The start of the twentieth century saw the widespread influence of modern Western art on Russia. Russian artists travelled widely across Europe, while Moscow and St Petersburg were home to the private galleries of Ivan Morozov and Stepan Schukin. These contained paintings by Paul Cézanne, Henri Matisse and other twentieth century innovators. All of this rendered an undoubted influence on the path and nature of Russian art. Followers of Cézanne soon appeared in Russia. They formed a group bearing the revolutionary name Jack of Diamonds and reinterpreted “Cézannism” in a highly original and typically Russian manner. The still-lifes, portraits and landscapes of Ilya Mashkov (1881–1944), Pyotr Konchalovsky (1876–1956), Alexander Kuprin (1880–1960) and Aristarkh Lentulov (1882–1943) employ the painterly, plastic and thematic tackiness of Russian folklore art (shop signs, toys, lubok prints) alongside devices typical of Cézanne.
Up until the end of the nineteenth century, distaffs, trays, wooden and clay toys, embroidered towels and clothes were merely part of the everyday life of peasant households. The Jack of Diamonds artists resurrected them as works of art in their own right. A widespread phenomenon at the start of the twentieth century was a return to Russia’s national roots.
