Nicolai fechin biography of christopher columbus

Fechin Self Portrait

Born in Russia in Kazan on the banks of the Volga River, Nicolai Fechin became one of America's foremost ethnic portrait painters during the early 20th century.

He spent his childhood in the Volga Forest and learned wood carving from his father who worked with metals and wood as a craftsman.

When he was 13, Fechin enrolled with a scholarship at the Kazan Art School, founded by his grandfather, and six years later, he began study at the Imperial Academy of Art in St. Petersburg. There he was a student of Ilya E. Repin, who tried to make his students aware of social evils and to reflect the realities of Russian life in their art work.

Nicolai fechin biography of christopher columbus book

Architecture was also a required part of the curriculum. Fechin was highly influenced by Repin, who asserted that artists' work should be motivated by the idea of conveying morality and literal truth rather than just aesthetics.

A second teacher, Malavin, taught him to use wide, nervous-seeming brush strokes and to u