On this day 160 years ago Ukrainian artist Mykola Pimonenko was born in Kyiv. He was influenced by his father, who was an icon painter, and at the age of 16 he entered the Kiev drawing school. Among his teachers were artists-teachers Iosif Budkevich and Nikolai Murashko. After graduating from school, he went to St. Petersburg for several years, where he studied at the Academy of Arts, but due to illness he was forced to return to Kyiv. He got a job as a drawing teacher at the Murashko school, and after its closure, he took a similar position at the Kiev Polytechnic Institute. He was a member of several art societies, participated in the work on the painting of the Vladimir Cathedral, received the Order of St. Anna for it.
Pimonenko chose realism and worked within the framework of this direction. In his paintings one can see true images of representatives of different segments of the population, very vital and convincing. He, like no one else, could show the customs, everyday moments, festivities of ordinary people, and today these works are a great source of knowledge about how Ukrainians lived several generations ago. Pimonenko returned to some subjects several times. In different museums there are several paintings with the name "Christmas witch". The same applies to the paintings "Great Matins" and "Victim of fanaticism."
Creativity Pimonenko enjoyed success not only in Ukraine but also abroad. The Hopak painting depicting a dancing girl attracted the attention of art connoisseurs at an exhibition in Paris in 1909, and after the exhibition was completed, it was acquired by the Louvre. Another work, "The Great Four", a few years earlier fell into one of the museums in Munich. During his life, Pimonenko created about a thousand
paintings, many of which remained unfinished.
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