Nicolai Fechin - Self Portrait

Nicolai Ivanovich Fechin (Russian: Николай Иванович Фешин; 1881-1955) was a Russian-American painter. Year 1881 (MDCCCLXXXI) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar). ... 1955 (MCMLV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Birth

Nicolai Fechin was born in 1881 in Kazan, Russia. At age eleven, he drew designs that his father used in the construction of altars. When he was thirteen, he enrolled at the Kazan School of Art. At the Imperial Academy of Arts in Saint-Petersburg he studied with Ilya Repin and Filipp Malyavin. In 1909 he graduated with the highest grade possible and his final competitive canvas won him the Prix de Rome, a traveling scholarship, that allowed him to roam the artistic capitals of Europe in 1910. Within this year he first began exhibiting his art in America, one exhibit was an international exhibition at the Carnegie Institute in Pittsburgh. Year 1881 (MDCCCLXXXI) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar). ... Kazan (Russian: ; Tatar: Qazan, Казан) is the capital city of the Republic of Tatarstan, Russia, and one of Russias largest cities. ... The edifice for the academy was built in 1764-89 to a design by Jean-Baptiste Vallin de la Mothe and Alexander F. Kokorinov. ... Nickname Piter Location Position of Saint Petersburg in Europe Government Country District Subdivision Russia North West Russia Federal City Governor Valentina Matviyenko Geographical characteristics Area  - City 1,439 km² Population  - City (2002)    - Density 4,661,219 (2002 Census)   3330/km² Coordinates Elevation 3 m Time zone - Summer (DST) MSK (UTC... Ilyá Yefímovich Répin (Илья́ Ефи́мович Ре́пин) (August 5, 1844 (Julian calendar: July 24) – September 29, 1930) was a leading Russian painter and sculptor of the Peredvizhniki artistic... 1909 (MCMIX) was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... 1910 (MCMX) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display calendar) of the Gregorian calendar or a common year starting on Sunday of the 13-day slower Julian calendar. ... Motto: (Out Of Many, One) (traditional) In God We Trust (1956 to date) Anthem: The Star-Spangled Banner Capital Washington D.C. Largest city New York City None at federal level (English de facto) Government Federal constitutional republic  - President George Walker Bush (R)  - Vice President Dick Cheney (R) Independence from... The Carnegie Institution of Washington (CIW) is a foundation established by Andrew Carnegie in 1902 to support scientific research. ... Nickname: Steel City, Iron City, City of Champions, City of Bridges, City of Colleges, P-Burgh, The Burgh Motto: Benigno Numine Location in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania Coordinates: Country United States State Pennsylvania County Allegheny County Founded 1758 Mayor Luke Ravenstahl (D) Area    - City 151. ...

Pedagogy in Russia

When Fechin returned from traveling, he resumed teaching at Kazan where he taught for ten years and, in 1913, married the daughter of the director. He was a popular instructor. Because he was mostly self-taught, he was apt to give instruction in a manner less demanding than the grueling exercises he was forced to complete at the Academy. Year 1913 (MCMXIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar). ...

In 1910 he was a founder of the Commune of Artists, and he exhibited with the Itinerants from 1912 to 1922 and with the Academy of Artists of Revolutionary Russia (AKhRR) from 1922 to 1926. In addition, he was also a theater artist from 1920 to 1922. Peredvizhniki (Передвижники, in Russian) - the Russian artists-realists entering into Company of mobile art exhibitions (1870-1923). ...

United States

In 1923 he emigrated to the United States and landed in New York. He was already well known in the States from canvases sent to American and European exhibitions. In fact, it was his American friends and patrons that helped him leave Russia. His portraits were in demand immediately and he won the first prize at the Academy in New York in 1924 and a medal at the 1926 International Exposition in Philadelphia. {{year nav|1939 1923 (MCMXXIII) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar). ... 1924 (MCMXXIV) was a leap year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar). ... Year 1926 (MCMXXVI) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar). ... This article is becoming very long. ...

Fechin became well-known for his powerful portraits that always seemed to radiate from the eyes of the subject. Some of his more renowned subjects are Nikolai Lenin, Karl Marx, Frieda Lawrence and Lillian Gish. At an early age he had learned carving and produced impressionistic sculpture primarily from wood. At the Academy he used other materials but he was impatient about the necessary construction of armatures and had no care for the seemingly endless casting processes, while the creative process became the lesser part. With wood he could begin creating immediately. Vladimir Lenin Vladimir Ilyich Lenin (Russian: Влади́мир Ильи́ч Ле́нин), original surname Ulyanov (Улья́нов) (April 22 (April 10 (O.S.)), 1870 – January 21, 1924), was... Karl Heinrich Marx (May 5, 1818, Trier, Germany – March 14, 1883, London) was a German philosopher, political economist, and revolutionary. ... Frieda von Richthofen (August 11, 1879 - August 11, 1956), a distant relative of the Red Baron Manfred von Richthofen, became famous as the wife of the British novelist D. H. Lawrence. ... Lillian Diana de Guiche (October 14, 1893 – February 27, 1993), was an Oscar-nominated American actress, better known as Lillian Gish. ...

The West

Fechin almost died from meningitis as a child and unfortunately developed tuberculosis when he was in New York. Doctors told him to move to a dryer climate which sent Fechin traveling west. He eventually moved to Taos, New Mexico in 1927. The Taos mountains reminded him of the beauty he had seen in Siberia. He soon painted with fervor and felt particularly close to the Indians. His greatest American works were of the Native Americans. Fechin had great affection for Taos and became a naturalized American citizen while living there. He built a house in Taos of which he carved the doors, the window frames, the pillars, the furniture, and designed the adobe structure. NY redirects here. ... Taos (IPA: ) is a city in Taos County in the north-central region of New Mexico. ... 1927 (MCMXXVII) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar). ... Siberian Federal District (darker red) and the broadest definition of Siberia (red) arctic northeast Siberia Udachnaya pipe Siberia (Russian: , Sibir; Tatar: ) is a vast region of Russia constituting almost all of Northern Asia and comprising a large part of the Euro-Asian Steppe. ... Native Americans are the indigenous peoples from the regions of North America now encompassed by the continental United States, including parts of Alaska. ...

Death

He stopped building when he and his wife divorced. He left the house in Taos and went back to New York with his daughter for the winter. After New York, he traveled to Southern California, Mexico, Japan, and the Pacific Islands of Java and Bali. Soon he bought a spacious house in Hollywood, but quickly sold it and moved into a studio in Santa Monica in 1948. There he taught small groups of students, painted, and happily entertained guests in his studio. In 1955 he passed away in Santa Monica, California. Some paintings and portraits along with his work table and easel are on display at the National Cowboy Hall of Fame and Western Heritage Center, and the rest of his works are displayed in different countries around the world. Downtown Los Angeles Skyline Southern California, also colloquially referred to as SoCal, is an informal name for the megalopolis and nearby desert that occupies the southern-most quarter of the U.S. state of California. ... Java (Indonesian, Javanese, and Sundanese: Jawa) is an island of Indonesia and the site of its capital city, Jakarta. ... Bali is an Indonesian island located at , the westernmost of the Lesser Sunda Islands, lying between Java to the west and Lombok to the east. ... Santa Monica Pier Santa Monica is a coastal city located in Los Angeles County, California USA, by the Pacific Ocean, south of Pacific Palisades and Brentwood, west of Westwood, Los Angeles, and north of Venice. ... 1948 (MCMXLVIII) was a leap year starting on Thursday (the link is to a full 1948 calendar). ... 1955 (MCMLV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

References

• Biography
• Artwork and Bio
• Biography (Russian)
• Biography and works (Russian)
• works (Russian)