Brovar Yakov

Landscape 25x53 cm, oil on canvas
About work

The subject of village landscapes is one of the main subjects during the whole artistic life of the painter. On the picture represented in collection the author refers to his favorite subject of Russian village landscape depicting typical for his work motive of pasture. The painter repeatedly resorted to village subject often describing cows, horses, sheep, and dogs on its pictures.

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Brovar Yakov Ivanovich
(1864, Kapionovka region, Kyiv region – 1941, Leningrad)

The name of Yakov Ivanovich Brovar belongs to famous Russian landscape painters of the end of XIX century – beginning of XX century. The painter was born in Ukraine near Kiev. He got artistic education in the Academy of Fine Arts where he was an apprentice of M.K. Claudt, A.I. Kuindzhi, I.I. Shishkin. During his study he received two small and two big silver medals and in 1894 he was granted the title of professional painter of the II rate. From his young years the painter often exposed his works in numerous exhibitions including those of Itinerants Society, Society of Fine Arts Promotion where his picture “Old House” was granted a premium of S. G. Stroganov; in exhibition of Kuindzhi Society his picture “Autumn Road” was granted the premium of Society. Within the period of 1897-1918 the painter participated in exhibitions held in halls of Imperial Academy of Fine Arts arranged according to the initiative of A. I. Kuindzhi, where among the other exhibitors there were K F. Bogaievskiy, K. A. Veshchilov, K. I. Gorbatov, K. Ya. Kryzhitskiy, N. K. Rerih, A. A. Rylov and many others. He also worked a lot in royal forest reserve “Belovezhskaia Puchsha” based on special permission of His Imperial Majesty. He spent some time abroad exhibiting his works in a number of countries where museums purchased his canvases from the exhibitions. Ya. Brovar did not belong to artistic communes being as he was called “an individualist” and he was not favor of government. In 1920-1930 he took part in exhibitions of Society of individualistic painters that was a new society in those years not joining in concept any trend in art but absorbing all cultural achievements and searches in fine arts deeply appreciating any individuality in art. Besides Ya. Brovar this society included such painters as I. Brodskiy and Yu. Klever, K. Petrov-Vodkin and other famous Russian artists. Later in 1924 the Society arranged an anniversary personal exhibition for the painter. Besides, since 1909 the painter has been a constant exhibitor of the Society of painters in St. Petersburg arranging “autumn exhibitions” that were invariably popular among the public.

Many researchers see the pictures of Ya. Brovar as those of Russian salon art that could be called debatable until today. Salon art is ambiguous. On one hand it is aimed at success in public often due to external effects and on the other hand it is differentiated by skill, artistry and virtuosity of work. A lot of the painter’s works found enthusiastic comments of contemporaries. The subject of village landscapes is one of the main subjects during the whole artistic life of the painter. He often included in his woodland scenery different wild fowl typical for Russian zone. On snow-covered paths he often depicted bisons, bears, foxes, owls, wild boars, hears and wolves. Ya.I. Brovar repeatedly exhibited his landscapes in numerous expositions and in museums not only in Russia but also in other European countries where they were purchased by private and museum collections. In 1941 after the painter’s death many museums exhibited his numerous landscapes of Siberia, South and North of Russia.

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