Country boys

Painted in 1920 and without a listed collection, this canvas of country boys belongs to the period when Bogdanov-Belsky had recently left Russia following the revolution and was establishing himself in Latvian exile. The year 1920 was one of profound displacement for Russian émigré artists: the civil war was still ongoing, the old social world had been destroyed, and the subjects of Russian rural life that painters like Bogdanov-Belsky had made their specialty were now accessible only through memory. Country boys painted from memory in 1920 carry a particular emotional charge — they are images of a way of life being preserved in paint even as it was being transformed beyond recognition. This version, one of several paintings Bogdanov-Belsky made with this subject title around this period, reflects the sustaining power of his lifelong material.

Oil on canvas with the warm, naturalistic approach characteristic of his rural figure scenes. Working from memory rather than direct observation, Bogdanov-Belsky would rely on established compositional habits — the grouping of two or three boys, the outdoor setting with vegetation and light, the informal arrangement of bodies at leisure or play. The result is confident but perhaps slightly more generalized than his direct-observation paintings.