Winter landscape with mallard ducks on the bank was executed by famous Russian-German animale and hunting painter Dimtri von Prokofiev or Prokofieff ( 1879 in Nikolajew, southern Ukraine - 1950 in Kevelaer, Germany). He was a painter from old Russian nobility. Germany became his second home. He was one of the most important hunting painters.

As a member of the Russian nobility, Prokofieff painted at the Tsar Court in St. Petersburg before the First World War. In the October Revolution, he fled west through the woods on foot and at night. He only boarded a train in Germany. From 1919 to 1945 he lived in Berlin. He loved the landscape of East Prussia. "He was gifted to be able to portray in his pictures the spaciousness, the originality, the harshness, the heroic of the landscape with its animal world and the special atmosphere, the aura of the East Prussian moose." As a passionate hunter, he won with his Trust in nature and affection of the German hunters. The International Hunting Exhibition in Berlin in 1937 honored him with the silver medal. The gold medal went to Bruno Liljefors.

His house and studio were destroyed in the battle for Berlin. Prokofieff had to flee for the second time. Penniless he came to West Germany, first to Bad Ems, then to Düsseldorf-Oberkassel, where he lived in a small penthouse. Rudolf Frhr. v. Loë took him in with him. There many of his best paintings came back to him. His friend Lutz Heck had saved her in Berlin. [2] Some of Prokofieff´s pictures hang in the East Prussian State Museum in Lüneburg. Woldemar von Collins (1910-1999) was a student of Prokofieff.

Literature: Thieme/Becker "Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künsler..", Leipzig, 1999; on-line wikipedia in Russian and German; Wilhelm Suckow: Der Maler Dimitri von Prokofieff. Geldrischer Heimatkalender 1956, p. 62.Rolf Brunk: Der Maler Prof. Dimitrij von Prokofieff. Die Neue Neudammerin, III/2006, p. 20–31.

Inscription: signed and dated (19)41 lower right.

Technique: oil on canvas. Old gallery frame.

Measurements: unframed w 23 3/4" x h 16" (60,5 x 40,5 cm); framed w 29" x h 21" (73,5 x 53,5 cm)

Condition: in very good condition.