Aleksandr Ivanovich Laktionov

Who was Aleksandr Ivanovich Laktionov?

Aleksandr Ivanovich Laktionov Александр Иванович Лактионов was a Socialist realism painter in the post-war Soviet Union. His meticulous and almost photo-real style was popular, but courted controversy among art critics and other artists.

Laktionov was born in Rostov-on-Don and studied in the Leningrad Academy of Arts from 1926–1929 and later as a postgraduate from 1938-1944. Laktionov was a pupil of the artist Isaak Brodskii and was influenced by his technical and realistic approach, which followed the traditions of the Old Masters.

Laktionov’s breakthrough work was A Letter From the Front, which captured the prevailing mood among the people of the Soviet Union following the German-Soviet War. It is a highly optimistic work, bathed in a warm glow, and is characteristic of the conflictlessness, which became a motif of Laktionov’s later works and Socialist Realism in general.

Laktionov became most famous for his genre paintings such as Into a New Flat and Old Age Provided For. These painstakingly realistic works paint an overwhelmingly positive picture of Soviet society, which must have contrasted sharply with the everyday realities of life for many people.