Evgeniy POSPOLITAKI (1852, Temruk - 1915, Moscow) :

Pospolitaki was born in 1852 in Temruk. In 1893 he enrolled in a Saint-Petersburg academy of art. From 1881 to 1899, he regularly exhibited his works in various Salons in Moscow among well known artists such as Vasnetzov, Levitan, Korovin, Serov, ... In 1889, he took part in the Exposition Universelle in Paris.

In 1893 he opened the first private school of drawing, located in his house in Ekatirinodar. Then from 1894 to 1905, in the same town, he taught painting in the first academy of art intended to women.

In 1905 he settled in Paris and started to write some essays, especially about painting.

Our painting dates back to this last period (dated 1911 bottom right). Pospolitaki was standing behing the Pantheon, in Clovis Street and depicted the Clovis tower, which belonged in the past centuries to the Sainte Géneviève Abbey.

An old label is sticked on the back: 4ème Salon du Mobilier, Section des Beaux-Arts, Grand Palais des Champs Elysées, Remise porte principale les 17 et 18 juillet and the following mention: Pospolitaki Eugène, Un vieux quartier de Paris. This label proves that the painting was exhibited in Paris, probably in 1911.

Around 1914, Pospolitaki came back in Moscow, fell ill, and died in 1915.

Bibliography : Benezit, Dictionnaire des Peintres..., Paris, Gründ, 1999; Milner, John, A Dictionary of  Russian & Soviet artists 1420-1970, Woodbridge, Antique Collector's Club, 1993.
Thanks to Valentin Belchich for his help in the writing of this form.