◧ Artist: Vladimir Kostetsky (1905-1968)
◧ Country: Russia/Ukraine
◧ Title: [Return]
◧ Medium: Oil painting on canvas
◧ Museum: National Art Museum of Ukraine
◧ Country of Stamp Issue: Russia◧ Date of Issue: November 15, 1979
◧ Face Value: 10 Russian Kopek
◧ Issued as a part of Fine Arts of Ukraine series
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[Return] was painted in 1947 after World War II. Russia, then-the Soviet Union, alone lost around 27 million people during the war, including 8.7 million military and 19 million civilian deaths.
[Return] was presented at the Stalin Prize, but Stalin did not like it. It was already bad that Kostetsky did not paint a single portrait of the leader. By his totalitarian standards, the [Return] was devoid of heroic pathos and it was too personal in nature because the artist depicted the scene of his own arrival from the front on vacation at the artist’s apartment in Kiev. However, people loved this simple painting, bought up postcards and stamps on which it was reproduced many times.
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