Sergey Ivanov

Sergey Ivanov painted Russian history and Russian hardship with the same honest eye. His early work follows peasants on the move and convicts on the road. Later he turned to the 16th and 17th centuries, painting scenes of Muscovite life with sharp character and an almost cinematic sense of the moment.

He was born in Ruza, near Moscow, and studied at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture and at the Imperial Academy of Arts in St Petersburg. He joined the Peredvizhniki in 1899, co-founded the Union of Russian Artists in 1903 and taught at the Moscow school until his death. He also illustrated Pushkin, Lermontov and Gogol.

A Peasant Leaving His Landlord on Yuri’s Day and Arrival of Foreigners to 17th-Century Moscow show his gift for crowds, snow and costume, told with a touch of irony.