At Summer: Pyotr Petrovich Konchalovsky (1939)

Pyotr Petrovich Konchalovsky (1876–1956) was one of Russia’s most prolific and influential avant-garde painters, often regarded as the founder of Russian Cézannism. Over the course of his long career, he produced more than 5,000 works, bringing together the influences of European modernism and traditional Russian art.

At Summer, an oil painting also known as In the Summer: Day of the Spanish Pioneers in the Summer Camp, depicts a scene from a Soviet summer camp attended by Spanish pioneer children.

During the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939), thousands of children from Republican families were evacuated to the Soviet Union to escape the conflict. Known as the Niños de Rusia (Children of Russia), they found themselves growing up far from home, under an entirely different political and cultural system.

Konchalovsky was better known for his bold, heavily Post-Impressionist style, particularly his fascination with Cézanne, and for his involvement with the influential avant-garde group Jack of Diamonds. By the late 1930s, however, Soviet artists were increasingly expected to follow the principles of Socialist Realism.

At Summer captures that officially approved vision of Soviet life: youthful, optimistic and full of promise. Yet there is more to enjoy here than its ideological message. Konchalovsky’s wonderful handling of light, colour and the atmosphere of an outdoor summer scene remains very much his own