Antique Russian Oil Painting By Ilya Zankovsky
The painting depicts a Caucasus mountain view with a highlander in a traditional Georgian Chokha coat.
Signed and dated 1917
Period: 20th century
Condition: Very good condition, no damage.
Material: Oil on canvas
33/47cm with frame
22/36cm without frame
Ilya Zankovsky (1832-1919) – Polish-born Russian artist, painter and graphic designer. Born in 1832, near to Krakow, received a military education (second lieutenant). Ilya Nikolaevich did not receive a special art education, was a volunteer at the Imperial Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg in 1862-1863. Then he left for the Caucasus, lived in Tiflis, worked in the Military Topographic Department of the Caucasus Military District.
I. N. Zankovsky dedicated several of his paintings to the Caucasus, among which: “Elbrus”, “Mount Ararat”, “Daryal Gorge”, “From the Main Range”, “Alber-Hoch”, “Georgian Military Road” and others. Painting “The Road to Kakheti” was acquired by Emperor Alexander III for the Gatchina Palace. Since 1888, Ilya Nikolayevich took part in exhibitions: “Caucasian Society for the Encouragement of Fine Arts”, “Society of Mutual Assistance of Caucasian Artists”, “Society of Russian Watercolor Artists”, which presented his paintings: 1888 – “Elbrus” (watercolor), “Daryal Gorge”, “Georgian Military Road”; “Alber-Khokh”, “View of the Main Range” (1892), “Mount Ararat” in 1911, “Mount Ushba”, “View of the Main Range”, “Hunters’ Halt” (1912) and others. Zankovsky was a teacher in artistic institutions of Tiflis – at the drawing school of the “Caucasian Society for the Encouragement of Fine Arts” (from the end of the 1880s), at the school of painting and sculpture (until 1910)
Paintings by Ilya Nikolaevich Zankovsky are exhibited in museums: the State Russian Museum – “Mountain Village by Moonlight”, “View from Mount Gunib to the Gorge”; Nizhny Novgorod Arts Museum – “Surali” (watercolor, 1888); Omsk Museum of Fine Arts – “Caucasus”; Odessa Fine Arts Museum – “In the forest”, “In the steppe”; Azerbaijan National Museum of Art – “Kazbek at Dawn”, “Mountain Range”, “View of Erivan and Ararat”, in the Museum of Fine Arts of Dagestan named after P. S. Gamzatova , Kislovodsk Memorial Museum of artist N. A. Yaroshenko. As well as his artworks are in private collections in Russia and abroad.
The artist died in 1919 in Tiflis.