Portrait of the artists P.D. and A.D. Korin

Mikhail Nesterov's 1930 double portrait of Pavel and Alexander Korin — brothers and gifted painters who were his students — is one of his finest late works and a testament to his sustained engagement with portraiture as a vehicle for capturing the spiritual character of his subjects. Pavel Korin was Nesterov's closest disciple and would become one of the most significant Soviet-era painters; Alexander was also a skilled artist. The double portrait places the brothers side by side in their studio, their serious, absorbed expressions reflecting the artistic vocation that united them. By 1930 Nesterov had survived the Revolution and the transformation of Russian cultural life under the Soviets, continuing to paint in his distinctive manner despite the changing political environment. The Tretyakov Gallery holds this work among its canonical twentieth-century holdings.

Nesterov organizes the double portrait to reveal both the relationship between the brothers and their individual characters — similar in their devotion to art, distinct in personality. The studio setting grounds the portrait in professional identity. The handling reflects Nesterov's mature manner: carefully modelled faces, restrained colour, and a quality of stillness and inner focus that characterizes all his portraiture.