Russian Personalities

People well-known in art, sport, film, fashion

Category Archive: Art and literature

Sergey Prokudin-Gorsky – Russian photographer

Prokudin-Gorsky

Sergey Prokudin-Gorsky – Russian photographer


Sergey Prokudin-Gorsky was a Russian photographer, chemist (pupil of Mendeleev), inventor, publisher, educator. By the way, he was a member of the Imperial Russian Geographical, Imperial Russian Technical and Russian Photographic Societies. He made a significant contribution to the development of photography and cinematography.
To tell the truth he was a pioneer of color photography in Russia, the creator of the Collections of Sights of the Russian Empire.
This man devoted his entire scientific talent and tireless energy to one ambitious goal. He wanted to show the beauty and richness of the great country, which was called the Russian Empire, “in natural colors”.
The boy was born on August 30, 1863 into the family of Russian nobility. Prokudin-Gorsky studied chemistry under Dmitri Mendeleev in the Saint Petersburg State Institute of Technology. Also he studied music and painting at the Imperial Academy of Arts.
In 1889, he went to Berlin, where studied at the Technical University.
A year later, in 1890, he married Anna Aleksandrovna Lavrova (1870-1937), the daughter of a Russian metal expert.
In 1901, Prokudin-Gorsky established a photography studio and laboratory in Saint Petersburg.
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Konstantin Flavitsky – Russian painter

Konstantin Flavitsky

Konstantin Flavitsky – Russian painter


Konstantin Flavitsky (1830 – 1866) was a Russian painter.
Talented artist, delicate and sensitive, who believed in the triumph of justice, died of tuberculosis shortly after the creation of his the most striking masterpiece Princess Tarakanova. The painting, officially recognized as the most famous masterpiece of Flavitsky, based on the legend of the death of Yelizaveta Tarakanova in the prison during the flood of 1777 in Saint Petersburg.
Painting Princess Tarakanova became the swan song of the artist. He died at the age of 35.
Flavitsky’s difficult fate contributed to the realization of his brilliant talent. At the age of 9 he became an orphan and was sent to a foundling hospital for poor children. There he showed his extraordinary ability to draw. Konstantin’s uncle, an architect, was impressed by his works and gave 17-years-old boy a roof over the head. Young painter entered the Imperial Academy of Arts and left his relatives. You know, Konstantin worked very hard forgetting about himself. No wonder he looked much older at his photos.
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Karl Faberge – incomparable genius

Karl Faberge

Karl Faberge – incomparable genius


Karl Faberge was a Russian jeweler, best known for the famous Imperial Easter eggs or Faberge eggs, made of precious metals and gemstones. In 1842, Faberge Sr. founded a jewelry company in St. Petersburg.
Karl was born on May 30, 1846 in St. Petersburg, Russia. The boy studied in Dresden, and then Frankfurt master Josef Friedman became his teacher. Later he returned to Russia and at the age of 24 Karl became the head of his father’s company.
In 1882, at the All-Russian Art and Industrial Exhibition in Moscow, his company’s products attracted the attention of Emperor Alexander III. The talented master received the patronage of the royal family and the title of Jeweler of His Imperial Majesty and Jeweler of the Imperial Hermitage.
Faberge was famous in Europe. Many relatives of the imperial family in the UK, Denmark, Greece and Bulgaria received the products as a gift. In 1900, Faberge received the title of Master of the Paris Guild of Jewelers, and was awarded the Order of the Honorary Legion.
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Nadia Sablin – photo project Two Sisters

Nadia Sablin's photo project "Two Sisters"

Nadia Sablin’s photo project Two Sisters

Nadia Sablin was born in 1980 in the Soviet Union but in the 90th her family emigrated to America.
Sablin received her Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Arizona. Now she lives and works in Brooklyn, New York, and St. Petersburg, Russia. Her works are exhibited in Griffin Museum of Photography, Wall Space Gallery. Also they are in the permanent collections of the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Museum of Art in Cleveland.
In 2011, Nadia was among the winners of the Magenta Flash Forward for young photographers. By the way, she received a Puffin Foundation grant for her photo project about two sisters.
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Lev Tolstoy – prominent Russian writer

Ilya Efimovich Repin. Lev Tolstoy

Ilya Efimovich Repin. Lev Tolstoy

Lev Tolstoy is one of the world’s greatest novelists. He is best known for two long novels, War and Peace (1869) and Anna Karenina (1877).
By the way, he was the first who refused the copyright, was an opponent of the state system, and rejected religious authority. Moreover, he refused the Nobel Prize, hated money and took the side of the peasants.
Lev had left for us 165,000 sheets of manuscripts, 10,000 letters and 90 volumes of his works.
Throughout his life he was searching for the meaning of life and happiness that he had found in the simple word – good.
The boy was born on September 9, 1828 in Yasnaya Polyana, Tula region, into the well-known family of old Russian nobility. He was the fourth of five children. When the parents died, young Lev and his siblings were brought up by relatives.
In 1851, he along with his elder brother went to the Caucasus and joined the army. And in 1855–56 Tolstoy wrote Sevastapol Sketches, three short stories which tells about his years as a second lieutenant during the Crimean War.
Actually, Tolstoy went abroad twice (in 1857 and 1860-1861) to study Western methods of education. He came to the conclusion that the Russian education was fundamentally wrong, especially the education of the peasantry. So Tolstoy established a school for peasant children in Yasnaya Polyana. The school was based on the principles Tolstoy described in his 1862 essay The School at Yasnaya Polyana. It was the first example of a democratic education.
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Erik Bulatov – Soviet painter

Erik Bulatov

Erik Bulatov – Soviet painter


Erik Bulatov is one of the most famous contemporary Russian artists. He is one of the founders of social art.
The boy was born on September 5, 1933 in Sverdlovsk (now Yekaterinburg). His father, a communist, died during World War II in Pskov.
In 1958 Bulatov graduated from the Moscow State Art Institute named after Surikov. Since 1959 he had worked in children’s publishing house Detgiz.
You know, in 1957, Erik began to exhibit his paintings in Moscow and in 1973 his pictures appeared abroad.
Since 1992 Erik lives and works mainly in Paris.
In the 1960s Bulatov formed the Sretensky Boulevard Group. It was an association of like-minded artists where they could discuss and show their work. Today it is known as the Moscow School of contemporary Russian art.
In an extremely accessible way the artist illustrated the absurdity of reality, oversaturated with the symbolism of Soviet propaganda.
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Igor Kio – Russian illusionist

Igor Kio

Igor Kio – Russian illusionist


Igor Kio was a famous Russian illusionist, a member of the International Brotherhood of Magicians. By the way, he won numerous awards including People’s Artist of the Russian Federation. To tell the truth, Igor remains the only illusionist to be awarded an Oscar (Belgium) for best artist.
The boy was born on March 13, 1944 into a family of circus performers. His father was another noted Russian magician Emil Kio. In his childhood he was engaged in football, but at the insistence of his parents he continued the circus dynasty.
At the age of 5 Igor began appearing in front of audiences. And at the age of 15, he was working as a magician. His debut as an independent artist happened in 1959 in the arena of the Moscow Circus, when he replaced the sick father. Subsequently, until his father’s death, he acted with him as an assistant.
Kio often performed on television, including an annual New Year’s Day program in the 1980s, which brought together pop music, theater and film stars.
In 1982, 1983 and 1984, together with Russian star Alla Pugacheva, Igor was a host of a circus show Attraction.
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