VLADISLAV IZMAILOVICH (1872-1959) Portrait of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin

signed in Cyrillic ‘Isp. V. M. Izmailovich’ [made by V. M. Izmailovich], old label (on the reverse) 33.8 x 23.6 cm This portrait was certainly painted during Vladimir Ilyich Lenin’s lifetime Vladislav Izmailovich (1872-1959) was a Russian and Soviet painter. At the beginning of the 20th century, he became a fashionable salon portraitist. His clients were high-ranking officials, members of the imperial family, ministers and famous representatives of the merchant class. For a time, he was the court painter to Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich. The public was also familiar with his works on biblical, mythological and exotic oriental subjects, which were printed on postcards. He was also very popular for his paintings and restorations of the interiors of museums and private houses, in particular the Ekaterininsky palace in Tsarskoye Selo, and he is the author of the central ceiling of the Russian Museum in Saint Petersburg. After the revolution, he painted portraits of Lenin, Stalin, Dzerzhinsky, Lunacharsky and Kirov, and later portraits of workers, heroes of the Soviet Union, brigadiers and statesmen.