The graphic artist and painter Boris Vladimirovich Preobrazhensky, a student of Ivan Silych Goryushkin-Sorokopudov, reflected on his mentor, stating that he “was a bright representative of our Russian intelligentsia of the late 19th century, yet his appearance immediately set him apart from those around him. Beneath his external severity lay great strength and modesty, akin to that of a rock.“
On the outside, Ivan Goryushkin-Sorokopudov appeared to be a serious and courageous man, but within, he was an intellectual, an aesthete, and a lover of antiquity. In several of his early works, he emerged as a refined artist who admired female beauty. During his apprenticeship at the Academy of Arts in the capital of the Russian Empire, Goryushkin-Sorokopudov had the opportunity to observe the diverse artistic life at the turn of the 20th century.
Despite his commitment to the realistic school and his respect for the authority of the Peredvizhniki, particularly Ilya Efimovich Repin, the young artist could not help but feel the influence of Art Nouveau, which shaped his artistic language. One of the most notable phenomena in Russian artistic culture at the end of the 19th century was the World of Art association, along with its magazine, which began publication in Saint Petersburg in 1898. This publication gravitated towards Art Nouveau in its visual presentation.
At the beginning of his career, Goryushkin-Sorokopudov vividly expressed aesthetic values aligned with symbolism and Art Nouveau, while drawing inspiration from the past. His body of work included romantic costume narratives, where he engaged in experiments with color and sought decorative expressiveness.
The artist’s paintings “White Night” and “Lady with a Dog” also exhibit elements of retrospectivism. Ivan Silych Goryushkin-Sorokopudov portrayed scenes featuring ladies who resembled his wife, Klavdiya Petrovna, dressed in mid-19th-century outfits. Their elegance evokes comparisons to the works of the World of Art group, particularly the paintings of Konstantin Andreyevich Somov, with whom Goryushkin-Sorokopudov attended the workshop of Ilya Repin.
