The Russian Impressionism Museum is proud to introduce to the public a sadly forgotten artist, Arnold Lakhovsky. He was one of the most interesting masters of his day, Ilya Repin’s apprentice, wandering emigrant, and Sisley’s aficionado. He gained recognition in the USA and Europe. This is the first retrospective exhibition of his works that captures all periods of the master’s oeuvre. Almost half a century of works from twelve museums and several private collections are brought together in this exhibition. Next to well-known pieces from the State Russian Museum, State Tretyakov Gallery, Jewish Museum and Tolerance Centre, there the works of Lakhovsky from Perm and Cherepovets, Rostov and Astrakhan, Ivanovo, Kaluga and Kozmodemyansk are represented.

At the exhibition you will find the artist’s works from the European and American collections that have been almost never exhibited before. The artist had miraculous ability to interpret Itinerant’s themes into “impressionist language”. He was of a light spirit, and still scrupulously drew figures’ silhouettes in a style more reminiscent of Repin than Impressionism in order to capture vivid emotions. One of the most outstanding paintings of the exhibition is “Galician Types,” in which Jews are waiting at a bureaucrat’s office for their turn. In his peculiar manner, he strikingly showed vivid scenes. On the other side of the canvas, before restoration, you can see another painting – a landscape. The image is daubed, as if Lakhovsky crossed it by several chaotic strokes of brown paint, indicating this side as the off one. Specialists cleared it up and saw that the scenery was also artistically valuable. Now the two-sided canvas is put into unconventional frame that allows the viewer to see both pieces.