Iosif Evstafevich Krachkovsky (1854-1914)

Joseph (Iosif) Krachkovsky was a Russian Realism, landscape painter of Polish origin. He was born into a middle-class family in Warsaw on July 3, 1854. He attended The Imperial Academy of Fine Arts in St. Petersburg beginning in 1871, at first independently, later as a full-time student of the landscape, under the mentorship of professor Mikhail K. Klodt. During his studies, 1873-1879, Krachkovsky was awarded several gold and silver medals numerous times for his exceptional emotive work. He honorably graduated from the Academy in 1880, with the title of class artist of the 1st degree permitting him the right to travel abroad at public expense (pension).

In 1880 to improve his painting technique and study the works in other great museums, Krachkovsky as a pensioner (scholarship studies) of the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts traveled to Paris. On the way to Paris he visited Berlin, Düsseldorf, Munich, Milan, Madrid, where he studied collections of the masters at the museums and private galleries. While in Paris in winter, he lived the Montmartre neighborhood, the city’s intellectual and artistic community, “a life starving, but the fun of bohemia". Montmartre was also home to art supply vendors and several important art dealers and galleries, such as Georges Petit, Paul Durand-Ruel, and Goupil & Cie. In the summer Krachkovsky with friends voyaged to Southern France, gathering impressions, creating sketches and studies en plein air.

During his years of international studies, he travelled throughout Europe, including: The South of France, Pyrenees, North Spain, Rhine River, the Black Forest (Schwarzwald) mountains, the Alps, the costal Mediterranean Sea; he documented his travels with countless illustrations and sketches during his journeys. With great insight into the natural world from his travels, Krachkovsky found nature divinely beautiful and aspired to exemplify the most illuminating impressions of the natural condition. His landscapes capture and share a poetic moment in nature. "Krachkovsky’s landscapes... feature a special tenderness of tones, and the direct the power of sentiment." ("Niva" magazine 1902)

In 1884 at the end of his scholarship studies, Krachkovsky returned to St. Petersburg, where he was conferred the title of academician for mastery of landscape painting, and his learned work abroad. In 1888 he taught at the Drawing school under the Society for the Encouragement of the Arts (OPKh). Krachkovsky travelled extensively to Ukraine and the Volga River; beginning in 1908, every spring and autumn he took working excursions in the Crimea, Italy and France, where he fulfills numerous commissions from the Russian nobility and the royal family.

In 1890s the artist showed his works at the Academy exhibitions, at the exhibitions of the Society for the Encouragement of the Arts, the Society of Travelling Art Exhibitions, and Petrograd Society of Artists. In 1913 he joined the A. I. Kuindzhi Society of Artists.

Krachkovsky’s first solo exhibitions of were held in 1902 in St. Petersburg, awarded by visit of “Imperial Majesties and August personage”. Nicolay II collected several works of the artist, from this exhibition for The Museum of Emperor Alexander III. The success of the exhibition brought Krachkovsky great fame, he started to receive commissions from Russian collectors as well as interest from Europe collectors. Krachkovsky’s next exhibitions were held in Paris (1908) and Nice (1908, 1909). And in 1916 the retrospective memorial exhibition of the master realist was organized in Petrograd.

Iosif Krachkovsky is an outstanding representative of the Russian Realist landscape school of painting of the late 19th and early 20th century. In his landscapes the painter successfully combines academic traditions and features of realism along with illuminating the emotive impressions felt in nature’s divine sublimity. His works are in many museum and private collections, including the State Russian Museum, State Tretyakov Gallery, Sochi Art Museum, the Scientific Research Museum of the Russian Academy of Arts.