Bidspirit auction | Alexander Vasilyevich Gine, ”Rural Landscape”,

Alexander Vasilyevich Gine, ”Rural Landscape”, 1870s. Oil on canvas. 33.5 × 51 cm. Expert opinion by A. V. Petrov. - Alexander Vasilyevich Guine (1830–1880) was a painter, draftsman, and lithographer. He received his initial education at the First Men’s Gymnasium in Kazan, which he attended together with Ivan I. Shishkin. From 1854 to 1856 he studied at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture under Apollon N. Mokritsky. In 1856 he moved to Saint Petersburg, where, as a non-matriculated student, he worked in the landscape painting class of the Imperial Academy of Arts under Semyon M. Vorobyov. In 1857 and 1858 he was awarded small silver medals, and in 1859 received a large silver medal.   In 1857, together with Ivan I. Shishkin, Pavel P. Dzhogin, and Yegor G. Oznobishin, he worked in the area of Dubki near Sestroretsk. From 1858 to 1861 he made annual trips to Valaam. In 1860 he was awarded a small gold medal for the painting *View on Valaam*. In 1865 he graduated from the Academy with the title of Class Artist of the First Degree. That same year, his painting *A Summer Day* received a prize from the organizing committee of the Society for the Encouragement of Artists. Until 1879 he regularly participated in the Society’s exhibitions.   In 1868 Guine illustrated Ivan Pashino’s book *Journey through Turkestan*. In 1878, for the paintings *Storm on the Island of Valaam* (1878), *Rain. View from the Vicinity of Gatchina*, and *Night. Spring Flood of the Volga*, he was awarded the title of Academician of Landscape Painting. That same year, his works were exhibited at the World Exhibition in Paris.   Guine was a representative of the generation of painters of the second half of the 19th century who played a key role in the formation of the Russian landscape school. His works are held in the State Tretyakov Gallery, the State Russian Museum, the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, as well as in other museum and private collections.