Take a look in the eyes of these women and girls in the paintings, and you will see a real master behind the canvas. Khariton Platonov has never become worldly famous, but his paintings certainly deserve the highest evaluation.

Platonov was born into a peasant family in a Russian province. All we know about his life is that he studied at the Imperial Academy in St. Petersburg (1859-1870), participated in exhibitions in Kharkov, Odessa and Ekaterinoslav, then (in 1887-1888) in Odessa, Riga, Kiev and Kazan. In 1879, he moved from St. Petersburg to Kiev, where he taught at Murashko School of Drawing (1880-1900) and assisted in the organization of the Kiev Art School, where he taught until his death.

The people in his paintings are mostly young children or beautiful women who he used to know though his life. Most of them were simple people, but every painting has its mood and is so masterfully painted!