Fedot Sychkov

Fedot Vasilyevich Sychkov was born in Penza Governorate, in the village Kochelaevo of Narovchatsky Uyezd, now Kovylkinsky District of Mordovia in 1870. His family was poor, he lost his parents as a child. Fedot Sychkov began his education in the three-class school. A few years after its completion and cooperative learning in the icon workshop Sychkov began working as an artist, he painted icons and portraits of peasants. One of the famous works of this period is the picture "Founding of Arapovo Station" (1892), made for Ivan Arapov, general from St. Petersburg who lived on his estate near Kochelaevo. With his help, young artist Sychkov was sent to St. Petersburg to continue his artistic education in 1892.

In the Drawing School of St. Petersburg he continued to improve his skills and create paintings. One of the best paintings of the period is "Portrait of the Artist's Younger Sister, Yekaterina Sychkova" (1893). Also Sychkov painted custom portraits.

In 1895 he began studying at the Higher School of Arts at the Imperial Academy of Arts. In the years of study Sychkov painted several self-portraits.

Like many young other of that time, he wanted to study in Ilya Repin’s workshop, who he was Familiar to.

Despite the fact that during these years course of Imperial Academy of Arts Sychkov studied the battle-painting after graduation he found his vocation as a portrait and genre painter.

After completing his studies in St. Petersburg Sychkov returned to his homeland. The main topics of his works concerned folk festivals, weddings and other celebrations. He also was very interested in painting everyday village life. For example "On The Hills" (1910), "Skating Carnival" (1914).

In the years 1900–1910, Sychkov was the period of artistic maturity. In that time he painted "Return of the Fair," "Village Wedding," "Blessing of the Waters", "Christ Singers", "Difficult Transition", "Flax Combers", "Return From The Hay" and several others. Sychkov tried to tell various aspects of rural life without embell shing of the life. His works attracted by the brightness of the portrait characteristics, accurately build the plastic multi-track to the ability, find expressive poses and gestures that give special emotional openness of the images.

In the 1900s. developed front portraits at the time Sychkov was a very popular portrait painter in St. Petersburg. Customers are attracted by his ability to paint quickly and accurately grasping the features of appearance. Among his "models" were bankers, government officials and society ladies. An excellent example of the front of the portrait is "Portrait In Black" (1904).

Children's portraits became interesting page in work of the painter. For the first time he consulted them in the 900th years, except for a few students' studies where it was posed as a model by children. Among them are "Friends" (1911), "Girlfriends. Children" (1916), "Grinko" (1937). The trip abroad in 1908 became one of his brightest vital impressions.Acquaintance to masterpieces of the West European art became a powerful impulse for further creative activity of the painter, lifted it on qualitatively new artistic level. He brought from Italy and France a lot of scenery.Grandiose buildings of ancient Rome – Arch of Constantine, Forum, Colosseum appear in them as symbols of former greatness of the antique empire.

The color range constructed on combinations of light yellow-green and blue tones, transfers a hot haze of the southern air in which as if outlines of monuments of an antiquity melt.However at doubtless art advantages of these landscapes, the artist's soul most completely reveals in the works devoted to native places. Tirelessly he painted the native village, crooked fences, ingrown into the land of the hut, the spring floods overflowing Moksha. Intimacy and warmth of sentiment infused with small-sized winter studies are designed in a gray-bluish color. At the heart of landscapes – deep poetic feeling, a worship of the master for beauty of the Russian nature exciting in the modest charm.

Sychkov's creative range was rather wide. Besides, portraits, landscapes, genre cloths, throughout all life he painted still lifes: from classically clear on manner of performance, as, for example, «The Still life. Fruit», created in 1908 during a trip across Italy, more characteristic for it still lifes with a landscape approach - "Strawberry" (1910), "Cucumbers" (1917), etc. in which in a bit different refraction the same subject of life and a village life sounds. Sychkov liked to work in a garden, in a kitchen.He always was proud to say, "I am a peasant!"

The end of the 1910-1920th – it was time when Sychkov created, generally options or repetitions of the early works, continuing to develop favourite and characteristic for it a subject of holidays, varying plots of pre-revolutionary pictures - "Girlfriends" (1920), "Holiday" (1927), «The holiday. Girlfriends. Winter» (1929) and several others. His style of painting evolved during this time toward greater brightness of a color.