Russian Personalities

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

Category Archive: Art and literature

Western stars who have family with Russian girls

Tomas N'evergreen and Valeria Zhidkova

Western stars who have family with Russian girls. Tomas N’evergreen and Valeria Zhidkova


“Russian women are the most beautiful in the world”, a lot of men say.
So, for centuries many celebrities have chosen Russian beauties as their girlfriends, wives and muses. Salvador Dali, Pablo Picasso, Romain Rolland and many other geniuses were in love with charming women from Russia.
On September 24 popular Danish singer Tomas N’evergreen married Russian actress and singer Valeria Zhidkova. Their wedding was luxurious. There were more than a hundred stars among the guests.
Let’s see who else from the bright stars prefer to marry Russian beauties.
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Vasily Surikov – master of historical paintings

Vasily Surikov – master of historical paintings

Vasily Surikov – master of historical paintings


Vasily Surikov was a great Russian painter, master of large-scale historical paintings.
The boy was born on January 12 (24), 1848 in Krasnoyarsk. His father Ivan Vasilievich Surikov worked as a collegiate registrar and his mother Praskovya Fyodorovna Torshina was a housewife. You know, the boy began to draw at an early age. Nikolai Grebenev was his first teacher. Actually, one of his earliest work was watercolor Rafts on the Yenisei (1862). Now the picture is in the museum-estate of V. Surikov in Krasnoyarsk.
His father died because of tuberculosis. The family owned a two-story house in those years and due to lack of money Praskovya Fyodorovna decided to lease the second floor for income.
After school Surikov found a job as clerk in the provincial administration, because the family had no money to continue his education in high school. While working in the provincial administration Surikov’s works were noticed by Yenisei governor P.N. Zamyatin. The governor found a patron – Peter Kuznetsov, who paid for Surikov’s studying at the Academy of Arts.
On December 11, 1868 Surikov went to St Petersburg but he couldn’t enter the Academy, and in May-July 1869 he studied at the St. Petersburg School of Drawing Society for the Encouragement of Artists. In the autumn of 1869 Vasily passed his exams and became a volunteer at the Academy of Arts, and a year later he became a pupil.
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Nikolai Sapunov – Russian painter

P.V. Kuznetsov. Portrait of Nikolai Sapunov. 1914-1915. State Tretyakov Gallery

P.V. Kuznetsov. Portrait of Nikolai Sapunov. 1914-1915. State Tretyakov Gallery


Nikolai Sapunov was a painter, one of the best set designers in the history of Russian theater. You know, he was a member of several associations, including the Moscow Association of Artists, Scarlet and Blue Rose, World of Art. Also Sapunov is known for a large cycle of still lifes. To tell the truth, he was one of the brightest and original figures in Russian art of the twentieth century.
Nikolai was born on December 17, 1880 in Moscow into a wealthy merchant family. His father died when the future artist was 12 years old.
The boy studied at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, where his teachers were Isaak Levitan, Konstantin Korovin, Valentin Serov.
The first works the artist demonstrated in May-June 1904 at the exhibition The Scarlet Rose – the only exhibition of the eponymous group of artists. M. Vrubel and V. E. Borisov-Musatov were invited as honorary participants.
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Dionysius the Wise – icon painter

Dionysius. Mother of God Hodigitria, 1502-1503

Dionysius. Mother of God Hodigitria, 1502-1503


Dionysius was one of the last Medieval Old Masters of Russian art. Sources in which Dionysius is mentioned are full of admiration for his wisdom and talent. You know, he was last of the greatest icon painters of Ancient Russia, the representative of the Golden Age of Russian icon painting.
According to some sources the artist was born in the 1440s.
Dionysius experimented with balance and composition. His earliest recorded works were the wall-paintings in the church of the Parfuntiev Monastery at Borovsk. He was employed there as assistant to the painter Mitrofan.
The artist was called to Moscow by John III and became the leading figure of the early Moscow school of painting at the end of the 15th century. He painted a series of icons for the Cathedral of the Dormition in the Moscow Kremlin.
His style was named Muscovite Mannerism and was characterized by his mastery of colour in painting. He was not fond of bright colours. The artist toned down his palette a little, making the colours lighter. The transparency of the colours help to underline the lightness of the architectural forms.
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Sergei Bermeniev – Portrait Photographer

Sergei Bermeniev - Portrait Photographer

Sergei Bermeniev – Portrait Photographer

As a photographer Sergei Bermeniev conquered Hollywood. He is a master of black-and-white portrait.
One of the world’s best portrait photographers Bermeniev seem to have time to take pictures of all the leading stars both Russian and Western. Federico Fellini and Sharon Stone, Joseph Brodsky and Viktor Tsoi, Vladimir Putin and Meryl Streep… And the list of the stars isn’t complete.
Portrait genre is one of the most important in photography. The rapid development of this new art form in the middle of the XIX century is explained very simple – people want to have pictures of themselves and their families. The appearing of a photo portrait not only changed the structure of the historical memory of mankind, but also transformed the social mechanisms of mass communication. The phenomenon of stars is one of the most important things today. There are stars in all spheres of our life: culture, politics, social life. And it is very important when there is a possibility to replicate portrait of the star.
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Surrealism and metarealism by Victor Bregeda

Victor Bregeda - Russian artist

Victor Bregeda – Russian artist

Victor Bregeda was born in 1963 in the Russian city of Taganrog into a family of painters. Since childhood, he has been engaged in painting. The Dutch school of painting and the French school of the 18th and 19th centuries made a great influence on the master.
When Bregeda graduated from an art school, he made a decision to move forward with his personal interpretation of creative art. You know, Victor’s art quickly won recognition in local and international contests. The first two solo exhibitions were held in Taganrog in 1994-1995. Victor works in the style of surrealism and metarealism with a strong influence of the philosophy of the unconscious. Mainly he paints landscape, still life and portrait. The artist uses both well-known techniques, materials and styles, and new, his own inventions.
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Wonderful underwater world by Alexander Semenov

Chirolophis japonicus

Chirolophis japonicus. Wonderful underwater world by Alexander Semenov


Alexander Semenov is one of the great photographers who show us the life of the underwater world. Creatures that live at the bottom of the seas and oceans are not like those animals that we used to see ashore. Alexander is going to become Russian Cousteau.
The photographer has released several series of photographs. Here you will see the pictures from the series Dark Matter and Jellyfish Madness. The name Dark Matter is symbolic and can mean either a dark background of the pictures or various sea creatures that come from completely different and dark world. Scientists have described only 20 per cent of living organisms in the ocean. Plankton and microorganisms are a parallel universe that exists around us.
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