A black and white photo of an older man.

Nikolai Efimovich Timkov

1912-1993

Nikolai Efimovich Timkov is one of the greatest Russian landscape painters of the second half of the twentieth century. Best known for his lyrical depictions of the countryside, Timkov created works that, with their bright colors and textured brushwork, evoked the beauty and magnitude of the artist's homeland.

Timkov began his formal training in 1928 at the age of 16 at the Rostov Art College and continued his studies at the Moscow Institute of Art and the All-Russian Academy of Art. In 1944, after serving in the Russian Navy during WWII, Timkov married Klavdiya Ivanovna Mitrofanova (1919-1994). They had one son, Vyacheslav Nikolaevich, who was born in 1946.

In 1947, at the age of 35, he had his first one-man exhibition at the Russian Federation of Artists in Leningrad. In 1987, he was awarded the coveted title of "Honorable Artist of the Russian Federation," solidifying his place among the great artists in Russian history. At the close of his last exhibition at the St. Petersburg Union of Artists, Timkov suffered a heart attack and passed away on December 23, 1993, at the age of 81.

His paintings are represented in all the major Russian museums as well as private collections in many countries, including the United States. Through his ability to use Impressionism to capture the unique beauty of the Russian landscape, Timkov holds an important role in the impressionist movement.

The Timkov Collection currently consists of over 500 paintings, encompassing the full range of the artist's work throughout his lifetime. Visit the Gallery above to view the collection. Timkov's work is beautifully depicted in two books: The Seasons of Timkov and Akademichka.

Public Collections

  • Abramtsevo: State Museum of History, Arts, and Literature.
  • Beloretsk: Beloretsk Picture Gallery.
  • Berdiansk: I.I. Brodsky Art Museum.
  • Briansk: Art Museum of the Briansk Region.
  • Vladimir: Vladimir-Suzdal State Museum of History and Architecture.
  • Vyshny Volochyok: Local branch of the Kalinin State Museum of History and Architecture.
  • Gorlovka (Donetsk region): Gorlovka State Museum.
  • Gorokhovets (Vladimir region): Museum of Local Lore, History and Economy.
  • Izhevsk: Udmurtia Art Museum.
  • Yoshkar-Ola: Mari Exhibition Hall.
  • Kazan: Tataria Art Museum.
  • Kalinin: Kalinin Picture Gallery.
  • Komsomolsk-on-Amur: Museum of Soviet Arts.
  • Kurgan: Kurgan Art Museum.
  • Konstantinovsk (Rostov region): City Art Museum.
  • Leningrad (St. Petersburg): State Museum of the History of Leningrad.
  • State Russian Museum.
  • Central Naval Museum.
  • Popov’s Central Museum of Communications.
  • Moscow: Central Army Museum.
  • Novgorod: Novgorod State Museum of History, Architecture, and Art.
  • Novokuznetsk (Kemerovo region): Novokuznetsk Museum of Soviet Art.
  • Omsk: Museum of Arts.
  • Oryol: State Picture Gallery.
  • Orenburg: Museum of Arts.
  • Rostov-on-Don: Museum of Arts, Museum of Local Lore, History, and Economy.
  • Ekaterinburg (Sverdlovsk): Museum of Arts.
  • Cheboksary: Chuvash State Art Gallery.
  • Shadrinsk (Kurgan region): Museum of Local Lore, History, and Economy, and various picture galleries and other institutions.
  • Altai region: Pavlovsk Picture Gallery.
  • Moscow: Republic Center for Art Exhibitions.
  • Moscow region: Sovkhoz Voronovo Art Gallery.
  • Pskov region (Novorzhev area): Vekhnyanskaya Art Gallery.
  • Tomsk: Experimental and Production Holding.
A man with a beard and mustache is looking at the camera.
A map of the land with green grass and purple mountains.

Partial List of Principal Exhibitions

  • All-Union Exhibition Heroic Front and Home Front, State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, 1943.
  • Exhibition of young artists, dedicated to the 25th Anniversary of the Lenin Comsomol, State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow.
  • First Exhibition of the Leningrad Frontline Artists, House of the Red Army, Leningrad.
  • First Exhibition of the Leningrad Frontline Artists, Frunze House of the Red Army, Moscow, 1943.
  • Second Exhibition of the Leningrad Frontline Artists, State Russian Museum, Leningrad, 1944.
  • Third Exhibition of the Leningrad Frontline Artists, Academy of Arts, Leningrad, 1945.
  • First One-Man Exhibition of Timkov’s Works, Russian Federation of Artists, Leningrad Branch, 1947.
  • Traveling Exhibition of Leningrad Artists, House of Arts Named for K. S. Stanislavsky, Leningrad, 1948.
  • Retrospective Exhibition of Paintings, Graphics, and Sculpture, 1947–48, Leningrad, 1949.
  • Exhibition of works by Leningrad Artists, State Russian Museum, Leningrad, 1950.
  • Exhibition of works by Leningrad Artists, State Russian Museum, Leningrad, 1951.
  • All-Union Exhibition of Arts, State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, 1952.
  • Second All-Union Exhibition of Seascape Painters, Central House of the Soviet Army, Moscow, 1952.
  • Second One-Man Exhibition of Timkov’s Works, Russian Federation of Artists, Leningrad, 1957.
  • Exhibition of paintings, sculpture, and graphics dedicated to the First All-Union Congress of Soviet Artists, USSR Union of Artists, Moscow.
  • Exhibition of Leningrad artists dedicated to the 40th anniversary of the Great October Revolution, State Russian Museum, Leningrad.
  • The all-Union Exhibition, which was dedicated to the same anniversary, was held at the Central Exposition Hall in Moscow.
  • Traveling Exhibition Petersburg-Leningrad in Prints and Lithographs by Russian and Soviet Artists from the Hermitage Collections, Novgorod, Riga, and Tallinn.
  • Traveling One-Man Exhibition of Timkov’s Works from Leningrad and Rostovon-Don, 1958.
  • Exhibition of paintings Forty Years of the Soviet Military Forces, USSR Academy of Arts, Moscow.
  • Exhibition of Leningrad Artists, Research Museum of the USSR Academy of Arts, Leningrad, 1960.
  • Republic Exhibition of Arts, Soviet Russia, Central Exposition Hall, Moscow.
  • All-Union Exhibition of Arts dedicated to the 22nd Congress of the CPSU, Central Exposition Hall, Moscow, 1961.
  • Exhibition of Leningrad artists, State Russian Museum, Leningrad.
  • Regional Exhibition, State Russian Museum, Leningrad.
  • Exhibition of Works by N. Timkov and S. Neverstein, Leningrad.
  • TheThird One-Man Show, 1964. Traveling Exhibition to Moscow, Taroslavl, Krasnodor, Stravropol, Kislovodsk and Rostov-on-Don.
  • Leningrad During the Second World War, Ethnographic Museum of the Peoples of the USSR, Leningrad.
  • Exhibition of works by Leningrad artists in Finland and Turkey.
  • Second Republic exhibition of arts, Soviet Russia, Central Exposition Hall, Moscow.
  • Third Republic exhibition of arts in Soviet Russia, dedicated to the 50th Anniversary of the October Revolution, Central Exposition Hall, Moscow.
  • The all-Union exhibition is dedicated to the above anniversary at the Central Exposition Hall, Moscow.
  • Fourth Republic exhibition of arts, Soviet Russia, Central Exposition Hall, Moscow, 1970.
  • Exhibition of Leningrad artists dedicated to Vladimir I. Lenin, State Russian Museum, Leningrad.
  • Exhibition of Leningrad artists dedicated to the 25th anniversary of victory in the Second World War, Leningrad Organization of the Russian Federation of Artists, Leningrad, 1972.
  • Exhibition of Leningrad artists, Our Contemporaries, State Russian Museum, Leningrad.
  • Exhibition of the Russian Federation of Artists Around the Native Land, Central Exposition Hall, Moscow.
  • Exhibition of the Russian Federation of Artists, Central Exposition Hall, Moscow, 1974.
  • Exhibition of Leningrad artists Around the Native Country, State Russian Museum, Leningrad.
  • Fifth Republic-wide exhibition Soviet Russia, Central Exposition Hall, Moscow, 1975.
  • Regional Exhibition of Leningrad artists, Our Contemporaries, State Russian Museum, Leningrad.
  • All-Union Exhibition of Arts Glory to Labor, Central Exposition Hall, Moscow, 1976.
  • One-Man Exhibition of Timkov’s works, Leningrad Branch of the Russian Federation of Artists, Leningrad.
  • Exhibition The Arts of Leningrad, Central Exposition Hall, Moscow.
  • The republic-wide exhibition of Russian Federation artists was dedicated to the 60th anniversary of the October Revolution, Central Exposition Hall, Moscow, 1977.
  • Exhibition On Lenin’s Road dedicated to the October Revolution, Central Exposition Hall, Moscow.
  • Exhibition of the Russian Federation of Artists Art Belongs to the People, Central Exposition Hall, Moscow.
  • All-Union art exhibition, The Blue Roads of Russia, Central Exposition Hall, Moscow, 1979.
  • All-Union art exhibition of Leningrad artists dedicated to the 110th anniversary of V. I. Lenin, Central Exposition Hall, Moscow, 1980.
  • Sixth Republic-wide exhibition, Soviet Russia, Central Exposition Hall, Moscow.
  • Petersburg-Petrograd-Leningrad in the works of Soviet and Russian artists, Central Exposition Hall, Leningrad.
  • All Russian art exhibitions around the Native Country, Central Exposition Hall, Moscow, 1981.
  • Exhibition of Leningrad artists Our Contemporaries, Central Exposition Hall, Leningrad.
  • One-Man Exhibition of Timkov’s Works, USSR Union of Artists, Yuri A. Gagarin Air Force Academy, Star City, Moscow, 1982.
  • The exhibition is dedicated to the 50th anniversary of the Leningrad branch of the Russian Federation Union of Artists, Central Exposition Hall, Leningrad.
  • The exhibition was dedicated to the 60th anniversary of the formation of the USSR at Central Exposition Hall, Leningrad.
  • Exhibition: A Land of Inspirations, Kalinin.
  • Exhibition The Blue Roads of Russia, Central Exposition Hall, Moscow, 1983.
  • Exhibition of Leningrad artists In the Time of Courage, State Russian Museum, Leningrad, 1984.
  • Exhibition, The Battle for Leningrad, Central Exposition Hall, Leningrad.
  • The exhibition of Leningrad artists was dedicated to the epic battle for Leningrad, the Leningrad branch of the Russian Federation Union of Artists.
  • Exhibition of Leningrad artists, Central Exposition Hall, Leningrad.
  • Exhibition 60 Years with Lenin’s Name, Museum of Leningrad History, Leningrad.
  • Exhibition Our Leningrad, Central Exposition Hall, Leningrad.
  • Exhibition dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the Academy Dacha, Kalinin.
  • Exhibition 40 Years of Great Victory, Central Exposition Hall, Leningrad, 1985.
  • Regional exhibition, Central Exposition Hall, Leningrad.
  • Exhibition Our Contemporaries, Central Exposition Hall, Leningrad, 1986.
  • Exhibition Leningrad’s Artists for the 70th Anniversary of the Great October, Central Exposition Hall, Leningrad, 1987.
  • Sixth one-man exhibition, 1993, Union of Artists, Saint Petersburg.
  • One-man exhibition, Modernism Gallery, San Francisco, California, 1998.
  • One-man exhibition, Academy Art Museum, Easton, Maryland 1999
  • One-man exhibition, Aspen Fine Art Gallery, Aspen, Colorado 1999
  • One-man exhibition, Spanierman Gallery, New York, New York 1999
  • One-man exhibition, Lois Richards Gallery, Greenwich, Connecticut, 1999
  • One-man exhibition, Trailside Galleries, Scottsdale, Arizona, 2000
  • One-man exhibition, Martha Lincoln Gallery, Vero Beach, Florida 2000
  • One-man exhibition, Modernism Gallery, San Francisco, California 2000
  • One-man exhibition, Cavalier Gallery, Nantucket, Massachusetts, 2000
  • One-man exhibition, The Artis Group, Palm Beach, Florida 2000
  • One-man exhibition, Newhouse Galleries, New York, New York 2001
  • One-man exhibition, Vail Fine Art Gallery, Vail, Colorado 2001
  • One-man exhibition, Organization of American States, Washington, D.C. 2001
  • One-man exhibition, Russian Cultural Centre, Washington, D.C.
  • The Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. 2005
  • The Museum of Russian Art, Minneapolis, MN 2005