Favorite Artists 8 - Nicolai Fechin

Nicolai Fechin, "Self Portrait," oil, ca.1949

Nicolai Fechin is a particular favorite artist of mine. Born in Russia in 1881, Mr. Fechin was trained in the Imperial Academy of Art in St. Petersburg, where he had the good fortune to study under Ilya Repin, the great master. He later emigrated to the United States at the insistence of his wife (1923) where he remained until dying in 1955. Because of tuberculosis, he and his family settled in Taos, New Mexico. After he and his wife divorced, he settled in southern California.

Nicolai Fechin, "Woman With a Cigarette," 1917

Nicolai Ivanovich Fechin was a realist painter, his works encompassing figures, portraits, still life and other genres. In particular, his paintings of Native American subjects are compelling. In Taos, the Pueblo tribe and their culture were rich sources. He had been criticized in his native country for painting the peasantry but their lives and the situations of similarly placed American natives were fascinating to him, reminding him of the Tatars of his native country.

Mr. Fechin lived in New York during his first few years in the U.S. and while there had a busy painting and teaching practice, doing portraits and other work, including Willa Cather, the famous novelist. Unfortunately, he developed signs of tuberculosis, and in that era of no antibiotics a therapeutic stratagem was to move to a more arid climate. Hence his move to New Mexico.

Nicolai Fechin, "Corn Dancer," ca. 1928

Mr. Fechin's portraits of Native Americans are more than simple images or ethnography; like the best portraiture, they penetrate beyond the surface to give the viewer an intimate sense of the sitter's personality and attitude. In his "Corn Dancer," for example, he gives us a fascinating, challenging and direct expression. Many of his works, seen in person, make us appreciate his fascination with brushwork that shatters color and scatters it like confetti. He was also a master with a palette knife and is said to have used whatever other tool or material that gave him the effects he wanted, including spit. Moreover he was no slave to strict representation but abstracted large portions of his compositions (note Woman with a Cigarette, above), to dazzling effect.

Nicolai Fechin, "Boris Karloff," charcoal, 1934

Besides his undeniable talent for paint, he was a fine draftsman too. After moving to Hollywood he did portrait drawings of celebrities like Boris Karloff (right), but he also drew many other subjects, particularly Native Americans. Those drawings today comprise an astonishing and instructive body of work, as well.

Nicolai Fechin, "Head of a Woman," nd.

Surprisingly, there are few books detailing the career and work of this outstanding artist. A very useful volume is Nicolai Fechin, by Mary Balcomb, easily located and still in print. Highly recommended.

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Previously
Favorite Artists
Favorite Artists 2
Favorite Artists 3--Grant Wood
Favorite Artists 4--Diego Velazquez
Favorite Artists 5--Andrew Wyeth
Favorite Artists 6--Wayne Thiebaud 
Favorite Artists 7 - Edward Hopper