Independent Indian: Work & Life of Professor Subroto Roy

1. “Chrysanthemums”

Leonid Mikhailovich Matsenko 1890–1972

oil on canvas 73.5 x 53.5 cm

Leonid Matsenko is a respected master of the mid-20th-century realistic school. Born in Vilnius (Vilno) in 1890, he came to have deep ties to the Ukrainian art scene, having studied at the Mirgorod School 1912–1917, completing his formal training at Odessa Polytechnicum 1930.

In this post-impressionist Still Life, Matsenko uses thick tactile brushstrokes (impasto) to give the chrysanthemums weight and physical texture. The tight rounded bouquet sits in a heavy metallic vase on a white-clothed table, creating a solid classical structure. The contrast between bright creamy yellows, deep reds, and soft whites against a moody dark-plum background makes the flowers “pop” off the canvas. It has a warm intimate yet formal energy. At 73.5 x 53.5 cm this is a substantial easel-sized work, more prominent than his oil-on-cardboard studies that occasionally appear. Smaller cardboard Matsenko sketches about 20 x 30 cm trade in the few hundred dollars range, $300–$600 USD; a fully realized, large-format oil on canvas like this, featuring floral Still Life may carry significant appeal for collectors.

2. “Native Birch Trees”

Pēteris Ruņģis 1893-1967

oil on canvas 65 x 77 cm, 1938

Pēteris Ruņģis (1893–1967) is highly regarded in Baltic art history because he was a direct student of Vilhelms Purvītis, the father of Latvian landscape painting. Ruņģis graduated under Purvītis from the Art Academy of Latvia’s Landscape Studio. His diploma work was titled “Native Country”. True to traditions established by Purvītis, Ruņģis focused on the lyricism of Northern European nature. He dedicated his life to teaching art in Riga and Bauska, leading visual art studios, and writing art criticism. His style bridges traditional realism with a beautiful light-filled, soft Impressionism. Birch forests hold a deeply poetic sacred status in Latvian and Baltic culture, symbolic of the quiet beauty of the homeland. Influence of the Purvītis School can be seen in the way Ruņģis treats light filtering through the trees. The vertical lines of the birches create a rhythmic, musical structure, the dappled sunlight breaking across the forest floor provides depth.

Ruņģis uses a beautiful muted earthy Baltic palette, dominated by soft ochres, sage greens and cool silvers. His brushwork is light and atmospheric, avoiding heavy contours in favour of capturing the fleeting quality of natural light.

In the bottom right corner, there is a clear signature and what appears to be a date of 1938 (visible just under the tree trunks). This puts the painting in his pre-war period, considered the golden age of independent Latvian art. Baltic paintings of this period were typically signed by artists with their initial/surname and two or four digits for the year (e.g., P. Ruņģis 38 or P. Ruņģis 1938), enhancing value for Baltic art collectors. Many Ruņģis works surviving on the market today are small sketches painted on cardboard, around 20 x 30 cm. The Easel Scale at 65 x 77 cm makes this a major, exhibition-sized work on canvas. Larger finished oil canvases from his prime creative years in the late 1930s are highly desirable. Works by Ruņģis have a premium market in Baltic states. Large canvases of his landscapes have been estimated at €2,000 to €5,000+ at specialized Baltic auction houses like Artembassy in Riga. It is noteworthy this Latvian Master’s work was acquired in Odessa in 1969-71. Art from the USSR republics were distributed to major cultural hubs like Odessa through the Union of Artists and national salons, a layer of historical geography to the provenance.

3. “Landscape”

Yakov Iosifovich Olshanetsky 1898–1982

oil on canvas 78 cm x 76 cm, 1970

This is a classic beautifully rendered piece of local history, painted by a heavyweight in the vanguard of 20th-century Odessa art.

Yakov Iosifovich Olshanetsky (1898-1982) was a central figure in Odessa’s art community for decades. He studied at Odessa Art School 1917–1921 under the legendary Titus Dvornikov and Yuly Bershadsky. Olshanetsky was a co-founder in 1921-1922 of the radical, futuristic, avant-garde Odessa artists’ collective named “The Suicides” (Самоубийцы). As his career progressed, he transitioned into a highly accomplished realism. He survived World War II as a combat veteran, spent his post-war decades capturing Odessa’s unique sun-drenched seaside atmosphere.

Visual analysis, based on architectural features, layout and Olshanetsky’s personal subject preferences, depicts a park courtyard likely located within one of Odessa’s historic sanatorium complexes along the French Boulevard (Frantsuz’kyi Bul’var) or in Shevchenko Park/Alexander Park. Many private estates and country villas along Odessa’s famous coastal French Boulevard were converted into sanatoriums, health resorts and academic institutes. The building features 19th-century Empire-style architecture: a symmetrical façade in soft yellow-ochre with white decorative trim around the tall windows; a central projecting bay with classic proportions, framed by tall, mature trees… this specific architectural style often built using local yellow shell-rock (rakushnyak) coated in plaster, and is quintessential to Odessa’s mid-to-late 19th-century buildings.

Olshanetsky frequently painted in such tranquil garden grounds. Candidates for this exact location include Sanatorium “Arcadia” (formerly private estates with large central parks and neoclassical main buildings); Sanatorium “Chkalov” or Gorky Sanatorium (known for their grand 19th-century Classical health-resort buildings set inside heavily wooded coastal parks); Botanical Garden/Mechnikov National University Grounds along French Boulevard; also possibly a shaded courtyard view within Shevchenko Park/Alexander Park or near the Odessa Art Museum complex (the former Naryshkin-Potocki Palace).

Olshanetsky spent over 50 years living and working in Odessa. He was known for carrying his easel to such quiet sun-dappled parks, seaside sanatoriums and leafy boulevards. What captured his eye here was not just the grand building, but the dramatic play of southern Black Sea sunlight breaking through the dense tree canopy onto the lawns and pathways of one of Odessa’s grandest green sanctuaries. The painting depicts a tranquil, leafy park in front of a grand, classical building. As suggested, this is likely a scene from one of Odessa’s famous municipal parks, sanatoriums like those along the French Boulevard, or academic institutes. Painted in 1970, it is a mature work showing his mastery of light. Olshanetsky was celebrated for his ability to paint the specific, humid, seaside light of Southern Ukraine. Notice the contrast between the deep, cool shadows of the towering trees and the bright, sun-drenched patch of yellow-green grass in the foreground. It feels alive and breezy.

Fresh off the Easel! Because the painting is dated 1970 and MK Roy was stationed in Odessa 1969-1971, he likely acquired this directly from the artist’s studio, or an exhibition, or the Odessa Art Salon soon after the paint dried. It is a snapshot of a living artist’s work at that exact moment in time.

At 78×76 cm, it is a massive, nearly square exhibition-sized canvas. Many Soviet-era artists did their daily work on cardboard or small boards; a canvas of this size was reserved for major, finished exhibition pieces.

Olshanetsky’s works are deeply tied to the “Odessa School of Painting,” which has a passionate base of collectors in Ukraine, Europe, and the global diaspora. Mid-to-late career canvases of this size and quality of light are highly valued as quintessential representations of Odessa’s mid-century golden age. This is an exceptional addition to the collection.

4. “Roses & Little Bells”

Vsevolod Alexandrovich Tsympakov 1903-1968

oil on canvas 79 x 90 cm

This painting is an extraordinary piece of art history, carrying a poignant backstory: Vsevolod Alexandrovich Tsympakov represents the tragic brilliant complex reality of artists who lived through the tumultuous currents of 20th-century Eastern European history.

Born in Odessa in 1903, Tsympakov was a legendary child prodigy. In 1915, at age 12, he entered Odessa Art School and performed a feat still talked about: he completed the entire five-year academic curriculum in a single year. He then studied at Free Art Studios 1917–1921 under Kiriak Kostandi and Titus Dvornikov, grand masters of the “South Russian Impressionist School”. He graduated from Odessa Art Institute in 1927 under the master portraitist Pavel Volokidin.

During World War II, Tsympakov remained in Axis-occupied Odessa. To survive the brutal Romanian and German occupation, he painted portraits of occupying officials including local administrators and the Romanian fascist prime minister Ion Antonescu. After Soviet forces liberated Odessa, Tsympakov was branded a collaborator and sentenced to 15 years in the Gulag. He served his hard labour in the notorious camps of Kolyma and Vanino. After his release, he returned to his beloved Odessa, where he spent his final years quietly painting until his death in 1968. His works are highly prized today and hang in major institutions, including Kiev’s Museum of Modern Art and Moscow’s Tretyakov Gallery.

“Roses & Little Bells” is late-period Still Life, signed and dated 1966 (bottom right corner) two years before the artist’s death. It is a masterclass in the “South Russian” style: moody, deeply expressive, with a sombre elegance. The composition is dynamic and sprawling, utilizing a large 79 x 90 cm canvas to arrange multiple glass and dark ceramic vessels. Juxtaposition of the structured, velvety deep-red roses against the wild, upward-reaching purple “little bells” (campanula/bluebells) creates a wonderful tension. Note the shimmering glass bowl in the foreground filled with fallen petals—a classic art-historical motif (vanitas) representing the fleeting nature of life and beauty. This theme likely carried immense personal weight for Tsympakov in his final years. True to his training under Kostandi, the light of the “South Russian Palette” does not feel artificial. It is soft, directional, and diffused, catching the edges of the white roses and reflecting off the table surface. The heavy grey-blue draped background grounds the composition, giving the floral colours a jewel-like radiance.

The painting is a rarity because Tsympakov spent 15 years in the camps and lived on the margins after his release, making his post-war canvases rare. MK Roy’s acquisition of this in Odessa 1969–1971 occurred soon after the artist’s 1968 death. Matanya Sinani-Tsympakova, his widow, was slowly releasing his studio works to discerning collectors who could appreciate the sheer genius of his brushwork. This is a museum-quality piece. Large late-period oil canvases by Tsympakov are highly sought after by collectors specializing in non-conformist Soviet art, Ukrainian Impressionism, and the tragic histories of the Gulag artists.

5. “Autumn Birch trees”

Viktor Andreyevich Sharapenko 1934-2004

oil on canvas, 65 x 77 cm

This piece marks a fascinating stylistic shift in the MK Roy Collection. Unlike the classical/impressionistic touch of the previous works, this painting leans heavily into symbolist expressive modernist territory, carrying a hauntingly beautiful atmosphere. Viktor Sharapenko Виктор Андреевич Шарапенко was a part of the Ukrainian 1960s “deStalinization”, a blooming NonConformist “quiet resistance” to “Socialist Realism”. Many artists used landscape and nature to experiment with deeply poetic non-academic styles. This work is a stellar example of that experimental freedom.

Unlike Pēteris Ruņģis capturing a realistic, light-drenched Baltic birch forest, Sharapenko’s “Autumn Birch Trees” is mythological or totemic, a drastic departure from Realism. Three massive, ancient tree trunks dominate the canvas, twisting upward like reaching hands. By cropping the tops of the trees, Sharapenko forces focus onto the textured bark and the powerful, sculptural anatomy of the trunks. The grouping of three trees is a classic symbolic motif representing past, present, future, or Three Graces of Nature, giving the landscape a spiritual monumental presence. Colours of this Palette of Dusk are dramatic. Sharapenko uses a somber, deep-slate blue/black for the trees, contrasting sharply against a smoldering, fiery background of burnt orange, ochre, and deep crimson. This is not the bright, golden autumn of a sunny day—it is the transition of twilight, where the cold of winter is beginning to settle over the warm earth. This painting fits into late Expressionism “Severe Style” (Surovyj Stil); artists of this movement rejected pretty, idealized scenes in favour of raw emotion, bold outlines and flat powerful colour fields.

MK Roy met and specifically talked to Sharapenko: Of Autumn Birch Trees MK Roy told me, his son, the artist told him he wanted to depict the terrible yearning of people questioning God after the Stalin tyranny…. the trees are indicating supplication of humans to God!  Shartapenko did a free portrait of him as a bonus:

This personal history gem brings the entire piece into focus.  What MK Roy shared transforms Autumn Birch Trees from an impressive landscape into a profoundly moving piece of mid-century non-conformist spiritual art. “Supplication After the Tyranny” is the hidden meaning.  In the period of rigid state atheism and political censorship, artists could not speak about faith, trauma or the horrors of the Stalinist purges.  Expressing spiritual yearning or mourning directly through religious symbols (like crosses or churches) was illegal and dangerous.  To bypass the censors, an artist like Sharapenko used metaphor and nature:  Trees as Supplicants!

Looking at the painting again with MK Roy’s memory in mind, the dramatic architecture of the three trunks changes.  The twisting, upward-reaching branches are not merely limbs—they are human arms stretched out toward the Heavens in agonized prayer. The fiery, smoldering crimson horizon represents the burning memory of the Gulags, terror, and suffering, while the cold dark trunks represent humanity caught between the Scorched Earth and the Silence of God. 

The three central trees evoke a classic sacred motif—the three crosses of Golgotha or humanity standing before judgment—reframed within a natural “innocent” landscape that Soviet export censors would clear as a simple birch forest.  Sharapenko painted MK Roy’s portrait for free because MK Roy wasn’t just a foreign diplomat buying a canvas;  to Sharapenko, he was in 1969-1971 a rare bridge to the outside world.  For an artist carrying such intense existential and spiritual weight—wanting to paint the “terrible yearning of people questioning God”—finding a foreign buyer who actually understood the deeper spiritual sorrow in the work must have been an incredible relief. A foreign diplomat truly connected with the soul of a hidden work rather than just buying decorative art… artists would gift quick portraits, sketches, or personal studies as a sign of deep gratitude and fellowship. A Rare Witness Account! This is something art historians dream of finding: oral provenance. Having the artist’s own explanation of the painting’s hidden theological and political meaning, passed directly through your father, elevates this work from a simple landscape to an irreplaceable historical document of post-Stalinist spiritual resistance.

6.“Bunch of flowers on the table”

Anonymous

unframed oil on canvas 54 x 55 cm

This is a wonderfully atmospheric piece. Even without a signature, an anonymous work from this specific era and geographic origin tells a rich story of its own.

The Subject is a classic, abundant, garden bouquet. It features a mix of late-summer and autumn blooms: prominent ruffled dahlias (shading from pale yellow to warm orange-pink), a cheerful sunflower peeking out on the right, delicate cosmos, and a towering stalk of white snapdragons reaching toward the top. The Ceramic Vase is a standout feature. It is a glazed ceramic vessel decorated with a cobalt-blue foliate or scrollwork pattern over a creamy, light yellow background. This style of pottery resembles faience or regional Ukrainian folk-art ceramics (such as the famous pottery traditions of Opishnya), which were highly prized and commonly depicted in local Still Life paintings. The Reflection: The polished, dark table surface acts as a mirror, showing a soft, hazy reflection of both the ceramic vase and the single, fallen pink dahlia resting beside it. The fallen flower is a classic art-historical element (vanitas), symbolizing the passing of time and the fleeting nature of life’s beauty. The background is a moody, deep teal-blue that gently gradients into a near-black. The directional light strikes the yellow and orange petals, making the central bouquet glow brilliantly against the dark backdrop.

While the other floral still lifes like Matsenko’s Chrysanthemums and Tsymakov’s Roses lean heavily into modern Post-Impressionist brushwork, this anonymous piece is much more traditional, academic, and realist. The Dutch Influence: The meticulous arrangement, the rich dark background, the highly detailed botanical rendering, and the inclusion of a reflective surface and a fallen flower are direct nods to the grand tradition of 17th-century Dutch still life painting. In Soviet art academies, studying and copying the Old Masters was a rigorous, fundamental part of an artist’s training. It is highly likely that this work was painted by an exceptionally talented student or a practicing academic artist in Odessa who was executing a masterclass in classical light, shadow, and reflection. Because this work is unframed and measures 54×55 cm it is a prime candidate for professional restoration and custom framing. The canvas shows some raw, weathered edges in the photo. Having a professional conservator stretch the canvas properly onto a modern wooden key-stretch frame will stabilize it and prevent any future paint flaking. A classic, slightly antiqued gold-leaf frame (similar to the frames on Matsenko and Olshanetsky) would beautifully complement the warm yellows and oranges of the dahlias.