Ilya Mashkov
1881-1944

Ilya Mashkov
1881-1944

Born in a Cossack village near Volgograd, Mashkov entered the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture in 1900 where his teachers included Konstantin Korovin and Valentin Serov. In 1909 he was expelled for ‘artistic free thinking’ and travelled abroad. He was a leading member of the World of Art movement and one of the ‘Big Four’ at the head of the ‘Knave of Diamonds’ group with Lentulov, Konchalovsky and Falk.

Mashkov exhibited at the Salon d’Automne ‘Exposition de l’Art Russe’ at the Salon des Indépendants in Paris in 1911, and in 1913 at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. In 1924 his work was included in exhibitions in the US.

His creative work reflected the revolution of the 20th century, with a huge debt to Cézanne and, to a lesser extent, Matisse – they contained the energy and strong colour of Folk Art. His still lives frequently used peasant motifs, shawls, trays, or signs.

By 1924 Mashkov had begun to slavishly follow the principles of Socialist Realism. His painting ‘Bread’, containing communist motifs, remains a classic of the genre.

In 2013 Christie’s sold Mashkov’s ‘Still life with fruit’, a superb 1910 example of Russian neo-Primitivism, for $7.3 million.