Yury Vasnetsov

Painter, graphic artist, applied artist, illustrator, theatrical designer, teacher. Distantly related to Andrei Vasnetov. Born in the town of Vyatka (now Kirov) in the family of a priest called Alexei Vasnetsov, who was the fourth cousin of Victor Vasnetsov and Apollinary Vasnetsov (1900). Studied under Alexei Stolbov in Vyatka (1910s), under Alexei Karev, Osip Braz, Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin, Nikolai Radlov and Vasily Savinsky at the VKhUTEMAS/VKhUTEIN in Petrograd/Leningrad (1921–26), at the formal and theoretical department of the Institute of Artistic Culture (1926) and in Kazimir Malevich’s studio (1927–28). Worked under Vladimir Lebedev at the department of children’s literature of the State Publishing House (from 1928). Illustrated Vitaly Bianchi’s Karabash (1929), The Swamp (1931) and The Fox and the Little Mouse (1964), Kornei Chukovsky’s The Tangle (1934), The Fifty Piglets (1936) and The Stolen Sun (1936), Leo Tolstoy’s The Three Bears (1935), Pyotr Yershov’s The Little Humpbacked Horse (1935), Dmitry Mamin-Sibiryak’s Tales for Alyonushka (1935), Samuel Marshak’s Teremok (1941), English Folktales (1945) and The Cat’s House (1947) and various collections of Russian fairytales and folktales (1947–71). Taught art at School No. 33 in Leningrad (late 1920s–early 1930s). Visited the White Sea with Nikolai Kostrov (1931). Post-graduate student of Vladimir Lebedev at the Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture (1932–34). Member of the Leningrad branch of the Union of Artists (1934). Married Galina Pinayeva at the Church of St John the Baptist in Kirov (1935). Designed sets and costumes for theatres in Leningrad (from 1937) and worked at the experimental lithographic studio of the Union of Artists (from 1938). Evacuated to Molotov (now Perm), where he worked for the puppet theatre (1941–43). Artistic director of the Toy Scientific Research Institute in Zagorsk (1943–45). Lived and worked in Roschino near Zelenogorsk (1950–72). Died in Leningrad and buried at the Cemetery of St John the Theologian (1973). Contributed to exhibitions (from 1932). Contributed to the exhibitions of Artists of the RSFSR Over Fifteen Years in Leningrad and Moscow (1932–34), First Exhibition of Works by Leningrad Artists at the Russian Museum in Leningrad (1935), Exhibition of Watercolours and Drawings by Leningrad Artists in Kiev (1938), Exhibition of Autolithographs by Leningrad Artists (1939), Exhibition of Works by Artists from Vyatka and Kirov (1948), Fifty Years of Leningrad Book Graphic Art (1969), First All-Russian Exhibition of Drawing (1974) and posthumous one-man shows at the Russian Museum in Leningrad/St Petersburg (1979, 1999–2000). Honoured Artist of the RSFSR (1946), People’s Artist of the RSFSR (1966), winner of the State Prize (1971).