Robert Falk spent the summer of 1913 in Ruza, a small town outside Moscow, engaged in much prolific work. Old Man is one of the works that he painted there. It has not been established who sat for the artist. In a letter to V. P. Knyazeva, the artist’s widow writes: “I remember Robert saying that it was a Tatar.” When the portrait was shown at the Spring Exhibition in Odessa, one of the critics wrote in a review of the show: “Falk, Kuprin and Fyodorov are typical Cézanneists. In one of his portraits of an old man, the first paints a virtual double of Cézanne’s Man with a Pipe.”

Falk Robert

Falk, Robert Rafailovich (1886, Moscow — 1958, Moscow)
Painter, graphic artist, theatrical designer. Studied at the Konstantin Juon and Ivan Dudin School of Drawing and Painting and Ilya Mashkov’s studio in Moscow (1903–1905) and the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture (1905–1909). Founding member of the Knave of Diamonds (1911). Member and exhibitor of the Knave of Diamonds (1910–1927), World of Art (1911–1917, 1921–1922), Association of Artists of Revolutionary Russia (1925–1928) and the Society of Moscow Artists (1925–1928). Worked at IZI Narkompros (1918–1921) and the Institute of Artistic Culture (1920). Lived and worked in Paris (1928–1937) and Moscow (1937–1958). Professor of the State Free Art Studios/VKhUTEMAS/VKhUTEIN (1918–1928) and the Moscow Institute of Applied and Decorative Art (1945–1958).