"*LEBEDEV, VLADIMIR (1891-1967) A Girl with a Turkish Wrestler signed with initials Watercolour on paper, 33.5 by 25 cm. The watercolour A Girl with a Turkish Wrestler, unusually animated and containing a joyful erotic element, demonstrates that Vladimir Lebedev was not only a first-class portrait painter and book illustrator, but also a great master of small genre scenes. The inner freedom of Lebedev's works from the second half of the 1930s is striking. While Stalin's repressive system was tightening the screws, stifling any freedom of expression in all art forms, and especially in visual art, Lebedev remained an absolutely free, dazzling and inspiring figure whose existence in such a totalitarian society seems utterly astonishing and paradoxical. Despite harassment and difficulties with the conservative directors of the Academy of Arts, Lebedev succeeded brilliantly in concealing any negative elements from ""the viewer, expressing only joyful moments of simple human life."""""""