Konstantin Korovin, master of impressions

A selection of works by the leading Russian impressionist painter whose works fetch seven-figure numbers at auctions across the world, Konstantin Korovin, has been unveiled in St. Petersburg. ­Some of the newly-restored complex of painted panels have not been on display for over 100 years and once decorated the walls of the Russian Pavilion at the Parisian World’s Fair back in 1900. The highly-anticipated, large-scale exhibition, devoted to the 150th anniversary of the birth of the celebrated artist, has brought together Korovin’s masterpieces in such diverse scale for the first time. The display features about 250 creations from national art, theater, musical and literary museums, as well as from private collections. The greatest representative of the so-called Russian Impressionism can be recognized by his passionate manner of painting, fresh look at the world and luminous flight of fancy. Portraits and landscapes, still life and genre paintings, bright and vivacious, sad and sensuous – the selection of Korovin’s paintings reflects the basic stages of his creative career. The exhibition spans works that were made in the beginning of the 1880's, and were then considered the innovatory phenomenon in the Russian painting, to his 1920-1930's French period when Korovin lived and worked as an émigré in Paris. Alongside with his famous art works, there are some documentary materials and photographs connected with Korovin's life, on display at the Russian Museum in St. Petersburg.