Pokhitonov, Ivan Pavlovich

Born Jan. 27 (Feb. 8), 1850, in the village of Matrenovka, in what is now Kirovograd Oblast, Ukrainian SSR; died Dec. 12, 1923, in Liège (according to some sources, Brussels). Russian painter.

Pokhitonov studied in Paris under the tutelage of A. P. Bogoliubov and came under the influence of the masters of the Barbizon school. From 1876 he lived in France and Belgium; from 1903 to 1905, in Byelorussia; and from 1913, in the Ukraine. He emigrated in 1919.

In 1905, Pokhitonov joined the peredvizhniki (the “wanderers”—a progressive art movement). His small, realistic landscapes, executed directly from nature and using a technique almost characteristic of miniatures, sometimes include genre elements. His works combine simplicity of theme with subtle illumination (The Beach at La Panne, 1895, Tret’iakov Gallery). Pokhitonov also painted portraits (I. S. Turgenev, 1882, Tret’iakov Gallery).