Konstantin Gorbatov - Windmills [1911]

Konstantin Gorbatov - Windmills [1911], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

Painted just before his sojourn to Italy in 1912 and 1913, Windmills has a striking form and presence rarely seen in Konstantin Gorbatov’s works, although with all his familiar textures. Gorbatov’s treatment of the Russian landscape has been described as ‘breathing substance into the everyday’. Here these simple windmills are brought to life; they are depicted like a caravan of ancient Siberian Mammoths, lumbering across the landscape, as humble and historic as the peasant economy that feeds them. Using a strong but subtle palette, the monumentality of both the landscape and the windmills here is suffused with the grandeur of this life-long ideal. 

[Charcoal and gouache on paper, 46.6 x 49.8 cm]

Konstantin Gorbatov - Patio in Capri [1925]

Konstantin Gorbatov - Patio in Capri [1925], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

Konstantin Gorbatov (Stavropol, May 17, 1876 – Berlin, May 24, 1945) was a Russian Post-Impressionist painter. Gorbatov left Russia permanently in 1922 following the Russian Revolution of 1917 and settled on the Italian island of Capri. He moved to Berlin in 1926 and remained there until his death. This painting was sold by Sotheby's on November 5, 2008 for $392,500.

[Oil on canvas, 89 x 109 cm]