From the heart of Tatar culture, Nicolai Fechin immigrated to the United States, after his family suffered devastating losses during the Russian Revolution. Bringing a grand style of painting, he established a reputation as a portrait painter upon settling in New York in the twenties. Contracting tuberculosis, he, along with his wife and daughter, made his way to the drier climes of Taos, New Mexico. After living in an apartment rented from Mabel Dodge Luhan, he bought an adobe home, which he enhanced with Russian craftsmanship. During these years, he found kindred peoples to those of his Volga Forest homeland, and he painted the same bravura as his society portraits.
Born in Kazan, Russia, Fechin received his first art instruction from his craftsman father, whose wood and metal carvings adorned churches and houses. As a young boy, Fechin almost died from meningitis, but was believed to be cured by touching one of his father's icons. Eventually he studied at the Imperial Academy in St. Petersburg with Ilya Repin, a major portraitist and history painter. Under Repin's guidance, he completed several large history paintings in St. Petersburg, and he developed his gestural technique of working with a palette knife.
Traveling to Siberia with a geologist friend, Fechin grew interested in observing and drawing ethnic cultures, and he continued to do so in summer trips around Kazan. Graduating in 1908, he received a scholarship for travel outside of Russia. Soon his reputation extended beyond Russian boundaries with a gold medal at the annual internal exhibition in Munich. Subsequently he was asked to participate in the International Exhibition at the Carnegie Institute in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, which established an important American connection.
Marrying in 1913, he and his wife Alexandra had their only child the following year. During World War I, the family moved to Vasilievo to a house purchased by his father. Fechin's parents died of typhoid during the Revolution. Losing claim to properties, the artist took his family to New York in 1923, hoping to be able to return one day.
Working as an instructor at the New York Academy of Art, Fechin exhibited at the National Academy of Design, where he won an award for his portraiture. This led to significant portrait work, including literary figures like Willa Cather. Showing at the Grand Central Art Gallery, Fechin appeared to be set for a major career in New York, when he became ill with tuberculosis.
Seeking the drier climes of Taos, New Mexico, the Fechins first rented an apartment from Mabel Dodge Luhan, but Alexandra did not care for their colorful landlady. The artist bought a nearby adobe home. Rather than socialize with the artists community there, Fechin devoted himself to making Russian carvings and designs for the structure (The house is now the Taos Art Center and Fechin Museum.) Living in Taos for six years, the artist painted ordinary people of the area, including children, with his Sargent-like style of portraiture. Responding to their simplicity, he endowed his figures and his still-life works with splendor.
When his wife filed for divorce in 1933, he gave her the house and returned to New York with his daughter. Urged by his associate, Earl Stendhal, Fechin moved to California, where he lived in Pasadena and Hollywood. During this phase of his life, he traveled to Mexico and to Asia, where he continued to paint his grand portrait studies of ordinary people. His last American residence was in Santa Monica, but upon his death, his daughter returned his remains to Russia.
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