Lev Tchistovsky (1902-1969)

Biography of Lev Tchistovsky

Lev Tschistovsky was a Russian figurative painter specialised in feminine nudes. He first trained at the Fine Art School in Saint-Petersbourg, where he was a pupil of Savinsky and Eberling. Laureate of his school, he left USSR in 1925 and took classes at the Fine Arts School in Roma and after in Florence.

He met Irena Klestova in Venice, at the end of the twenties. She was also a pupil at the Saint-Petersbourg’s Fine Arts School, and she was already exhibiting her paintings at the Salon des Independants in Paris. Lev Tchistovsky settled in Paris in Montparnasse’s district and married Irena. In his studio on Impasse du Rouet, he rubbed shoulders with Andre Breton and Tamara de Lempicka.

Member of the Salon des Independants in 1930, Lev Tchistovsky was exhibiting there regularly. His portraits and nude figures constituted the most of his abundant production. The classic realism of his works depicted erotism and sensuality of the women of his time.

During his whole career, he was inspired by Mythology that will give him a great inspiration. Passionate by icons, Lev Tchistovsky was preparing, just before he died, a publication about icons technique.The art historian Loukomsky depicted him as an authentic resistant of classical painting, whose technique approached the perfection, especially in his nudes.

He died in 1969, in his house in Cénevières in the Lot French department. His wife gave a lot of his paintings to the Urbain Cabrol local Museum. There are many of his art works in the Ermitage Museum in Saint Petersbourg. Robert Maxwell, magnate of the press, also bought some of his paintings.