Abram Arkhipov – Russian painter
Abram Arkhipov was a Russian painter, Peredvizhnik.
The boy was born on August 15 (27), 1862 into a poor peasant family in Ryazan Gubernia. This fact left an indelible mark on the life of the famous master, his whole creative career was devoted to describing the traditional way of life of the peasants, hard life and hard work of the simple people.
Abram was very talented and the parents encouraged him. In 1877 he was sent to Moscow to study at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. In addition, from 1884 to 1886 he studied at the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts. Arkhipov started out as a genre artist, as his teacher Vasily Perov.
In 1887, Arkhipov got a large silver medal and the title of the class artist for the painting Visiting the Sick Woman, which depicts the artist’s mother.
In 1891 Abram joined the Association of Traveling Art Exhibitions. Many works of that period, such as Visiting the Sick Woman, Along the river Oka, Lay Brother were bought by Pavel Tretyakov for his collection.
In 1896 and 1912, the artist visited France, Germany and Italy.
In 1898 he received the title of Academician (full member of the Academy of Arts since 1916).
In 1904 he became a founding member of the Union of Russian Artists.
After the October Revolution Arkhipov took part in the reorganization of the College.
In his works, Arkhipov used bright colors with transitions to intermediate tones. The artist managed to transfer pictures of the real world vividly and naturally, to capture all its mobility, variability, to convey through his pictures his own feelings and thoughts.
The picture Girl With A Jug became the very embodiment of Russia after the events of the 1917 revolution.
In 1927 he was among the first who were awarded the title of People’s Artist of the Russian Republic.
Arkhipov died in Moscow on September 25, 1930 and was buried at the Vagankovsky cemetery. He was not married and had no children, but the artistic traditions of his family were continued by his grandniece Alla Bedina.