Orchids (c.1930)

Lev Tschistovsky was a Russian painter whose technique was described by the great art critic George Loukomski (1884-1952) as ‘nearing perfection.’ First trained at the Fine Art School in Saint-Petersburg, he settled in Montparnasse in 1925 where he shared a studio with Andre Breton and Tamara de Lempicka. Married to the fellow great Russian painter Irène Klestova for forty-three years, he is buried next to her in Cénevières in south west France. A large proportion of his work is found in the Hermitage Museum in St.Petersburg.

Tchistovsky’s work has been offered at auction multiple times, the record price being 275,959 USD for Female Nude sold at Sotheby’s in 2013.