Konstantin Korovin (Russian, 1861 to 1939)
Born in Moscow to a family of artists, Konstantin Korovin is as well known for his theatrical designs as he is for his paintings. He entered the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture at the age of 14 where he was classically trained as a painter. In his early thirties, Korovin became associated with the Neo-Romanticism group Mir iskusstva. Similar in manifesto to the English Pre-Raphaelites, the Mir iskusstva denounced the basic ugliness of industrialized modern life and called for a return to aestheticism. Their members contributed to productions of the Ballets Russes, and Korovin soon began translating his artistic endeavors into three-dimensional media (even receiving a Legion of Honor at the 1900 World’s Fair in Paris for his design of the Central Asia exhibit in the Russian Empire Pavillion). Korovin moved to Paris in 1923 and much of his later work centers on this subject matter.
Information courtesy of Heritage Auction Galleries, November 2008.