Ilya Mashkov. 1881 - 1944. Russia .

Begonias . 1911

Oil on Canvas . 97 * 116 cm.

The rejection of the official academic art and the protest against "old painting" in general found vivid expression in the creations of the "Jack of Diamonds" group. Those who supported that movement came up with a wholly new understanding of the aims of the still life. Above all they strove to bring out the colour, structure and shape of an object without falling into naturalism, to convey the essence of a thing. Often such an analytical perception of the subject depicted led to purely formalist experiments, but in the works of the best artists, a decorative approach did not impair the realistic persuasiveness of the depiction. Ilya Mashkov's still life "Begonias" is testimony to the artist's intensive search after an expressive idiom, to his love of working from life with its variety of forms and colours and a striving to reveal the essence of things.