Alexander Rusakov?1898-1952

“I first met Alexander Isaakovich Rusakov in 1952 when his son, Yuri (my future husband and – as was I at the time – a recent graduate from the Art History Faculty at the Academy of Arts) took me to the house on the Petrograd side of St Petersburg (then Leningrad) where his family had lived for many years. I was somewhat apprehensive of this visit, all the more so because Yuri had told me that his father – a marvellous painter, of whom I knew nothing – was, like all ‘alternative artists’, summarily ignored by our history and the Academy.

Yet here for the first time I became acquainted with the marvellous examples of his art, his townscapes, yachts on the Neva, streets and courtyards. Sadly, I was o...