1938
oil on canvas
296 х 386

Alexander Gerasimov was a complex and contradictory figure in Soviet art of the 1930s–1960s. Gerasimov achieved an impressive painterly manner and professional technique thanks to his outstanding teachers - А.Е.Аrkhipov and К.А. Korovin. But his outstanding capabilities did not prevent the artist from being a party functionary in the arts over a period of many years. For more than 20 years Gerasimov held posts in the USSR Academy of Arts and remained an active fighter for the principles of Socialist Realism and an opponent of all deviations form the official doctrine. For an entire generation of artists and lovers of painting Gerasimov personified the totalitarian regime in art. The painting I.V. Stalin and K.E. Voroshilov in the Kremlin after the Rain was one of the popular works of the age of Socialist Realism and even gave rise to a rhyming description in the broad public, “Leading men in the rain”. Unlike the “theatrical” paintings of V.P. Efanov, A.M. Gerasimov applied in his work a rather different “photographic” compositional approach making use, very likely, of numerous photos and depicting the party and government leaders on strolls in the Kremlin, along new parapets on the bank of the Moscow canal then under construction.