A virtuoso of light, Ivan Fedorovic Choultsé achieved enormous fame and recognition for his ability to capture the play of light with near-photographic clarity on a wide range of landscapes. He possessed an intuitive sense of color to produce vibrancy, and his striking compositions are widely considered to be the greatest snow scenes of all time. Choultsé was born in Petrograd, Russia in 1877. He studied painting with celebrated court miniaturist Constantin Krijitski His first exhibition was in 1903 at the in Petrograd. Following this noteworthy debut, he exhibited with great success at all of the major galleries in Moscow and Petrograd, and soon became the court painter to Czar Nicholas II. After the Russian Revolution, he immigrated to Paris, and in 1923, began exhibiting at the Salon des Artistes Français. Although Choultsé continued to paint Russian scenes while in Paris, he also undertook several trips to Switzerland's picturesque Engadine. There, he became fascinated with the mountainous landscape of the area surrounding St. Moritz, especially in the winter and it became the driving inspiration for his breathtaking snow scenes. Choultsé received numerous prizes for his work. He died in 1932.
