The Russian painter’s exhibition is opened at the K Gallery from March 24 to May 14, 2017.
Representative of the art association "World of Art", painter and graphic artist, portrait and landscape master often used images of the past, creating exquisite paintings inspired by the XVIII century. His fate is typical enough for Russian emigrants of the 1920s, but unlike many Somov managed to win success far away from the homeland.
Konstantin Andreevich Somov was born in the family of the famous museum figure, custodian of the State Hermitage A.I. Somov and since childhood was surrounded by the art. Already in the gymnasium he met and got acquainted to A. Benois, V. Nouvel, D. Filasov, and later together with S. Diaghilev they participated in the creation of the society and the eponymous magazine "The World of Art". He learned from I. Repin at the Academy of Arts and at the Colarossi Academy in Paris.
Somov wrote many portraits of his contemporaries: M. Kuzmin, M. Dobuzhinsky, S. Rachmaninov, his portrait of Alexander Blok is still widely known and still provoke desperate debates. He was engaged not only in painting and graphics, but also created exquisite porcelain compositions and his work as a book graphic is highly valued. One of the most famous works of Somov was erotic illustrations for the courtly collection "The Book of the Marquis".
The first personal exhibition of Somov was held in St. Petersburg in 1903. Even then the artist was extremely popular in Germany, where also two of his exhibitions were held and his works were constantly published. In 1923, Konstantin Somov went to America as an authorized representative of the "Russian Exhibition" and never returned to Russia. Since 1925 he had lived in France, where he created a series of provocative works that glorify the beauty of the young body.
In 2006 and 2007 Konstantin Somov’s works set records at the Russian Art Christie's auction in London. The work of the artist "Rainbow" was sold for 7.433 million dollars. The exposition includes masterpieces from the collections of the State Russian Museum, the St. Petersburg State Museum of Theater and Musical Art, the Apartment Museum of Joseph Brodsky, the Anna Akhmatova Museum at the Fountain House, along with private collections from Europe, St. Petersburg and Moscow.