Russian Winter. Hoarfrost

Nikolai Efimovich Timkov (1912-1993)

In the artistic style of Nikolai Timkov, who was one of the Honored Artists of the Russian Federation and one of the leading representatives of the Leningrad School of Painting, this picture has a special place in the Russian artistic movement of the time. In the halls of Saint Petersburg Union of Artists opened in 1993, the author exhibited it in the center of the exposure.[1] The painting shows the Msta River bank near the village of Valentinovka where Timkov lived and worked in 1960–1990 years, and where as aptly noted by art historian Mark Etkind, it was a "primary landscape workshop" of Nikolai Timkov.[2] Old poplars under the fluffy snow caps in the bluish frost passed as the epitome of beauty and grandeur of Russian nature. In the picture, perhaps for the first time so clearly and convincingly demonstrated new qualities in the artist's landscape painting - monumental imagery solutions, which arose after a trip a year ago in the Urals Region, as well as good spirits decorative and intensity of color.[3] Another quality of the picture, which draws the attention of art historian Alexander Simuni in his article for the catalogue of the French exhibition of 1994, is a high professional skills what sets this work in the art of contemporary landscape painting.[4]

The painting was exhibited for the first time in 1975 at the solo exhibition of works by Nikolai Timkov in the Exhibition Halls of the Leningrad Union of Artists. The painting was reproduced in the exhibition catalog.[5] In 1982 the painting was presented at the solo exhibition of Nikolai Timkov in the halls of the Moscow House of Artists at the Kuznetsk bridge, shown later in the Air Force Academy named after Yuri Gagarin, and in the famous Star City near Moscow.[6] In 1994 the painting «Russian Winter. Hoarfrost» was displayed in Pont-Audemer, France, at the exhibition of works of masters of the Saint Petersburg Union of Artists.[7] The painting was reproduced in the exhibition catalog. In 2012 painting "Russian Winter. Hoarfrost" was exhibited in "Manezh" Central Exhibition Hall on Art Fair devoted to 80th Anniversary of Saint-Petersburg Union of Artists. The painting was reproduced in the exhibition catalog.[8] In 2007 "Russian Winter. Hoarfrost" was published among others Timkov's paintings in the book «Unknown Socialist Realism. The Leningrad School» by Sergei V. Ivanov.[9]

• Nikolai E. Timkov (1912—1993)
• 1969 in fine arts of the Soviet Union
• Leningrad School of Painting
• Academicheskaya Dacha

• Exhibition of works by Nikolai Efimovich Timkov. Catalogue. - Leningrad: Khudozhnik RSFSR, 1975.
• Mark G. Etkind. Nikolai Efimovich Timkov. P.5. // Exhibition of works by Nikolai Efimovich Timkov. Catalogue. - Leningrad: Khudozhnik RSFSR, 1975.
• Directory of members of the Leningrad branch of Union of Artists of Russian Federation. Leningrad, Khudozhnik RSFSR, 1987. P.130.
• Alexander B. Simuni. The Art of Socialist realism. P. 8. // Saint-Pétersbourg - Pont-Audemer. Dessins, Gravures, Sculptures et Tableaux du XX siècle du fonds de L' Union des Artistes de Saint-Pétersbourg. Pont-Audemer, 1994.
• Saint-Pétersbourg - Pont-Audemer. Dessins, Gravures, Sculptures et Tableaux du XX siècle du fonds de L' Union des Artistes de Saint-Pétersbourg. Pont-Audemer, 1994. P.110.
• Akademichka. The Academic Dacha through the eyes of Nikolai Timkov. The Pushkin Group and the Timkov Collection, 1999.
• Ludmila N. Mitrokhina. My Timkov // St. Petersburg Art History notebook. Vol. 7. Saint-Petersburg, 2006. P.51-58.
• Nikolai Timkov. Russian Winter. 1969 // Sergei V. Ivanov. Unknown Socialist Realism. The Leningrad School. Saint Petersburg, NP-Print Edition, 2007. P.40-41. ISBN 5-901724-21-6, ISBN 978-5-901724-21-7.
• Тимков Н. Русская зима. Иней. 1969 // 80 Лет Санкт-Петербургскому Союзу художников. Юбилейная выставка. СПб., 2012. С.211.