The Frye Art Museum in Seattle has gathered 55 paintings and drawings by Nicolai Fechin in a major exhibition that will be on view through May 19.

Nicolai Fechin, “Lady in Pink (Portrait of Natalia Podbelskaya),” 1912, oil on canvas, 45 1/2 x 35 in. Seattle, Frye Art Museum

Titled Nicolai Fechin, the exhibition concentrates on the early Russian period of Fechin’s career, a strong point in the Frye’s permanent collection. Loans from U.S. museums and from private lenders, American and international, round out the exhibition.

At one time a student of Ilya Repin (1844-1930), Fechin led an eventful life that saw him emigrate to the United States and earn worldwide fame for his vibrant, expressive canvases. His “Lady in Pink,” now in the Frye’s permanent collection, was exhibited in the International Exhibition at the Carnegie Institute in 1913 and in the Panama-Pacific Exposition in San Francisco in 1915 alongside the works of Pissarro, Renoir, Sisley, and Boudin. Fechin’s career accelerated as a result of his participation in the important Exhibition of Russian Painting and Sculpture at the Brooklyn Art Museum in 1923 and his solo exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago in the same year. Later in life he moved to Taos, New Mexico, where the landscape and Southwestern culture inspired the artist to create many brilliant pictures. The current exhibition at the Frye concludes with these Taos paintings.
Nicolai Fechin, “Nude Figure,” 1911, oil on canvas, 28 1/2 x 26 in. The Filatov Family Art Foundation

Nicolai Fechin was curated by Frye Director Jo-Anne Birnie Danzker. It is the first major overview of Fechin’s work held at the Frye Art Museum since 1976.

The exhibition will be accompanied by a series of lectures, classes, and gallery talks. To see the full program, visit www.fryemuseum.org.

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