On March 31, a souvenir sheet dedicated to the 175th Birth Anniversary of painter Ivan Pokhitonov was put into postal circulation

Ivan Pokhitonov (1850-1923) was a painter, a genre artist, an Academician and a Full Member of the Imperial Academy of Arts (1904).

The creative work of the Master merged the poetic view of the world, inherent in a Russian landscape painter, with French sophistication. The artist painted small sized pictures and used an original technique: he worked on small boards of lemon or mahogany trees with the finest brushes, fish bones and other handy objects. In this manner, he attained smoothness, brilliance and a variety of colorful shades, created volume and space with the help of complex pictorial texture.

Special energy appertains to landscapes and genre scenes. The depictured people live in harmony with nature: they are peasants working in fields and gardens, fishermen, shepherds, hunters, listening sensitively to the rustle of grass and quietly making their way through a swamp or snow-covered forest, lovers strolling along meadow paths, women and children.

The artworks by I. Pokhitonov are displayed in many of the world's largest museums. Some of the most famous of his paintings are The Laundresses (1894), The Estate (early 1900s), and Spring Day (early 1900s).

The postage stamp features painting The Laundresses by Ivan Pokhitonov (State Tretyakov Gallery 1894), the margins of the souvenir sheet provide a portrait of the artist against the background of the artist’s studio.

In addition to the issue of the souvenir sheet, JSC Marka produced First Day Covers and special cancels for Moscow and St. Petersburg, as well as illustrated covers for the souvenir sheet with a label and a First Day Cover with a cancel for St. Petersburg inside; and for the second emission type: an imperforated souvenir sheet made on canvas-type design paper.


Design Artist: O. Savina.
Face value: 250 rubles.
Souvenir sheet size: 120×87 mm; stamp size in the souvenir sheet: 50×37 mm.
Quantity: 17 thousand souvenir sheets (the 1-st emission type); 3.6 thousand souvenir sheets (the 2-nd emission type*).
* To be on sale as part of an illustrated cover.

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