{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/4642",
    "note": "Exported from an unofficial mirror of a public mailing list. Copyright in each message remains with the person who wrote it.  Email addresses are obscured as `user at host`, the form the original archive published. This file was rebuilt from parsed fields rather than retained headers, so it is faithful in content but not byte-exact.",
    "addresses": "obscured as 'user at host'"
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  "archive": "urth",
  "thread": {
    "id": 4642,
    "subject": "(no subject)",
    "messages": 1,
    "voices": 1,
    "first": "2006-06-05T14:03:42+00:00",
    "last": "2006-06-05T14:03:42+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<BAY103-F20A86500D35369A744A7388940@phx.gbl>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Bob Miller",
        "address": "bob_bageera at hotmail.com"
      },
      "date": "2006-06-05T14:03:42+00:00",
      "subject": "(urth) (no subject)",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "Hmm.  Perhaps y'all knew he was historical, but I confess my own \nignorance--absolute and complete.\n\n\nNicolai Ivanovich Fechin (1881-1955) was born in Kazan, a city on the Volga \nRiver rich with mingled Russian and Mongol cultures, and his artistic talent \nwas recognized early in life. By the age of 11, he was drawing designs that \nhis father used in the construction of altars and he enrolled in the Kazan \nSchool of Art at the age of 13. After training at Kazan, Fechin entered the \nImperial Academy Petrograd (St. Petersburg) in 1900. There, he was \nprofoundly influenced by the psychologically penetrating portraits of  his \nteacher, Ilya Repin (1844-1930), Russia's preeminent realist painter. \nAnother major influence was Malavin, a  prior instructor at the Academy who \nwas known for \"his wide, nervous brushstroke.\" In 1909, after graduation \nwith high honours from the academy, Fechin received the Prix de Rome \nscholarship that enabled him to travel to Rome, Vienna, and Paris. One of \nFechin's submissions to the 1910 International Exhibition in Munich was \nawarded a gold medal and, in the same year, the artist was invited to send \npaintings to the annual International Exhibition held at the Carnegie \nInstitute in Pittsburgh.\nHe then returned to Kazan where he taught for ten years and married the \ndaughter of the director in 1913. During the Bolshevik Revolution many of \nhis students achieved posts in the new government that allowed them to offer \na degree of protection to Fechin and his wife, Alexandra, and daughter, Eya. \nHe was well known outside of Russia from canvases sent to Western \nexhibitions, and with the assistance of many American friends and patrons, \nhe emigrated to New York in 1923. His work was immediately accepted and \nawarded in the US. In 1927, he moved to Taos, New Mexico for health reasons \nwhere he was soon immersed in designing and decoratively carving his new \nhouse and in using bold colours to capture the Pueblo life around him. He \nreturned to New York with daughter Eya after his 1933 divorce, but  moved to \nSouthern California in the late '40s. From his California base, he travelled \nextensively through the SW, Mexico, Japan and the Pacific where he found \ninspiration for his work. Fechin taught small groups in his Santa Monica \nstudio and it was here that John Coleman Burroughs became a favourite and \ndevoted student. They went on many painting expeditions through the SW and \nMexico and participated in many art shows in these areas. Their shared love \nof the indigenous cultures they saw in these travels inspired their art, and \nthe combination of that love and their use of powerful brushstrokes made for \nmemorable canvases. Nicolai Fechin died in Santa Monica in 1955."
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}