Artist: Leonid Mikhailovich Stil, also known as Leonid Steele

Russian name: Леонид Михайлович Стиль

Title: Tracks / Следы

Medium: Oil on canvas

Period: Soviet period, exact year unknown

Origin: Ukrainian SSR / former Soviet Union

Framing: Framed

Visible image size: approximately 15 × 18 cm / 5.9 × 7.1 in

Size recorded on the reverse: approximately 16.5 × 19.5 cm / 6.5 × 7.7 in

Framed size: approximately 35.3 × 38.7 × 8.5 cm / 13.9 × 15.2 × 3.3 in

The reverse retains an original Soviet export salon label identifying the artist as “Стиль Л. М.,” the title as “Следы,” the technique as oil on canvas, and the approximate dimensions. A “Made in USSR” export label and vintage Japanese Art Salon Kanaya / Soviet Contemporary Painting labels are also present.

No signature is visible on the front. The attribution and title are based on the original labels attached to the reverse.

Condition

The painting shows age-related surface wear and visible linear cracking, including a horizontal crack across the lower portion. Small areas of paint loss or lifting may also be present. There are minor spots, discoloration and surface dirt consistent with age.

The ornate gilt frame has scratches, scuffs, dirt, small chips, finish losses and areas where the reddish underlayer is visible. The work has not been examined outside the frame or inspected by a professional conservator.

Please examine all photographs carefully, as they form an important part of the condition description.

Comment

This restrained winter landscape is built from subtle shades of white, blue-gray and muted earth colors. A dark-topped tree stump forms the central visual anchor, while the surrounding depressions and tracks suggest the recent passage of an unseen person or animal.

Rather than depicting a specific event, the painting evokes silence, absence and memory through the traces left in the snow. Its sparse composition combines Soviet realist training with the atmospheric, painterly qualities often associated with lyrical Soviet realism and Soviet Impressionism.

The surviving USSR export and Japanese gallery labels provide particularly interesting documentation of the work’s journey from the Soviet art-export system to the Japanese market.

Leonid Stil was born in 1921 in Lebedyn, in present-day Ukraine. He studied at the Kharkiv Art Institute and later graduated from the Repin Institute in Leningrad. His name is also transliterated as Leonid Steele. Later biographical sources record his death in 2014, although some older auction databases list 1999.