Framed: 35 ½ x 30 5/8 inches
artist
Simkhovitch was born near the city of Kiev, Russia. When he was 7, he spent a year in bed with a severe case of measles. To amuse himself he used to sketch an old mill outside his window, and thus decided to become an artist. He studied at an art school in Odessa and was recommended to attend the Imperial Academy of St. Petersburg (a singular honor in Russia at the time) before the war and revolution. Swept up into the army before he could attend, his work was hung in the Museum of Revolution in Leningrad. He resumed his studies in 1914 and graduated four years later. He was sent to the United States in 1924 to do illustrations for Soviet textbooks. He quickly applied for and gained U.S. citizenship.
Simkhovitch integrated with the art world immediately and galleries such as Midtown Galleries and Marie Sterner took him on as part of their stable of artists. He also was employed by the WPA and executed major mural commissions throughout the country. One of his largest commissions was the Mississippi Court House. Life magazine profiled him twice with full-length features on his life here in this country as an artist. When he died at an early age, the Whitney Museum of Art in New York offered to do a retrospective and the widow denied the possibility and simply put his works away in storage.
Considered a master draftsman and an adherent of certain classicism, Simkhovitch’s compositions are often built up in a complicated but well-managed counterpoint. But at heart, he is a romanticist preferring the dreamy colors of a Russian fairy tale.
Description
Simkhovitch was born near the city of Kiev, Russia. When he was 7, he spent a year in bed with a severe case of measles. To amuse himself he used to sketch an old mill outside his window, and thus decided to become an artist. He studied at an art school in Odessa and was recommended to attend the Imperial Academy of St. Petersburg (a singular honor in Russia at the time) before the war and revolution. Swept up into the army before he could attend, his work was hung in the Museum of Revolution in Leningrad. He resumed his studies in 1914 and graduated four years later. He was sent to the United States in 1924 to do illustrations for Soviet textbooks. He quickly applied for and gained U.S. citizenship.
Simkhovitch integrated with the art world immediately and galleries such as Midtown Galleries and Marie Sterner took him on as part of their stable of artists. He also was employed by the WPA and executed major mural commissions throughout the country. One of his largest commissions was the Mississippi Court House. Life magazine profiled him twice with full length features on his life here in this country as an artist. When he died at an early age, the Whitney Museum of Art in New York offered to do a retrospective and the widow denied the possibility and simply put his works away in storage.
Considered a master draftsman and an adherent of certain classicism, Simkhovitch’s compositions are often built up in a complicated but well-managed counterpoint. But at heart, he is a romanticist preferring the dreamy colors of a Russian fairy tale. He often portrayed children in either portrait or as part of a full composition, and it was once stated in a review in the Bridgeport Sunday Post (April 15, 1945) that “all his children in which métier he is so successful, have the delicate grace, the almost spiritual quality, added to the robust healthiness of Renoir’s children, considered by many as the most beautiful and appealing in all the world.” In Young Girl with Black Cat all of his artistic strengths are brought together in this portrait of a haunting young girl with her pet.
provenance
Estate of the artist
exhibitions
Carnegie International, 1933—1945
National Academy of Design, 1926, 1942, 1946, 1948
Corcoran Biennial, 1935-1947
Art Institute of Chicago, 1932-1945
Pennsylvania Academy of Art, 1932-1947
Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1940, 1942
Midtown Galleries, New York, 1941-1945
Milch Galleries, New York, 1933-1941, 1946-1949
Whitney Museum (numerous)
Wildenstein Galleries, New York (numerous)
The Wadsworth Athenaeum, CT, 1947