A PAIR OF PAINTINGS BY IGOR YERSHOV (RUSSIAN 1916-1985) Scenes of the Eastern Russia, 1939 oil on canvas approximately 46 x 70 cm (18 x 27 1/2 in.) each signed, titled and dated on verso
LOT NOTES Igor Yershov was a Russian painter and graphic designer. He was born into an artistic family; his father Ivan Yershov was an opera singer with the Imperial Marinskiy Theatre and his mother was both a singer and a professor at the St. Petersburg Conservatory. In 1932, Yershov began his studies at the academy of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. Amongst his professors were I. Brodsky and I. Bilibin. His studies were interrupted by the Second World War when he was evacuated to Tashkent. Yershov graduated from the Academy in 1947, presenting lithographs for A. Pushkin`s Bronze Horseman. In 1949, a jubilee edition of Pushkin`s works was published with illustrations by the artist. From the 1950s onwards, he worked mainly as an illustrator of children`s books. At least two generations of Russian children grew up reading Khorovod with Yershov`s illustrations. His illustrations for the Russian folk tales by Charles Perrault and Aleksandr Pushkin were very popular: The tale of the Golden Cockerel (1957-1960), A tale of the Fisherman and his wife (1956-57), Russian fairy-tales (1957-1960). Yershov`s works can be found in the collections of a number of Russian museums including the State Russian Museum and Museum of A.S. Pushkin and in museums and private collections in both France and England.
