Russian artists who lived & worked in the West for a long time

Karl Bryullov

French by blood, Russian by birth, Karl Bryullov, like many artists of his time, adored Italy. The young romantic artist first went there in 1822 as a pensioner of the Imperial Academy of Arts to make a copy of Raphael's fresco ‘The School of Athens’. There, he also created his paintings ‘Italian Morning’, which was very much liked by Emperor Nicholas I, and ‘Italian Noon’, whose sensuality bordering on eroticism caused condemnation by the crowned critic. However, the artist was no longer very concerned about this. Bryullov stayed in Italy for 12 years and his trip went beyond the scope of an educational one. In Italy, he met Countess Yulia Samoilova, with whom he developed a long-term romantic relationship. Her image can be found in many of the artist's paintings of this period. And it was in Italy that he painted the famous monumental canvas ‘The Last Day of Pompeii’. 

Bryullov returned to Russia in 1834. The artist left for Italy for the second time (via Portugal) in 1849 to treat his health, undermined by painting the St. Petersburg cathedrals, and remained there until his imminent death in 1852. In total, he lived outside of Russia for 14 years. 

Wassily Kandinsky

One of the founders of abstraction, Kandinsky took up painting professionally unusually late – at the age of 30. His family had decided that the young man should have a “normal” profession, such as a lawyer. And he tried to be a lawyer as best he could: He graduated from Moscow University, ran a printing house and received an offer to take a position as a private lecturer at the University of Dorpat. However, he saw Claude Monet’s painting ‘Haystack’ and “the old and previously hopeless love for painting” flared up again: In 1896, Kandinsky gave up his career as a lawyer and went to Munich to study painting.

It was in Germany that the artist developed the theory of abstract art, became one of the leaders of the avant-garde and created the ‘Blue Rider’ group. After the outbreak of World War I in 1914, he returned to Russia for seven years, but, in 1921, he went back to Germany to teach painting at the Bauhaus. Fleeing fascism in the early 1930s, he then moved to France and lived there until his death. Although Kandinsky spent most of his adult life abroad and became a German (and later French) citizen, he always emphasized his Russian roots. His early works are associated with Russian folklore, icon painting and spiritual quests. Therefore, he is considered a Russian artist, although he lived abroad for a total of about 47 years.

Marc Chagall

Chagall spent most of his long life abroad, mainly in France. However, he could not forget Vitebsk, where he was born. He was the eldest son in a large Jewish family and became an artist against his father's will. Chagall recalled that his father threw the money for the trip to St. Petersburg on the floor and said that he would not give him another penny.

In the then capital, the young artist studied at the Drawing School of the Society for the Encouragement of the Arts, which was headed by Nicholas Roerich (he was accepted to the school without an exam in the third year). He then continued his studies with Leon Bakst at the private art school of Zvantseva. After which, he went to study in Paris. Three years later, he returned to his native Vitebsk to marry Bella, a girl he had been in love with for a long time.

For eight years, Chagall lived in Russia, which, while there, changed from tsarist to Soviet. He worked in the Military-Industrial Committee, opened the Vitebsk Art School, painted and made costumes and sets for the Moscow Jewish Chamber Theater.

And, in 1922, he left for Lithuania and then for Germany and France. After this, he only visited Russia as a guest and spent most of his time in France, considering it his second homeland. However, the motifs of the Russian village he remembered from Vitebsk and the Jewish shtetl permeate all of his works. Of the 98 years he lived, 66 were spent outside of Russia.

Natalia Goncharova & Mikhail Larionov

In 1915, Natalia Goncharova and her husband Mikhail Larionov left Russia for Switzerland at the invitation of Sergei Diaghilev to work on costumes and sets for his legendary ‘Russian Seasons’ troupe in Paris. It was simply planned as a business trip. However, a temporary trip turned into a lifelong emigration.

After working with the ‘Russian Seasons’ in Switzerland and other European countries, the artists finally settled in Paris, which became their permanent home for the next almost half a century. There, they actively participated in the artistic life, continued to work for Diaghilev and other enterprises, developed their creativity (a synthesis of the avant-garde with Russian icon-painting and popular print traditions) and collaborated with fashion houses. Goncharova worked incredibly productively, creating paintings, theater sketches, book illustrations (including for the Parisian editions of Pushkin) and costumes. She became one of the central figures of the Russian artistic diaspora and the Parisian art scene of the 20th century. Her work is a unique bridge between the Russian avant-garde and European modernism.

Larionov's most radical and innovative works (Rayonism, Neo-Primitivism) were created before leaving Russia. But, even in Paris, he remained an important figure, a link between the Russian avant-garde and the European scene, especially through the theater. Together, the couple became one of the most prominent representatives of Russian art in exile, maintaining ties with the traditions of their homeland and, at the same time, actively influencing Parisian cultural life.

Zinaida Serebryakova

Serebryakova was a Russian artist from the famous creative dynasty of Benoit-Lanceray-Serebryakov. She left Russia in 1924, having received a commission to paint a mural, and never returned. A temporary trip (for several months) was planned to earn money for the family who remained in Petrograd, but difficulties with leaving and entering Soviet Russia, as well as financial difficulties, made the artist's return impossible. Her attempts to reunite with her four children remained unsuccessful for a long time.

Serebryakova continued her life in Paris and the first years were extremely difficult for her: poverty, the struggle for survival and the longing for her children. However, she gradually achieved recognition as a portraitist. After one major commission, she and her two children, who were since able to join her, went on a trip to Morocco, which became a powerful creative impulse for her. She created a famous series of Moroccan studies and paintings, full of light and exoticism. The Paris period is mainly portraits (often commissioned) and nudes. The Moroccan works are the most striking exception, a splash of color and joy. Many works from this period are also imbued with nostalgia for Russia and estate life. Wide recognition and exhibitions, sadly, only came to the artist already in her declining years and posthumously: from the 1960s and onwards.