Nikolai Punin: The Man who Died for Cezanne

Throughout his life, the art-critic, Nikolai Punin (1888–1953) was a great admirer of Paul Cezanne. He believed that this leader of French modernism had the power to inspire avant-garde artists in Russia, encouraging them to break free from accepted academic rules and limitations. Even after French Impressionism and Post-Impressionism were regarded as a bad influence on young Soviet peo-ple, Punin continued telling his students about the importance of Cezanne and his new system in art. In August 1949, Punin was arrested and sent to the Gulag for promoting the art of Cezanne and Van Gogh. He died there – beyond the Arctic circle – in 1953, shortly before the ban on Western-European art was lifted, and the paintings of Punin’s favourite artists could be exhibited in Moscow and Leningrad once again.