Robert Rafailovich Falk (1886-1958) was a Soviet avant-garde artist who was a member of the ‘Jack of Diamonds’ art association and is considered ‘the quietest and most lyrical of all Russian avant-garde artists’. His artwork, despite the barrage of criticism from conservative art critics and Nikita Khrushchev himself, was always on view and in demand, as Falk could not take away the main thing - an outstanding talent, manifested in each of his paintings. In this article we will talk about the life of Robert Falk and one of his most scandalous paintings - ‘Nude in an armchair’, which angered Khrushchev himself.
Self-portrait in yellow
Falk came from a wealthy family in Moscow. His father worked as a lawyer, played chess at a serious level and hoped that his son would follow in his footsteps. So he enrolled him in the prestigious and expensive Lutheran Peter-Paul School, where every effort was made to instil in the pupils a true German love of order.
But all the protests of his parents and the strictness of his education could not deter Falk from his love of painting, and in 1903 he declared that he would become an artist. At first he took lessons from the young artists Yuon and Mashkov, and two years later he began studying at the Moscow School of Painting and Sculpture. There he fell in love with a fellow student, Elizaveta Potyokhin, and in 1909 he proposed to her.
Liza in a chair. Portrait of the artist's wife
Despite their wealth and intelligence, the Falks were much lower on the social ladder than the Potekhins, who had a noble title. Robert Falk had to accept orthodoxy and change his name to Roman, although he remained known as Robert in the history of painting. A year later he was expelled from the school for rebelling against the extremely conservative order that reigned there. Falk travelled to Italy to study the paintings of the old masters and visited the Crimea, where he painted impressionist landscapes.
However, he never concentrated on a single genre or technique, believing that an artist should be in a constant creative search to avoid stagnation. From Impressionism, through a passion for the work of Cezanne, he moved on to Cubism, but not in a radical way, but in a typical Falkian way, selecting only the features and characteristics of this style that he needed.
Landscape in the mountains
In Soviet times, Falk was immediately given an important and responsible position in the cultural sector, organising art workshops, teaching students, and creating his own impressive paintings. However, Falk's work was not limited to paintings: he had a hand in interior design and set design for the State Jewish Theatre.
On the personal front, he was no less successful: he separated from his first wife, but soon married Stanislavsky's daughter Kira Alekseyeva. It is true that the two creative personalities did not get along and they separated. But Falk did not mourn for long and married his student Raisa Idelson. In general, he became famous among Moscow's bohemians as a gallant cavalier and notorious heartbreaker.
Girl at the Window (Raisa Idelson)
Nude models often posed in his house, including the famous Stanislava Osipovich, who worked with Korovin, Serov, Peter Konchalovsky and the sculptor Sergei Konyonkin. She sincerely believed that she was serving high art, so she was willing to pose for free and sit in unheated workshops during the cold season.
Nude in an armchair
In this painting, Falk somewhat departed from cubism, preferring smooth lines, sprawling free strokes and a bright colour palette. For him it was important to show the beauty of a strong naked female body, an ordinary toiler who works in a factory by day, sits with children, but at night can give a lot of joy to her husband or lover.
He painted it in the workshops of VKhUTEMAS. The time - 1922 - was harsh, there was not enough wood to heat the room, so the artists and their students worked in winter outerwear. And Osipovich, about whom everyone spoke with great respect, uncomplainingly undressed. In order not to freeze to death, she sat closer to the poor Dutch stove. Her side, which was turned towards the fire, had a reddish tinge and was more or less the natural color of the human body, but the other side turned blue from the cold. This peculiarity was conveyed by Falk in his painting, so one should not be surprised by such an unusual range of colors and different colored spots on the body of the ‘Nude in the chair’.
Naked Valka
And in 1962, after Falk's death, the painting was presented at the exhibition in honor of the 30th anniversary of the Moscow Union of Artists. It was noticed by Nikita Khrushchev, who asked: “What IS THIS?” “It's a Naked Valka”, he was told. “Naked Valka?” - Khrushchev didn't hear, but asked again. And afterwards he harshly criticized the painting. It's good that Falk himself didn't care anymore.
Viciousness and sensuality. Red-haired girls in paintings by famous artists.
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