About half way between Moscow and St. Petersburg close to Tver, is the small village of "Akademichka" (or in English, "Academic Dacha"). It is about 10 kilometers off the main road, nestled in the Russian forest and graced by the shimmering Lake Mistino. The village has been the spiritual heart of Russian art since the village was founded in 1884. It has been the seasonal home of many of the great Russian artists over the last century and a half. The Academic Dacha initially served as a country refuge for impoverished or ailing artists from the Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg. Overtime, the area increasingly became a favorite with students and professors who came to paint landscapes in the open air. The setting so appealed to artists, that many spent the greater part of their lives there, purchasing small country homes (dachas) nearby. From Repin to Levitan to Kugach and countless other greats, this small village has been painted more and has inspired more great art than any other place in Russia.

   

Even today, in this idyllic setting, many great artists still call Academic Dacha home. The place has been the residence of Yuri Petrovich Kugach (who recently passed at the age of 96) since 1951. Over the years, Yuri Petrovich was a generous mentor to several promising artists. Kugach, who was named one of 'Russia's top twenty artists of the twenty first century' introduced us to one of his students in 2011, Vladimir Filippov. Yuri Petrovich told us that Vladimir was his finest student ever. Kugach told us that Filippov's soul was imbued with Russia's nature. He said that "while you can teach technique, color and composition---an artist's ability to 'feel' the land is unteachable." Kugach said that the instinct of greatness is genetic and that Filippov has that very rare natural talent. 

Detail from "Lovely Cow", by Vladimir V. Filippov

Yuri Kugach is one of the premier 20th century Russian Realist painters. He is known in Russia and around the world for his paintings of the Russian countryside and his amazing skill of depicting space, form and feeling in his paintings. He received the USSR's highest honors for his work, taught at the renowned Surikov Institute of Art in Moscow, and founded the Moscow River School.