Winter In The Chegem Gorge – A. Ostryakin

Date: circa 1950
Provenance: Caucasus
Artist: Aleksandr Aleksandrovich Ostryakin
Technique: oil on canvas

Dimensions of the artwork: 40 cm x 50 cm
Dimensions with frame: 44 cm x 54 cm

Oil on canvas depicting a mountainous landscape, identified by the inscription on the reverse as the Chegem Gorge in the Caucasus. The composition is structured around a perspective view that guides the eye along the watercourse in the foreground, whose snow-covered bed defines the depth of the lower plane. The painting technique is characterized by textured, directional brushstrokes that shape the volumes of the rocky walls and render the texture of the snow through a color palette based on the contrast between cool tones—grays, blues, and whites—of the rocks and snow in shadow, and the warm, brown tones of the autumn foliage. Available with a 2 cm or 7 cm antique fir frame

Aleksandr Aleksandrovich Ostryakin (1927–1996), a Soviet painter and member of the Union of Artists of the USSR since 1983. Active primarily in the North Caucasus, Ostryakin devoted much of his artistic output to depicting the landscapes of the Kabardino-Balkarian Autonomous Republic, consistently documenting the region’s unique topography and climate, including the famous Chegem Gorge, a recurring subject in his mountain landscape paintings.