Russian
and Soviet graphic artist, book illustrator and fine arts expert.
In
1902, after finishing school in Yeisk, he enrolled at the Moscow School of Painting,
Sculpture and Architecture – the alma mater of Alexander Vasnetsov and Alexey
Stepanov; however as it did not have a book graphics department, in 1904,he
joined the Stroganov school. He studied water colour painting under Sergey
Yaguzhinsky and drawing under Stanislav Noakovsky. In 1904, he became a member
of the Murava ceramists association.
In
1905, he went to Paris where he studied drawing for two years under Eugene
Grasset and Theophile Steinlen at the Academie
de la Grande Chaumiere. While in Paris, he became fiends with S. P.
Yaremich, met Elizaveta Kruglikova and sculptor Eduard Wittig. Returning to
Russia, he took up residence in St. Petersburg. He illustrated children’s books
for Iosif Knebel’s publishing house (1912-1914) and collaborated with a number
of magazines - Satiricon (1913-1914),
Novy Satiricon (till 1917), Lukomorye (1914-1917) and Apollon, among others.
In
1916, he joined the Mir Iskusstva
[“The World of Art”] Society and took up a job with the Russian Museum as
custodian of the Drawing and Etching Section which he held from 1919 to 1923.
From 1919 to 1923, he was professor at the Higher Institute for Photography and
Photographic Technique, and from 1924 to 1934 –professor at the Printing
Department with VKHUTEIN (the Higher
Art and Technical Institute) teaching a book graphics course.
He
worked in a variety of graphic techniques: xylography (1923–1934), etching and
dry-point on metal (1927–1951), lithography (1928–1934), linoleum engraving,
water colours and coloured pencil. The artist created numerous graphic series –
the “North Dvina” drawings and prints (1927), “Six Linocuts coloured by the
Author” (1928), Yeisk drawing and prints series (the 1930s), watercolour series
“Leningrad during the Great Patriotic War” (1941), linocuts series “Leningrad
landscapes” (1935-1941). In 1944, he moved to Moscow where he resumed his book
graphics work (till the 1960s), worked in engraving and participated in
numerous exhibitions.
