Biography : Pavel Varfolomeyevitch Kouznetsov
1878-1968
Born in Saratov in 1878. Died in Moscow in 1968. Kuznetsov was a pupil of the graphic arts school under the Radishchev Museum in Saratov, which was founded by A.N. Bogoliubov. He went to Moscow to continue his art studies at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. He was a student of K.A. Korovin and V.A. Serov. In 1905, he made a trip to Paris. In 1907, Kuznetsov was one of the organizers of the “Blue Rose” exhibition and association of artists-symbolists. The steppes beyond the Volga—a world the artist knew from childhood—appear as an ideal world where nature, animals and people come together in harmony. The refined colors of the painting, the individual style of graphic art and the fresco monumentality of the images have made Kuznetsov’s style recognizable. After the revolution, the artist turned to new images topical for the times without changing the style he developed in the 1910s. Kuznetsov belonged to the “Union of Russian Artists” and “The Four Arts” association.