The Baker

Painted in 1909, 'The Baker' emerges from a pivotal moment in Mikhail Larionov's artistic evolution. Having returned from Paris in 1906, Larionov was moving beyond Impressionism into a bold Neo-primitive style that drew inspiration from Russian folk art and sign painting. This period saw him championing a distinctly Russian avant-garde—the same year, he co-founded the Knave of Diamonds group, which challenged academic conventions. The painting likely depicts an everyday working-class figure, a subject matter that aligned with Larionov's interest in the vitality of common Russian life and his fascination with the directness of folk imagery. Notice how the figure is rendered with a deliberate simplicity and flatness that echoes the visual language of lubok (Russian popular prints) and shop signs, giving the baker a monumental, iconic presence rather than academic realism.

This work predates Larionov's breakthrough invention of Rayonism in 1913 by several years, but you can already see his rejection of Western naturalism in favor of something more raw and immediate. The Neo-primitive approach he was developing—influenced by artists like Gauguin and the Georgian painter Niko Pirosmani—celebrated the expressive power of simplified forms and bold color. In choosing a baker as his subject, Larionov elevates an ordinary tradesman to the status of art, democratizing portraiture and anticipating the avant-garde's embrace of everyday life as worthy subject matter.