25 Facts About Nicolai Fechin

Nikolai Ivanovich Feshin, usually referred to in English as Nicolai Fechin, was a Russian-American painter known for his portraits and works featuring Native Americans.

Nicolai Fechin exhibited his first work in the United States in 1910 in an international exhibition in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Nicolai Fechin's father was a woodcarver and gilder, and the boy learned carving from him.

In 1909 Nicolai Fechin graduated with the highest grade possible, and his final competitive canvas won him the Prix de Rome.

Nicolai Fechin was invited to show his work at an international exhibition at the Carnegie Institute in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1910.

When Nicolai Fechin returned from traveling, he resumed teaching at Kazan, where he taught for ten years.

Nicolai Fechin had a less demanding style of lessons than the gruelling exercises he had been forced to complete at the Imperial Academy.

In 1910 Nicolai Fechin was among the founders of the Commune of Artists.

Nicolai Fechin exhibited with the Itinerants from 1912 to 1922 and with the Association of Artists of Revolutionary Russia from 1922 to 1926.

The social disruption and widespread deprivation after the Russian Revolution made life difficult, and Nicolai Fechin's parents died of typhoid fever.

Nicolai Fechin was already well known in the States from canvases at American and European exhibitions, as well as sales.

Nicolai Fechin soon was commissioned for new portraits and started teaching at the New York Academy of Art.

Nicolai Fechin exhibited at the National Academy of Design, where in 1924 he won the first prize; in 1926 he won a medal at the 1926 International Exposition in Philadelphia.

Nicolai Fechin became well known for his powerful portraits, which observers said seemed to radiate from the eyes of the subject.

At an early age, Nicolai Fechin had learned carving from his father.

Nicolai Fechin enjoyed the more direct creative process of working in wood.

Nicolai Fechin traveled west and in 1927 eventually settled with his family in Taos, New Mexico, which was developing as an arts center.

Nicolai Fechin felt particularly close to the Native Americans, and many of his most acclaimed works done in the United States were of the Native Americans.

Nicolai Fechin had great affection for Taos and became a naturalized American citizen while living there.

Nicolai Fechin carved 51 intricate doors according to Russian style, created triptych windows, and carved furniture for use in the house, which reflects a combination of modernist, Russian and Native American sensibility.

Nicolai Fechin stopped working on the house when he and his wife Alexandra divorced in 1933.

Nicolai Fechin lived at the house until her death in 1983.

Nicolai Fechin returned to New York with their daughter Eya for the winter, and she lived mostly with him until her own marriage.

The Russian artist Sergei Bongart bought the Rustic Canyon studio where Nicolai Fechin had lived and painted there until his own death later in 1985.

Nicolai Fechin was profiled in Of Time and Change by Frank Waters.