Nikolai Timkov was born to a farming family in the years prior to the Russian revolution. He grew up among Cossacks in a village on the Don river and acquired a life-long appreciation for rural life and nature. Although orphaned at an early age, the highly talented child was raised in an orphanage where his artistic aspirations were noted and nurtured.
During the 1930s Timkov studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Leningrad (St. Petersburg) under Isaac Brodsky who directed a rigorous school focusing on creativity in the best traditions of Russian art. During the Soviet era, the authorities dictated that all artists should work within the guidelines of Soviet Socialist Realism, requiring all art to depict the “reality of revolutionary Russia.” Timkov was among the few artists who turned to landscape painting as a way of avoiding avert Soviet propaganda, while still celebrating a Russian identity.
He lived in St. Petersburg and worked in the beautiful suburbs of the former Russian capital for most of his life. Timkov distinguished himself through his concentration on the land itself, and expressed his deep identification with serene, unspoiled nature. Timkov’s art has been highly regarded by art connoisseurs at hundreds of shows and exhibitions. The public and critics alike appreciate the integrity and wholeness of his artistic outlook, his vivid color scheme, his technical virtuosity, and his consummate spiritual awareness.
Nikolai Timkov is a Russian impressionist artist whose works are viewed as those of a highly distinguished and original master. His paintings, always authentic in details, are also generalized by symbolic meaning. Timkov’s artistry captures an elemental relationship of a people to their land – something shared by Russians and Americans. Dr. Albert Kostenevich, Curator of Impressionist Art at the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, has characterized Timkov as “the greatest Russian Impressionist landscape painter” of the mid-to late 20th century.
Timkov is represented in major museums and art galleries worldwide including the State Russian Museum (St. Petersburg), the State Tretyakov Gallery (Moscow), the Museum of History (St. Petersburg), the Museum of Russian Art (Minnesota, USA) and numerous private collections in Europe, Asia and the Americas.
Research Sources: Soviet Impressionism by Vern Swanson, Meridian International Center, AskArt, Wikipedia (Russian)
