Russian folk genre painting  ”Round Dance" was executed by famous Russian and Soviet genre , portrait painter and illustrator Ivan Petrovich Guryev (1875, Valdai, Novgorod province - 1943, Kazan, Tatarstan, USSR).
Ivan Petrovich Guryev was born in 1875 in the city of Valdai, Novgorod province. Having shown an interest in painting, in 1906-1912 he studied at the Higher Art School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture at the Imperial Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg. He studied as a volunteer with artists Pavel Petrovich Chistyakov and Vasily Savinsky. In 1912 he received the title of artist for the painting “Baskaki”. Since 1905, he took part in exhibitions of the St. Petersburg Society of Artists.

In subsequent years he lived in Petrograd, then in Simbirsk and Kazan. Since 1920, he worked in Simbirsk as a teacher at the “Red Star” art studio, then at the “Izo-Muzo-Teo” art college and took part in exhibitions of the Association of Ulyanovsk Artists.

In the 1930s he lived in Kazan, where he worked as a teacher at the Kazan Art School, was a member of the Kazan branch of the Association of Artists of Revolutionary Russia (AHRR), and took part in academic exhibitions.

The artist I. Guryev painted portraits, landscapes and genre paintings, and illustrated books. He worked in the provincial version of the late Peredvizhniki style of writing. His paintings are reminiscent of the paintings of Vladimir Egorovich Makovsky and Nikolai Alekseevich Kasatkin. The late Peredvizhniki style was also reflected in the artist’s choice of subjects. Ivan Petrovich Guryev created many portraits using local materials. In 1929, he combined these paintings into the “Volga Types” series.

In the 1920s, in accordance with the program of the Association of Artists of Revolutionary Russia, artists had to reflect in painting the achievements and signs of post-revolutionary life. The artist’s painting “Meeting a hydroplane in Ulyanovsk in 1927” (1927) corresponded to new tasks. However, in general, Ivan Petrovich Guryev remained faithful to the techniques learned at the Academy of Arts until the end of his life and interpreted new themes as genre ones.

Provenance: South French private estate.

Literature: on-line Wikipedia in Russian; Solovjev V.D. "Russian Artists of 18-20th centuries"(in Cyrillic), 2005; www.stiv-berg.livejournal.com/78769.html; www.Sozialismus.com.ua.

Inscription: signed in Russian lower right.

Technique: oil on canvas. Original period frame.

Measurements: unframed w 26 1/2" x h 17 3/4" (67,5 x 45 cm), framed w 31 1/2" x h 22 2/3" (80 x 57,5 cm).

Condition: in very good condition.