Nicolai Fechin (Nikolai Ivanovich Feshin; Russian: Николай Иванович Фешин; 26 November 1881 – 5 October 1955) was a Russian-American painter known for his portraits and works featuring Native Americans.

[2] After graduating with the highest marks from the Imperial Academy of Arts and traveling in Europe under a Prix de Rome, he returned to his native Kazan, where he taught and painted.

After immigrating with his family to New York in 1923 and working there for a few years, Fechin developed tuberculosis and moved West for a drier climate.

[3] In 1909 Fechin graduated with the highest grade possible, and his final competitive canvas won him the Prix de Rome.

Fechin was invited to show his work at an international exhibition at the Carnegie Institute in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1910.

The social disruption and widespread deprivation after the Russian Revolution made life difficult, and Fechin's parents died of typhoid fever.

His patrons Stimmel and Jack Hunter, also John Burnham, the notable architect and a major collector of his work, helped Fechin and his family leave Russia.

Some of his more renowned subjects are Frieda Lawrence, Douglas MacArthur, Anna May Wong, Ella Young, Willa Cather, Mabel Dodge Luhan, Rebecca Salsbury James, Ariadna Mikeshina, David Burliuk, Nikolai Evreinov, and Lillian Gish.

At the Academy he had worked with other materials as well, but he was impatient about the processes of constructing armatures and going through seemingly endless casting cycles.

Fechin traveled west and in 1927 eventually settled with his family in Taos, New Mexico, which was developing as an arts center.

[3] A variety of Fechin's works in a range of genres can be seen at his former home, as part of the collection of the Taos Art Museum.

After New York, he traveled to Southern California, Mexico, Japan, and the Pacific Islands of Java and Bali.

Soon he bought a spacious house in Hollywood, but in 1948 sold it and moved into a studio in Rustic Canyon in Santa Monica.

[3] The Russian artist Sergei Bongart bought the Rustic Canyon studio where Fechin had lived and painted there until his own death later in 1985.

A number of artworks, along with his working table and easel, are on display at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum.