Russian Oil Sketches

September 8, 2020 - September 25, 2020

"... At the end of the Soviet system the professional artists were given ownership of their apartments, and those with studios got them as well, and although they no longer had the State support, they retained the studio contents ...however, their work was completely out of fashion. The lifeline was interest from abroad.  The studios were full of preparatory sketches. These immediate impressions of life by these highly trained artists were a revelation. They were certainly the basis of the interest I have maintained over the last twenty eight years of buying them."  extract from "Art in Russia",   John Barkes, London