1907 - 1988
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Irène Klestova was born on March 13, 1907 in Saratov, Russia. She continued her studies in a private school of F. I. Rerberg in Moscow. In 1925, she emigrated to Western Europe. In 1925-1926, she took courses at the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome.
In Venice, Irène Klestova met the painter Lev Tchistovsky who became her husband. In 1926, they moved to Paris in the Montparnasse district.
In the 1930s, she and her husband left Paris for Cénevières, a small town in southwestern France, where she began to cultivate the orchids that served as her models.
Klestova’s nudes, landscapes, portraits and still lifes are performed in the academic style. Most famous are her still lifes with roses, peonies, lilies, orchids and dahlias.
Klestova was a member of the National Society of Fine Arts and a member of the Salon des Indépendants.
In 1931, she participated in the exhibition of painters of “The Union of Russians graduates of foreign colleges”. Between 1935 and 1975, she exhibited at the Salon des Indépendants, the Salon de Meudon (1945), the Salon du Printemps (1947, 1948), the Salon de l’Art libre (1947, 1948) as well as in numerous exhibitions in Great Britain and the United States.
Some of her paintings are presented in the book by American painter Walter T. Foster “How to draw and paint flowers”. This book was translated into several languages.
The paintings of this artist are part of the collection of the Musée de Beaux-Arts de Villefranche-de-Rouergue, that of the castle of Cénevières as well as public and private British and American galleries.
Irène Klestova died on January 18, 1988 in Paris. She is buried next to her husband in Cénevières