I've gone back to the same dealer in Russia three times now to purchase paintings by Chaloi Leonty, whose estate the dealer handles; I just think he was a really good landscape painter, and Russian prices are pretty good! This impressionistic oil on cardboard seascape is definitely among my favorites yet--and would be great as a pair with the coastal tree on rock of the same scale I've just listed; both just little gems of paintings. I love the warm glow of light in this one but simultaneous sense of moodiness--and I can't help but to imagine walking through what looks like a portal into the interior of that rock formation!
Signed on the back, and dated 1965. From what I understand, Leonty was born in 1929 in the Urals, and graduated from the Leningrad Art College in 1955, where he studied under G.A. Shah, a student of Ilya Repin. He then worked at the Combine of Fine Arts in the 50s and 60s--a production subdivision of the Leningrad branch the Art Fund of the RSFSR--and in 1975 joined the Soviet Union of Artists. At least from what I have seen, landscapes seem to have been by far his most frequent subject.
Good condition, with minor wear along the edges, and what appear to be a few white paint spatters on the right top side of the rocks. 5" x 7".
