The work of Nikolai Dronnikov combines a nostalgia for the Russia of his past and an admiration for post-impressionist European painters – especially Matisse and Van Gogh.

His move to Europe in the early 1970s was partly provoked by the authorities’ disdain for his ‘Russian Landscapes’, in which the artist dared to  foreground churches and places of worship in architectural settings.

A resident of Paris since 1975, he is nevertheless a champion of Russian painting, described as “the most Russian of French and the most French of Russian artists”.

As well as his portraits of dissidents, masterpieces of character sketched in a few bold strokes, his landscapes and cityscapes – of Moscow, Paris and Italy – are full of energy and character.