Elena Shumilova from Tver province became famous throughout the world photographing her three sons.
In the age of the Internet it is easy to become famous if you have something to show.
Elena takes wonderful pictures. British Daily Mail regularly talks about her new photos, the Americans have made film about her, hundreds of thousands of Russians admire the photos of a young mother.
Lena’s husband is farmer Andrei Dobrohvalov. They live on a farm for seven years. Andrei and his friend came to that place to relax at the weekend. He looked around and fell in love with nature. In the capital he left his business and bought the land. There are a lot of animals on their farm – cows, sheep, geese, chickens, rabbits. They also have a big dog whose name is Misha. He is 12 years old. Misha is one of their sons.
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Konstantin Somov was a Russian painter and graphic, master of portrait and landscape, illustrator, one of the founders of the World of Art and eponymous magazine.
Konstantin was born on November 30, 1869 in St. Petersburg into a family of editor of The Fine Arts Herald and a connoisseur of painting, curator of the Hermitage, Andrei Ivanovich Somov. His mother, Nadezhda (nee Lobanova) was a good musician, a highly educated woman.
Since childhood Konstantin dreamed of becoming a painter.
From September 1888 to March 1897 Konstantin studied at the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts. In 1897-1898 he studied at the Academie Colarossi in Paris. And in 1899 he moved to St. Petersburg.
The artist took the most active part in the design of the World of Art magazine, as well as the periodical Art Treasures of Russia (1901-1907), published under the editorship of A. Benois.
Also Somov is known as a master of book graphics, who created illustrations for the Count Nulin by A. Pushkin (1899), novels by N. Gogol The Nose and Nevsky Prospekt (1901). Actually, he made the covers for K. Balmont’s poems Firebird, V. Ivanov’s Cor Ardens, title page of A. Blok’s book Theater, etc.
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Dmitry Levitsky was a Russian painter of Ukrainian origin, the master of ceremonial and chamber portraits, academician of the Imperial Academy of Arts.
The boy was born in 1735 in Kiev into the family of a hereditary priest G.K. Levitsky (real surname – Nos or Nosov), also known as the artist-engraver. His father taught him to paint. Since 1758 painter A.P. Antropov was his teacher. Together with father Levitsky took part in decorating of Andrew’s Cathedral in Kiev (mid-1750s).
In 1758 Dmitry moved to St. Petersburg, where he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts. Along with Antropov the artist went to Moscow in 1762. There he painted the Triumphal Gates erected to mark the coronation of Catherine II.
The paintings exhibited at the exposition of the Academy of Arts (1770) brought him fame. In the same year, 35-year-old Levitsky received the title of academician for the excellent portrait of A. Kokorinov.
In 1771-1788 he taught at the Academy of Fine Arts and was the head of the portrait class.
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Isaac Levitan was a Russian painter, master of the landscape of mood. In his short creative life Levitan produced about a thousand paintings, pastels and drawings. He became famous for his ability to glorify the beauty of Russian nature. For a life full of ups and downs, the artist did not have a wife and children. All the time the man devoted to painting, leaving the pictures, full of magic of rivers, forests and steppe.
Isaac Ilyich was born on August 18 (30), 1860 in the Suwalki Region in Lithuania. In the early 1870s Ilya Levitan moved to Moscow with his family to improve the financial situation and to educate children.
In the fall of 1873 Isaac entered the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. His teachers were artists Perov, Savrasov and Polenov.
Sixteen-year-old artist received a small silver medal for his work in March 1877.
At a student exhibition of 1880 Pavel Tretyakov bought the nineteen- year-old artist’s painting Autumn Day at Sokolniki. This was the first recognition of his talent.
In 1884, Isaac joined the Association of Traveling Art Exhibitions. Despite the deserved success, the emotional state of Levitan was not stable. In 1885 the artist went to the estate of the Kiselevs after a suicide attempt. There he met the writer Anton Chekhov, with whom he remained friends for the rest of his life.
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Konstantin Korovin was a Russian painter, stage designer, teacher and writer. You know, Korovin is called the first Russian impressionist. His work amazed contemporaries: some were shocked by the carelessness and others were delighted by the play of light and shadow, the innovation of the colorist. One of the few contemporaries who recognized signs of talent in the works of the painter was Fyodor Chaliapin. At that time, few people agreed with Chaliapin, but in 3-4 decades after Korovin’s death his juicy, life-filled pictures were recognized as works of a real master.
The future artist was born on November 23 (December 5), 1861 in Moscow into a wealthy merchant family of Old Believers. He is a brother of artist Sergey Korovin. At the age of fourteen Konstantin entered the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. Later Konstantin went to St. Petersburg and entered the Academy of Arts, but three months later he left it as he was disappointed by the outdated teaching methods, and returned to Moscow.
In 1894 Korovin together with his friend, the artist Valentin Serov, made the trip to the North. The result was landscapes Harbour in Norway, Northern Lights, Murmansk Coast.
Fame came to the young artist with his Portrait of a Chorister (1883).
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Ivan Turgenev was born on October 28 (November 9), 1818 in Orel, Russian Empire.
Turgenev was a Russian writer-realist, poet, essayist, playwright, and translator, Honorary Doctor of the Oxford University (1879). You know, he is one of the classics of Russian literature who has made the most significant contribution to its development in the second half of the XIX century. His art system influenced not only Russian poetics, but also Western European novel of the second half of the XIX century.
Turgenev was the first in Russian literature who began to study the “new man”, his moral qualities and psychological characteristics. The term “nihilist” had become widely used in the Russian language. Turgenev was a promoter of Russian literature and drama in the West.
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There are Russian brands well-known not only in Russia but also abroad. They even have become symbols of the country.

Palekh boxes
The small town of Palekh in the Ivanovo region has long been famous for its icon painting. Small icons, which could be easily hidden, were very popular since the Mongol-Tatar yoke. In the middle of the XVII century Palekh works came to Moscow and craftsmen were invited to work there. The Palace of the Facets in the Kremlin, the Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius, Novodevichy monastery were decorated with Palekh icons. In the XX century, Palekh masters were forced to change the subject of their work – Alexander Pushkin’s fairy tales, scenes of rural life, revolutionary motives. Fine work of Palekh masters – cigarette cases and brooches, boxes and notebooks, caskets and jewelry boxes became known throughout the world.
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