Ignaty Nivinsky

Graphic artist, painter, illustrator, theatrical designer, interior designer, architect, teacher. Born in Moscow to a furniture supplier called Ignaty Nivinsky (1880). Studied at the Stroganov Central School of Technical Drawing (1893–99), under Jan Zoltowski (1905–06) and at Stanislaw Zukowski’s school in Moscow (1908–10). Designed the interiors of buildings in Moscow, including the Egyptian Room of the Alexander III Museum of Fine Arts (1906–12) and the Kiev Railway Station (1912–17). Decorated the imperial headquarters for the celebrations marking the centenary of the Battle of Borodino (1912). Took up etching (1912) and founded the Union of Engravers (1918). Published a series of etchings dedicated to the Vladimir Lenin Hydroelectric Station at Zemo-Avchaly in Georgia (1920s) and designed the interior of Lenin’s Mausoleum (1929–30). Taught at the Stroganov Central School of Technical Drawing (1899–1905) and VKhUTEMAS (1921–30, professor). Designed the sets for Johan August Strindberg’s Erik XIV at the First Studio of the Moscow Art Theatre (1921), Pedro Calderón de la Barca’s La dama duende at the Second Moscow Art Theatre (1924) , Prosper Mérimée’s Le Théâtre de Clara Gazul at the Third Studio of the Moscow Art Theatre (1924), Victor Hugo’s Marion Delorme at the Yevgeny Vakhtangov Theatre (1926), Alexei Tolstoy’s Peter I at the Second Moscow Art Theatre (1930), Friedrich Wolf’s Cyankali at the Moscow Theatre of Drama (1930), Vladimir Kirshon’s The Trial at the Second Moscow Art Theatre (1933) and Konstantin Stanislavsky’s production of Il barbiere di Siviglia at the Konstantin Stanislavsky Opera Studio (1933). Etched the frontispiece for Johann Wolfgang Goethe’s Römische Elegien (1933). Died in Moscow and buried at the Novodevichy Cemetery (1933). Contributed to exhibitions (from 1906). Contributed to the exhibitions of the World of Art (1913–17), Moscow Fellowship of Artists (1913–22), Four Arts (1924, 1925) and the international exhibitions in Paris (1925, gold medal) and Leipzig (1927).