Niko Pirosmani, White Bear with Cubs Postcard

Artist: Niko Pirosmani - White Bear with Her Cubs. Oil painting. This is a largely monochrome, black-and-white image of a white bear and her two cubs, seemingly in the snow on a winter night. Niko Pirosmani was a primitivist artist from Eurasian Georgia in the late 19th and early 20th century who specialized in rustic, everyday scenes of rural life. A self-taught painter, many of his works depict merchants, shopkeepers, workmen, and noblemen. He was also fond of nature and often made paintings of animals. Coming from a poor background, Pirosmani continued to work many ordinary jobs to support his family, and he struggled to gain artistic recognition during his lifetime. He died in poverty during the 1918 flu pandemic, but his posthumous reputation grew immensely as he became admired internationally for his "naive" aesthetic and depictions of Georgian life in that era. His work has been exhibited around the world, and a monument stands in his honor in the Georgian capital of Tbilisi.