500 - Mikhail Yurievich Alekseev (Алексеев Михаил Юрьевич), Portrait of Claudia Schiffer (Портрет Клаудии Шиффер), oil painting from 1995, framed

Mikhail Yurievich Alekseev (Алексеев Михаил Юрьевич), Portrait of Claudia Schiffer (Портрет Клаудии Шиффер), oil painting from 1995, framed Mikhail Yurievich Alekseev, 1927-1999, Russian artist and illustrator, shown here: Claudia Schiffer with a fan against a cityscape, oil on canvas, 70 x 55 cm, signed on the reverse, inscribed and dated 1995, framed. The painting was created to mark the 1995 Russian parliamentary elections, during which Claudia Schiffer appeared at a fashion show organised by the ‘Our Home Russia’ party (supported by the ruling elite of the time) near Red Square in Moscow, in order to demonstrate a Western orientation. In Russia during the 1990s, Claudia Schiffer symbolised Western glamour, luxury and a longing for the big wide world. As a global fashion icon, she epitomised the sudden influx of Western consumer culture after the country had opened up following the collapse of the Soviet Union. About the artist: From 1946 to 1952, Alekseev Mikhail Yurievich studied at the S. A. Gerasimov State Institute of Cinematography. From 1952, he worked at the Soyuzmultfilm film studio. He became known as a production designer for the successful Russian film *Orange Neck* and, as in this work, for his portraits of Western celebrities