Serge Charchoune was a French-Russian painter known for his use of delicate color gradations in depicting forms. Throughout his career, Charchoune evaded being grouped into any one style, instead he undulated between Cubism, abstraction, and representational painting. “Whereas I paint today on the inspiration of musical experiences, I might, on seeing pretty girls by the Seine, start painting that experience,” he once said. Born on August 16, 1888 in Buguruslan, Russia, he attended the Moscow Academy of Art before moving to Paris in 1912. Here, he studied under Henri Le Fauconnier at the Académie de la Palette and fell into a milieu which included Marie Laurencin and Albert Gleizes. In the early 1920s, Charchoune aligned himself with the Dadaists and began exhibiting in both Paris and Berlin. Despite being haunted by the desire to go back to his native country, he never returned to Russia. Over the following decades, his works developed the muted lyricism of form and color for which he is best remembered. Charchoune died on November 24, 1975 in Villeneuve-Saint-Georges, France. Today, the artist’s works are held in the collections of the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, The Museum of Modern Art in New York, and the Moscow Museum of Modern Art, among others.