Mikhail Vrubel
| Mikhail Vrubel | |
|---|---|
At work, 1900s
|
|
| Born |
Mikhail Aleksandrovich Vrubel March 17, 1856 Omsk, Russian Empire |
| Died |
April 14, 1910 (age 54) Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire |
| Nationality | Russian |
| Education | Imperial Academy of Arts |
| Known for | Painting |
| Notable work |
The Demon Seated (1890) The Swan Princess (1900) |
| Movement | Symbolism |
| Patron(s) | Savva Mamontov |
Mikhail Aleksandrovich Vrubel (Russian: Михаи́л Алекса́ндрович Вру́бель; March 17, 1856 – April 14, 1910, all n.s.) is usually regarded amongst the Russian painters of the Symbolist movement and of Art Nouveau. In reality, he deliberately stood aloof from contemporary art trends, so that the origin of his unusual manner should be sought in Late Byzantine and Early Renaissance painting.
Vrubel was born in Omsk, Russia. His paternal grandfather Mikhail Antonovich Vrubel was of Polish heritage (see Wróbel (surname)); he served in the Imperial Russian Army, then headed the Astrakhan Cossacks. Aleksandr Mikhailovich Vrubel followed his father's steps and made a military career, taking part in the Caucasian and Crimean Wars before becoming a military lawyer. He married Anna Grigorievna Basargina, daughter of the acclaimed Russian cartographer, vice-admiral and war governor of the Astrakhan Governorate Grigory Gavrilovich Basargin who belonged to an old Russian noble family tree that traces its history back to the times of Ivan the Terrible. His wife Anna Karlovna von Krabbe was Danish.
Vrubel was one of the four children. His mother died when he was three years old. Though he graduated from the Faculty of Law at St Petersburg University in 1880, his father had recognized his talent for art and had made sure to provide, through numerous tutors, what proved to be a sporadic education in the subject. The next year he entered the Imperial Academy of Arts, where he studied by direction of Pavel Chistyakov. Even in his earliest works, he exhibited great talent for drawing and an idiosyncratic style. He would later develop a penchant for fragmentary composition and an "unfinished touch".
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