Vladimir Ovchinnikov (painter)

Vladimir Ivanovich Ovchinnikov (Russian: Овчи́нников Влади́мир Ива́нович; July 14, 1911, Saratov, Russian Empire – June 22, 1978, Leningrad, USSR) was a Soviet, Russian painter, lived and worked in Leningrad, member of the Leningrad branch of Union of Artists of Russian Federation, regarded by art historian Sergei Ivanov as one of the leading representatives of the Leningrad school of painting, most famous for his landscape paintings.

Vladimir Ivanovich Ovchinnikov was born July 14, 1911 in the village Esipovka near city of Saratov at the Volga River in a peasant family. The village was located on the eighth mile of tract named Astrakhan, who went from Saratov in the south. In 1917 it had 60 peasant households. His mother died in 1916. During the war his father worked in a slaughterhouse and his sons - Konstantin, Vladimir, and Gregory remained in the care of grandmothers and aunts.

Evening on the Dnieper River. 1956

In 1927 Ovchinnikov joined the Saratov Art College where he studied with renowned artist and educator Piotr Utkin. After the first course with his friend he made a big trip down the Volga River from Saratov to its source. Most of the way they walked. The first stop they made in Ulyanovsk, walked on Zhiguli Hills. Were in Kazan, Nizhny Novgorod, Plessis, Yaroslavl, Kostroma, Tver, reached Seliger lake. This perception of nature, this interest to the ordinary life of the country played a large role in his growing up and in its formation as a person. In 1929, when he was not yet 18, he first participated in the regional art exhibition.

In 1931, Vladimir Ovchinnikov, graduated from Saratov Art College and moved to Leningrad, where he entered the Institute of Proletarian Fine Arts (since 1932 known as Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture; Since 1944 named after Ilya Repin), however, after finishing the first course, leaves the institution for family reasons. In early 1932 in the family of Vladimir and his wife Vera was born son, Vecheslav, who later became an artist, as a father. In 1937 was born the youngest son Leo.

On the Volga River. 1975

In 1932-1941 Ovchinnikov runs a designer in various institutions of Leningrad. Simultaneously he engaged in painting and drawing in Vasily Savinsky Art Studio, then at the Leningrad Institute of Improvement qualification of Art workers by Pavel Naumov, Alexander Karev, Rudolf Frentz.

In 1941-1945 Ovchinnikov took part in the Great Patriotic War, which led the Soviet people against Nazi Germany and its allies. He was wounded and marked by military awards. After demobilization, Ovchinnikov, returned to Leningrad, works in LenIZO, carries advertising and design orders for the largest shops in the city. At the same time he restores his creative skills that were lost during the war years, many works on nature studies in the city and its suburbs (Priozersk, Komarovo, Levashovo).

Since early 1950s works of Vladimir Ovchinnikov has consistently exhibited in Leningrad, All-Russian, and All-Union Art exhibitions, attracting the attention of high culture of painting and a special insight into the world of nature. His leading genre becomes a landscape, main forms - nature studies, and large landscape-painting. In the panoramic landscapes he has sought to cover a larger space, the image of the set clearly readable plans. Well-known examples of paintings of this period include the work "On the Volga"(1951), "Evening. At the well" (1953), "Dnieper cliffs" (1955), "Spring" (1956), "Along the banks of the Dnieper" (1957), and others. They are distinguished by a refined flavor, richness of tone relations, the use of various textures painting. Particular attention is paid Ovchinnikov to the image of the sky. In 1953, after the show at the exhibition a series of such works carried out in Ukraine, Vladimir Ovchinnikov accept as a member of the Leningrad Union of Soviet Artists.

It has stopped raining. 1961

Vladimir Ovchinnikov has had a few particularly productive periods, both in quantity and quality of painted works and their effect on all subsequent works of the artist. In 1953-1955 this period was associated with travel to the city of Kanev on the Dnieper River. Delighted with the beauty of the Dnieper banks, the artist painted many sketches, expressing alive, the immediate impression of a majestic image what he saw. These include the work of "Before the Rain" (1954), "Evening on the Dnieper River" (1956), "On the bank of the Dnieper" (1956), "A Night" (1957), and others. It was during this period known as "Kanevsky" paintings of Ovchinnikov gets its breadth, magnitude, color, and tonality, which subsequently constitute important features of his individual style. According to these features of his works will be unmistakable at the art shows.

In the late of 1950s Ovchinnikov had traveled at the lower Volga and the Caspian Sea. New bright impressions capture him. Southern nature, filled with sun and light, was very close to the artist. In works of Caspian time were fully reveals a powerful pictorial talent of Ovchinnikov. His painting gets special texture, unusual colour, and become very ringing. These qualities distinguish the work of "Makhachkala. Port" (1958), "Boats in the Night" (1958), "Fishermen of the Caspian Sea" (1958), "When is fishing season (Caspian Sea)" (1959), and other works.

In 1960-1970 the main theme of Ovchinnikov creativity again becomes the Volga river, the village of Pristannoe, as well as ancient Russian cities of Torzhok, Staritsa, Old Ladoga. The works of this period is of particular excellence. Ovchinnikov appears in them as the largest modern master of the landscape. Emphasis in his works shifts from transmission of ingenuous impressions to the expressions of complex emotions. Among the most famous works of this period the painting "Street in the village Pristannoe"(1966), "The village of Pristannoe" (1967), "Indian Summer ", "Evening in the Country " (both 1967), "Saint George's Cathedral in Old Ladoga" (1971), «Spring is on the way» (1972), "Staritsa town" (1973), "Fields above the Volga river" (1975), "Moonlight night on the Volga" (1975), and others.

In the mid-1970s Vladimir Ovchinnikov became seriously ill and had two operations. He died of intestinal cancer on June 22, 1978 in Leningrad, at the age of sixty-seven. Real recognition came to Vladimir Ovchinnikov after death. The scale of his talent represented at the exhibition of 1988 in halls of the Leningrad Union of Artists, surprised even his friends and colleagues. International fame soon followed. In 1989-1991 at the art auctions of "L'Ecole de Leningrad" in Paris his work enjoyed great success. One of his landscapes of the Volga river was purchased for the Paris city hall by the future president of French Republic. Today his paintings reside in State Russian museum, in art museums and private collections in Russia, Japan, France, in the U.S., England, and throughout the world.