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! The other two I've just listed, featuring sea views, are not what I imagine when I think of Russia, but this wintery landscape most certainly is--though it reminds me a bit of long winters in the Purple Mountains of Western Mass, too! I think this painting in fact captures a view Leonty returned to again and again, across seasons and years--from lush green trees against bright blue sky and water, to the lavender-hued snow here. Super painterly and really evocative...brrr!
Signed on the back, and dated 1970. 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.
Very good condition, with tiny tears to the top right and bottom left corners, minor. 8" x 10". Signed and dated on reverse.
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