Konstantin Somov

Konstantin Somov grew up in the family of Hermitage curator Andrei Somov and encountered European art early. French and Dutch seventeenth- and eighteenth-century painting shaped his subjects and pictorial construction. With Benois and other friends he helped establish the World of Art group. Park outings, encounters and conversations joined contemporary observation with earlier forms. His pictures often keep viewers slightly apart from events, preserving the privacy of other lives.