Aleksandr Ivanovich Laktionov (; – 15 March 1972) was a Socialist realism painter in the post-war Soviet Union. His meticulous and almost photo-real style was popular, but courted controversy among art critics and other artists. Laktionov was born in

Rostov-on-Don Rostov-on-Don is a port city and the administrative centre of Rostov Oblast and the Southern Federal District of Russia. It lies in the southeastern part of the East European Plain on the Don River, from the Sea of Azov, directly north of t ...

and studied in the Leningrad Academy of Arts from 1926 to 1929 and later as a postgraduate from 1938 to 1944. Laktionov was a pupil of the artist Isaak Brodsky and was influenced by his technical and realistic approach, which followed the traditions of the

Old Masters In art history, "Old Master" (or "old master")Old Masters De ...

Laktionov's breakthrough work was ''A Letter From the Front'' (1947), which captured the prevailing mood among the people of the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

following the

German-Soviet War The Eastern Front, also known as the Great Patriotic War (term), Great Patriotic War in the Soviet Union and its successor states, and the German–Soviet War in modern Germany and Ukraine, was a Theater (warfare), theatre of World War II ...

. It is a highly optimistic work, bathed in a warm glow, which became a motif of Laktionov's later works and Socialist realism in general. Laktionov became most famous for his

genre paintings Genre painting (or petit genre) is the painting of genre art, which depicts aspects of everyday life by portraying ordinary people engaged in common activities. One common definition of a genre scene is that it shows figures to whom no identity c ...

such as ''Into a New Flat'' (1952) and ''Old Age Provided For'' (1958–60). These painstakingly realistic works paint an overwhelmingly positive picture of Soviet society. Nonetheless, these paintings proved popular among the general public, despite their mixed critical reception. This criticism was leveled mainly at Laktionov's trademark attention to detail that, they claimed, eschews artistic expression in favor of naturalism. In spite of this, Laktionov found many supporters in the state cultural bureaucracy, who approved of his nationalistic and optimistic subject matter. This ensured that Laktionov was able to lead a highly successful career and mix in the highest echelons of Soviet society. Throughout his later years he was commissioned to paint numerous portraits of leading Soviet actors, surgeons, soldiers, politicians and

cosmonauts An astronaut (from the Ancient Greek (), meaning 'star', and (), meaning 'sailor') is a person trained, equipped, and deployed by a human spaceflight program to serve as a commander or crew member of a spacecraft. Although generally reserve ...

, including a portrait of

Joseph Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Dzhugashvili; 5 March 1953) was a Soviet politician and revolutionary who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until Death and state funeral of Joseph Stalin, his death in 1953. He held power as General Secret ...

Bibliography

* Sergei V. Ivanov. ''Unknown Socialist Realism. The Leningrad School.'' Saint Petersburg: NP - Print, 2007. ,

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Laktionov, Aleksandr Ivanovich 1910 births 1972 deaths 20th-century Russian male artists 20th-century Russian painters Artists from Rostov-on-Don Full Members of the USSR Academy of Arts Repin Institute of Arts alumni Recipients of the Stalin Prize People's Artists of the RSFSR (visual arts) Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner of Labour Leningrad School artists Socialist realist artists Russian male painters Soviet painters Burials at Novodevichy Cemetery