Pospolitaki, Evgeny Ivanovich

Eugene Pospolitaki was born in 1852 in the south-west of Russia , in the town of Temryuk, Krasnodar Territory. His father, Sergeant Alexander Pospolitaki, owned a large territory. Young Eugene is educated as a civil engineering engineer, and then is fond of art. While impressionism is progressing in France, the emergence of the Wanderers group, the so-called wandering artists, is observed in Russia. Since 1863, this movement has been organizing temporary exhibitions throughout Russia, developing independent Russian art and contrasting it with academic painting. Wanderers want a society of glaring inequality to recognize and appreciate Russian art. At this moment of lively development and transformation of art, in 1873, the Commonwealth entered the Academy of Arts of St. Petersburg .

Upon completion of training, from 1875 to 1879, a graduate is already in Moscow . Little information has been preserved about the artist’s brief stay in the capital, it is only known that in 1877 the Tretyakov Gallery acquires his painting “Toward Evening”. This work will appear in the gallery catalog again in 1903. In 1880 he left for Paris. At that time, France was one of the best places for painting, attracting many foreign artists, especially scholars of the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts. Pospolitaki was not a scholarship holder, but he goes to France, as this is considered an important stage in the career of any artist. Russian painters passionately love overflows of light and color, of which there are so many in Normandy and Brittany. In addition, these landscapes remind them of their homeland and the Baltic Sea. It can be assumed that the Commonwealth traveled along the entire French coast, as evidenced by numerous sketches on small canvases. From this trip to France, Pospolitaki took out the subtlety of color and the atmosphere of humidity, similar to the air of St. Petersburg.

For more than ten years, the Commonwealth has been a member of the Moscow Society of Art Lovers. Viktor Vasnetsov, Isaac Levitan and Valentin Serov are also among the artists who took part in the regular exhibitions of this society. By the way, you can even see some kindred relationship in the manner of painting by Valentin Serov, also a graduate of the Academy of Arts, and Yevgeny Pospolitaki, as is noticeable in Serov’s painting “The White Sea”, written in 1894.

The year 1889 marked the heyday of the Paris career of the Commonwealth. He exhibits at the World Exhibition in Paris, the picture "Top of Elbrus" and receives an honorary award for it. The success of the Commonwealth falls on the golden years of Russian culture in Paris. Russian ballet troupes and composers at the time were at the height of fashion. In 1892, at the XII periodic exhibition of the Moscow Society of Arts, he presents the painting "Mount Uzhba (Caucasus)." The theme of wide Caucasian spaces is especially sweet for the Commonwealth. He returns to it several times during his career, depicting impressive rocky massifs, mountain valleys, especially carefully drawing cozy villages with original Caucasian architecture.

Eugene Pospolitaki leaves for Ekaterinodar in 1893 and teaches there at the first Academy of Painting for Women. In parallel with his educational activities, thanks to the inheritance received from his father, Pospolitaki opens the first private drawing school on the ground floor of his house. In 1905, the school will be headed by his best student, Stupnikov. The Commonwealth again goes to Paris, this time with his children, to try himself as an art critic. After 4 years, once again in Russia, he exhibited a series of landscapes of the Caucasus at the IV exhibition of paintings of the St. Petersburg Society of Non-Party Artists. After returning to Paris in 1911, the artist writes "Tower of Clovis (Paris)." The painting shows a Gothic monument, an old tower of the Abbey of St. Genevieve, a view from the back of the Pantheon. On the back of the picture on the label is the IV Furniture Salon, art section, Grand Palace on the Champs Elysees. Now the picture is in the gallery of Michel Cabost in Paris.

The last years of the life of the Commonwealth are almost not reflected in the documents - it is only known that he lived in St. Petersburg and died there in 1915.

The works of the Commonwealth, always kept in private collections, are rare, and therefore are especially appreciated by collectors.

• Benezit, Dictionnaire des Peintres, Sculpteurs, Dessinateurs et Graveurs , éditions Gründ, Paris, 1999.
• John Milner, A Dictionary of Russian & Soviet artists 1420-1970 , Antique Collector's Club, Woodbridge, UK, 1993.

• Arcadja