Vassiliy Petrovich Kossenkov takes his place among other renowned Soviet landscape painters such as Efrem I. Zverkov, Nikolai Efimovich Timkov, Vladimir Y. Yukin, and Vladimir Fedorovich Tokarev.  These masters are brought together by openness, simplicity and delicacy.  The emotional intensity of their paintings is rooted in their tender allegiance to their native land. Kossenkov was born in 1919 in the Smolenski Russian Region, or “Smolenshchina.”  His father, who was a master carpenter and well-educated man, taught Kossenkov from childhood a great appreciation for art and beauty.  He remained close to nature throughout his life, and traveled extensively throughout Russia, painting on location in all seasons and weather conditions. In 1937…