Ivan Gregorovitch Olinsky
Ivan Olinsky came to the United States from Russia when he was thirteen years old. His family settled in New York City, and several years later Ivan entered the National Academy of Design. He excelled at mural painting, and in 1900 the prominent artist John La Farge hired him as an assistant. For the next eight years Olinskys own work took a backseat to this role. As he turned thirty, he longed to establish himself as a serious artist in his own right, and he moved with his wife and daughter to Italy so that he could concentrate on his career. When he returned to New York in 1910, critics praised his new work and the distinguished Macbeth Gallery agreed to represent him. From that time on Olinsky built a successful career as a portraitist, and his idealized paintings of women were especially popular. (Cummings, Olinsky, Faces of Change: The Art of Ivan G. Olinsky, 1878-1962
