Sunday, October 14, 2007


Igor Emmanuilovich Grabar (Russian: Игорь Эммануилович Грабарь, March 25, 1871, BudapestMay 16, 1960, Moscow) was a Russian painter and a representative mainly of socialist realism. After being graduated from the department of law at Petersburg University he turned to art. Studied in the Saint Petersburg Academy of Arts in 18941896 and in Munich. In his early years Grabar was influenced by the jugendstil and later by impressionism, but his paintings "The Chrysanthema" and "The Uncleared Table" are closer to neoimpressionism. In 1913 - 1925 he was the head of the Tretyakov Gallery. Grabar was recognized as a People's Artist of the Soviet Union in 1956 for his work in the areas of portrait painting and historical revolutionary themes. He also was a full member of Soviet Academy of Sciences (since 1943) and got a Stalin Prize (1941).

Igor Grabar "Lenin at the Direct Line"
Many of Grabar's contemporaries called him the conformist and he was even nicknamed "Угорь Обмануилович" (Ugor Obmanuilovich - a Russian allusion to the eel and lie, similar to Grabar's original name and patronymic).

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