Mikhail Alexandrovich Vrubel

Mikhail Alexandrovich Vrubel — a Russian painter, graphic artist, sculptor and master of decorative and applied arts. Academician of the Imperial Academy of Arts. Mikhail Alexandrovich Vrubel was born on March 5 (17), 1856 in Omsk into a military family. His mother died when he was three. From the age of five Vrubel attended a drawing school, and from the age of seven he attended the School of the Society for the Encouragement of the Arts in St. Petersburg. Vrubel graduated from the Richelieu Gymnasium in Odessa with a gold medal. Despite his interest in painting and music, he entered the Faculty of Law at St. Petersburg University, where he studied history, philosophy and languages. At the same time he attended evening classes at the Academy of Arts, and from 1880 became a student there. In 1884 Vrubel created his first major works — frescoes in the Kirillov Church in Kiev.

 

From 1889 Vrubel lived in Moscow. His passion for music led to collaboration with Savva Mamontov's private opera, where he designed the productions of "The Tsar's Bride" and "The Tale of Tsar Saltan." In 1896 he created decorative panels for the Nizhny Novgorod Exhibition ("Mikula Selyaninovich", "Princess of Dreams"), and at the 1900 World's Fair in Paris his works were awarded a gold medal. In 1901 signs of a mental illness appeared in Vrubel, and in the following years his health deteriorated sharply. He was often treated in psychiatric clinics, but continued to create. Vrubel died in 1910 in a St. Petersburg clinic and was buried at the Novodevichy Cemetery in St. Petersburg.