Vladimir Pavlovich Krantz- Master of the Lyrical Landscape
For our collectors of landscapes we are pleased present a small exhibition by one of the great landscape artists of the Soviet period, Vladimir Pavlovich Krantz.
Krantz was a master of the lyrical landscape and considered Nature as a his main teacher. He was drawn to the simple beauty of the Northern Russian forests and the seascapes of the Crimea. He painted with a unique eye towards nature's mystery, and his works rivet the eye by their romantic mood and masterful technique. He had a special gift for capturing the special light that filters the Russian wilderness, each season bringing its own distinct glow and drawing the viewer into the landscape.
Krantz often visited the museum-estate of the great Russian poet Alexander Pushkin near Pskov. Admiring the poet, Krantz presented the museum a series of 44 landscapes in different seasons.
|
|
|
Vladimir P. Krantz, "The April" |
Krantz, Vladimir Pavlovich, (1913-2003 ) Mozdok, Northern Caucasia
Destinies of artists take different shapes, even if all of them are equally gifted in the youth. Some of them have to pass a way several decades to find their final profession. Vladimir Pavlovich Krantz is one of such artists. By his age (he was born in 1913) he belongs to the masters of the elder generation, while by his artistic activity and the start of his work which fell on the 1970s-1990s Krantz can be included in the generation of young talents of the end of the 20th century. His first participation in exhibitions is dated "1959."
Here are the main marks of the artist's life. Being a descendant of a nobleman and Decembrist von Rosen-Krantz who had been exiled to the Caucasus for participation in the rising of 1825 against Emperor Nickolas I, he realized quite early his abilities and started his studies at a studio. His gift was notice and in 1934 he was sent to Leningrad for entering the Academy of Arts. However, because of a disease, in the following year he found himself at the Architectural Department of the Civil Engineering Institute in Leningrad. No sooner had he received the Degree of the Architect, the war with the German fascism (1941-1945) started. He registered as a volunteer to the front, but was selected for the course at the Academy of Air Force and he went to the remote Tajikistan to teach at a school of aircraft mechanics. After the war, working in the restoration of the destroyed Leningrad as an architect, he studied at the artistic studio of S. Nevelshtein, a staunch follower of the realistic traditions. Regular classes at the Houses of Creative Work "Academic Dacha" and "Old Ladoga" also facilitated his professional growth. The first work with which the painter took part in the exhibition of 1959 was a small landscape, "After Rain." It is not by chance that he keeps it with care, as the artist found his way with it and announced himself as a landscape painter once and for all. Since then, he has been painting the Russian nature persistently and forgetting about himself for over 3 decades, having created several hundred works.
 |
| Vladimir P. Krantz, "In the Park"
19¾'' x 27½'', (50 x 70 cm) 1964, Oil on Board,$7,350
|
In his home album there are many photos. By the way, on one of them the painter is with the first cosmonaut of the planet Yury Gagarin in Gurzuf, Crimea. But my attention was drawn to the picture where he is standing in his field clothes with a rucksack and an easel in the countryside, as if demonstrating his main creative principle - he is in a constant search of beauty. And that is true, for he has walked all over many roads of Russia. On the painter's canvases you can see the nature of the Urals and Pskov area, the land of Tver and Leningrad, Karelia, Crimea and Baikal. And in August of 1996 the spiritually young artist is going to have a work in a village of the Novgorod Oblast.
 |
| Vladimir P. Krantz, "The March in the Village" 19¾'' x 23½'', (50 x 60 cm),1977, Oil on Board $6,400 |
He has devoted over ten years to Pushkinogorye (Pushkin Hills) in Pskov Oblast, the places consecrated by the life of the great Russian poet Alexandr Pushkin - Mikhailovskoye, Trigorskoye, Petrovskoye and Svyatogorye. The famous Mikhailovskoye groves, the two hundred years old path of Anna Kern, the quiet smooth surface of the Hannibal's (the poet's ancestor) pond, the Sorot river in summer, in winter and during the spring flood - all these motifs dear to the Russians are imbued in his presentation with the trepidation of participation and love and touched with a soft lyricism. In 1980 forty four canvases devoted to the theme of Pushkin were presented by Krantz to S. Geichenko, Director of the Pushkin Museum Preserve.
|
|
|
Vladimir P. Krantz, "The River in the Urals" |
Whatever landscape of Russia is painted by the artist, all his landscapes are distinguished by a softness of the brush and a gentle musical harmony of colors. One would call recherche nocturnes such his canvases as "Thaw," "The Coming of the Spring," "The Breath of the Spring," "The Merry May" and other paintings. Water is one of the most important components almost in all landscapes of the painter. The artist feels the world in a harmony of three elements - the heaven, the water and the earth. And due to this he moves from the instant and from the trembling of the moment towards the existential state of nature and impresses a lasting state, the "eternal beauty" according to Pushkin
 |
| Vladimir P. Krantz, "The November" 19¾'' x 27½'', (50 x 70 cm) 1974, Oil on Board $7,400 |
Krantz, Vladimir Pavlovich
Was born 17 February 1913 in Mozdok, Northern Caucas.In 1940 V. Krantz graduated from the Architectural department of Leningrad Building Institute.
Began exhibiting in 1957.
A member of the LCRAU since 1972.
Noted as a landscape painter.
Personal exhibitions in Leningrad (1964, 1977, 1991, 1992, 1995).
Paintings by Vladimir KRANTZ are in Art museums and private collections in the Russia and throughout the world.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Modern Soviet painting exhibition. Gekkoso Gallery. Tokyo, 1977. Ecole de Saint-Petersburg. Drouot Richelieu. 13 Mars 1992. Paris, 1992.
