Aleksandr Gerasimov (1881-1963)

Aleksandr Gerasimov (1881- 1963) was one of the leading artists in the Socialist Realism movement, the official prescribed canon of art in the Soviet Union. His oeuvre is permeated by Impressionist tendencies, wherein Gerasimov uses freely brushed strokes of colour to show the glimmering rays of light, as is especially evident in View of Moscow, Mossovet, which forms Gerasimov’s Moscow series painted in honour of Moscow’s 800 year anniversary in 1947. The Mossovet (a typical Soviet contraction) denotes the Moscow Soviet of People's Deputies, now known as the Moscow City Hall and is located on the famed Moscow boulevard Tverskaya ulitsa, number 13.