Alexis Matthew PODCHERNIKOFF
1886–1933, Russia/USA

Alexis Matthew Podchernikoff was born in Vladimir, Russia on Feb. 26, 1886. Podchernikoff first studied art with his grandfather Dmitri Zolotarieff and later with Ilya Repin and Verestchagin. In Moscow he was awarded a gold medal and his work My Beloved Russian Woods was purchased by the Royal Art Commission. After the Russo-Japanese War, he immigrated to the U.S. Although 18 years his senior, he married Ida Working in Minnesota in 1901 and moved to San Francisco in 1903. In 1913 an art dealer from Santa Barbara convinced Podchernikoff to move there. A painting of his Santa Barbara studio appeared on the front cover of Literary Digest, March 10, 1928. Although he spent the last 20 years of his life in southern California, he returned often to San Francisco to paint scenes of Marin and the northern coast. His style and palette are often compared to those by Corot. His last years were spent in Pasadena where he died of tuberculosis on Oct. 31, 1933.

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