Turzhanskii, Leonard Viktorovich

(also Leonid Vik-torovich Turzhanskii). Born Feb. 9 (21), 1875, in Ekaterinburg, now Sverdlovsk; died Mar. 31, 1945, in Moscow. Soviet landscape painter.

From 1898 to 1909, Turzhanskii studied at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture under V. N. Baksheev, V. A. Serov, and K. A. Korovin. In 1911 and 1912 he was a member of the Society of Wandering Art Exhibitions (seePEREDVIZHNIKI), with which he had been associated since 1904. Turzhanskii’s work was typical of the Union of Russian Artists, which he joined in 1912. He became a member of the Association of Artists of Revolutionary Russia in 1924.

Influenced by his teachers, as well as by I. I. Levitan and the exponents of late impressionism, Turzhanskii developed a somewhat decorative style, applying delicate colors in an impasto. He usually rendered simple, lyrical scenes from the north and the Urals, primarily rural landscapes. Turzhanskii’s works include Calm Northern Evening (1905), Kama Gulls (1909), In Early Spring (1917), Before the Storm (1923), and Spring (1926), all of which are in the Tret’iakov Gallery. At Evening (1910; private collection, Moscow) is representative of the artist’s style.