26. Saint George church in Babadag [1918]

Dimitar Radoikov is the heir of the painter from the city of Samokov, Vasil Pop Hristov Radoikov, who is the author of the icons in churches in Samokov, Sofia and their surroundings. Following in the footsteps of his father, Radoikov is directed towards artistic activity, but the themes in his work are mainly secular and not religious, although the wonderful testimonies such as icons and frescoes came from the hand of the artist. Radoikov was a student of Ivan Mrkvichka, who was at the foundations of the artist's knowledge of classical painting. During a large period of his life, Dimitar Radoikov was a drawing teacher, and his students are important artists such as Vasil Zahariev, Chudomir, Ivan Penkov, Iliya Petrov and others. Radoikov is not only an extremely good painter, but also a public figure. This is most evident in the period when he settled in the city Ruse (after 1911), where his name is associated not only as an artist, but also as one of the founders of the Ruse Art Gallery. Dimitar Radoikov was sent in the Balkans and in the First World War, when he created the work "Church of St. George in Babadag". The chuch "St. George" is Bulgarian and was built in 1857, reportedly made of stone and wood. After 1877, on the site of the previous stone church another building was built, which appperance is very close to the one that exists today, and where icons by the known painter Stansilav Dospevski can be seen. In the painting by Radoikov, the church resembles its original image from 1857, which we can locate (because of the label put by the author on the back of the painting) in the Babadag region - the administrative center of the territory of Dobrodgea during the Ottoman Empire, and not in Tulcea, where the present church "St. George" is. Most likely, with this gesture, the artist strives to preserve the memory of Bulgarian affairs related to historical Dobrodgea. (A.M.)"

Dimensions

width 37 cm, height 32.5 cm

Description

oil on canvas, signed and dated bottom right, in black, "Д. Радойков, 1918"

Lot.notes

exhibition label on back, "D. Radoykov, No. 30, St. George, Babadag, Dobodgea"

Dating

1918

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