Sold....portrait of Mariya Andreevna Kozlovskaya 1954, by Boris Korniev

Oil on sackcloth in simple black wood frame.

Boris Korniev (Russian, 1922-1973).

Portrait of the artist's wife, Mariya Andreevna Kozlovskaya. It was this painting, exhibited in the Leningrad Summer Exhibition of 1954, that earned Boris his place as a Member of the Artist's Union.

Signed and dated '54 (in Cyrillic, lower right); inscribed verso.

MARIYA ANDREEVNA KOZLOVSKAYA (born 1925) met her husband, Boris Korniev, at the Russian Academy of Arts, Repin, where they were both students. They married in 1949 and both graduated from the Academy in 1952. In the present portrait, she wears the same clothing that she wore on her graduation day.

Mariya is herself a successful artist, having exhibited at over 100 exhibitions within Russia and abroad. She was elected to the Artist's Union in 1954. She currently lives in St. Petersburg, where she shares a studio with her son, also an artist. Mariya (also known as Marina) is regarded as one of the most talented representatives of the Leningrad School of painting.

BORIS VASIILIEVICH KORNIEV (1922-1973) In 1938 he finished at Leningrad Art School. During the World War ll (called by the Russians The Great Patriotic War) Boris served in the army being awarded many medals for gallantry.

In 1945 he attended Leningrad Art College for a year then from 1946-1952 he studied at the Repin Academy under Professor Viktor Oreshnikov; he was a pupil of Boris Fogel, Genrikh Pavlovsky, Semion Abugov and Andrey Mylnikov.

In 1949, at the Academy, Boris met and married Mariya, both graduating in 1952. Boris was awarded the Gold Medal for his Diploma painting of 1952.

There were no studios available for the newlyweds so they lived with one mother and then the other; they painted each other's portraits at this time. This portrait of Mariya was in the Summer Exhibition in 1954 where it was seen by the Director of the Artist's Union; he was so impressed with it he invited Boris to become a member.

He painted portraits, landscapes and still lifes, showing work in numerous important exhibitions including the famous 'Soviet Russia' exhibition in Moscow 1960.

Member of the LCRAU in 1954, from 1962 Boris taught at the Repin Academy, (in the last year of his life he was made Professor of the Academy), Honoured Artist of the Russian Federation 1965. His work is in the Russian State Museum at the Hermitage, St. Petersburg, the Tretyakov State Gallery and in public and private collections world wide. He died on 24 December 1973.

LITERATURE: 'Boris Korniev. Paintings. Exhibition catalogue, Leningrad: Khudozhnik RSFSR 1975.'

' Unknown Socialist Realism. The Leningrad School.' St. Petersburg: NP-Print 2007. This book is the first on the history of the Leningrad School, one of the brightest and significant phenomena in Soviet art from 1930-1980.

This portrait is reproduced full page on page 46.

SIZE: (canvas) 41 inches x 32 1/2 inches.

PROVENANCE:

Boris Korniev and Mariya Kozlovskaya;

Sold by Mariya in 2007 to Percy Barkes, UK dealer in Russian Art ;

English Private Collection.