Svetoslavskii, Sergei

Born Sept. 24 (Oct. 6), 1857, in Kiev; died there Sept. 19, 1931. Ukrainian landscape painter.

Svetoslavskii studied at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture under A. K. Savrasov from 1875 to 1883. He became a member of the peredvizhniki (the “wanderers,” a progressive art movement) in 1891. Working in the traditional style of Russian and Ukrainian realistic landscape painting, Svetoslavskii specialized in lyrical scenes, mainly of the countryside. He often employed genre elements and depicted animal scenes. In his treatment of light he paid special attention to subtle color effects (Almost Spring, 1887, Tret’iakov Gallery; Evening in the Steppe, 1905, Museum of Ukrainian Fine Arts of the Ukrainian SSR, Kiev). Svetoslavskii also painted some cityscapes (St. Basil’s Cathedral in Moscow, 1893, Museum of Ukrainian Fine Arts of the Ukrainian SSR).