Nikolai Kalmakov

Painter, graphic artist, theatrical designer. Son of a Russian general and an Italian woman. Studied at the Imperial School of Jurisprudence in St Petersburg (1890–95). Returned to Italy (1895), where he independently studied classical art and anatomy. Lived in St Petersburg (1900–03) and Moscow (1903–06). Returned to St Petersburg (1907). Painted Symbolist works on subjects taken from oriental and classical mythology (from mid-1900s). Worked for many theatres, including the Vera Komissarzhevskaya Theatre, Historical Theatre, New Theatre of Drama and the Moscow Chamber Theatre (from 1908). Illustrated books (from 1913). Visited Italy and Greece (1914). Helped to found Pyotr Sazonov and Yulia Slonimskaya’s Puppet Theatre in Petrograd (1915). Emigrated after the revolution. Lived in Constantinople (1918–20), where he was a member of the Union of Russian Artists. Settled in Tallinn (1921) and Paris (1924), where he collaborated with Nikolai Yevreinov on a production of Oscar Wilde’s Salomé (1926). Spent his final years in an old people’s home in Chelles (Seine-et-Marne). Died in Chelles and buried at the Cimetière de Chelles (1955). Contributed to the autumn exhibitions of the Imperial Academy of Arts (1906, 1907) and the exhibitions of the Moscow Fellowship of Artists (1900), St Petersburg Society of Artists (1906), Modern Trends in Art (1908), Triangle-Impressionists (1909), Union of Russian Artists (1909), World of Art (1912–16), Graphic Arts (1913), Monuments of Theatrical Art in Petrograd (1915), Exhibition of Paintings and Sculptures in Aid of Belgian Refugees (1915) and Polish Refugees (1916) and Exhibition of Russian Ex Libris in Leningrad (1926). One-man shows in St Petersburg (1913), Tallinn (1922, 1923), Helsinki (1923), Brussels (1924), Paris (1926, 1928, 1964, 1968, 1986) and London (1970).