladimir Nasonov was born in St. Petersburg in 1957. His talent was
clear from a young age, exhibiting work while still in school. During
his military service he provided artwork for the army, using his free
time to study the works of the Renaissance Masters, and French
painters of the turn of the twentieth century.
In 1978 Nasonov left the army, but restrictions for artists in the
Soviet Union made it impossible to earn a living, forcing Nasonov
and his wife to move to Hungary, where he sold miniatures on
the street to tourists. However, in 1986, with the lifting of the Iron
Curtain, Nasonov was able to freely sell his work to foreign tourists.
Collectors from the USA, Canada and Europe began to purchase
his paintings for their private collections, and in 1992 a Russian art
dealer began to bring Nasonov's work to the United States.
Nasonov has a particular love of the French artists of The "Belle
Epoque", and turn of the Century Paris. Many of his canveses show
this influence of French Impressionism. Depicting the busy streets of
the city, and its inimitable atmosphere during that
period.
By contrast Nasonov's landscapes are often depictions of russian village
life. Though of the same late nineteenth, and
early twentieth century period. His winter landscapes, however are suffused
with symbolism and mysticism. Looking at
his paintings one has a feeling that you enter not a real forest, but
one from a Russian or Ukrainian folk tale. Nasonov has
a talent for creating the feel of great Russian literature in his work.
To use a quotation from Alexander Pushkin, "Here is a
Russian spirit, it smells Russian here."
Vladimir Nasonov's technique is confident and free. Quick decisive strokes
making a hint of figures, and vague contours
creating a depth to the background. A feeling of light and air has an
important role in his paintings. The play of sunlight
on clothes, and tree branches, the glow of street lamps and shop windows.
Thick, raised strokes in the foreground add
texture, and bring the painting alive.
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