Mikhail Nesterov often portrayed his eldest daughter Olga. This famous portrait depicts her in riding gear on the bank of the White River outside Ufa. The composition is based on a study from life later finished in Kiev. The slender figure of the young woman is depicted against a background of green fields commonly encountered in Nesterov’s works. Olga’s slightly wearisome face betrays a hint of light grief, corresponding to the quiet state of nature in the hours before sundown. The canvas is pervaded with a mood of soft and elegaic meditation. As the artist once said: “I avoid depicting ‘strong passions’; I prefer our quiet landscapes and the inner life of man.” Olga Mikhailovna Nesterova (married name Schroeter) (1886–1973).

Nesterov Mikhail

Nesterov, Mikhail Vasilyevich
1862, Ufa - 1942, Moscow
Painter, portraitist, landscape artist, genre painter, author of memoirs and essays on artists. Studied at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture (1877-81, 1884-86) and the Imperial Academy of Arts (1881-84). Full member of the Imperial Academy of Arts (1910). Member of the Society of Travelling Art Exhibitions (1896) and founding member of the Union of Russian Artists (1903). Contributed to the exhibitions of the Society of Travelling Art Exhibitions (1889-1901), World of Art (1899-1901), 36 Artists (1901-03), Union of Russian Artists (1922, 1923), All-Russian Exhibition in Nizhny Novgorod (1896), Exposition Universelle in Paris (1900), International Exhibitions in Munich (1898,1909) and Rome (1911), Die erste russische Kunstausstellung in Berlin (1922) and the Exhibition of Russian Art in New York (1924). Honoured Artist of the RUSSIAN SOVIET FEDERATED SOCIALIST REPUBLIC (1942).