Victor Arnautoff

Victor Mikhail Arnautoff
Self-portrait. 1941.
Native name	Виктор Михайлович Арнаутов
Born	1896 Uspenivka, Taurida Governorate (Ukraine, then in Russian Empire)
Died	March 22, 1979 Leningrad, Soviet Union, buried in Mariupol Ukraine
Known for	Murals
Notable work	Coit Tower murals

Victor Mikhail Arnautoff (born Uspenivka, Taurida Governorate (Russian Empire), 1896 - died Leningrad, Soviet Union, March 22, 1979) was a Russian-American painter and professor of art. He worked in San Francisco and the Bay Area from 1925 to 1963, including two decades as a teacher at Stanford University, and was particularly prolific as a muralist during the 1930s. He became a naturalized U.S. citizen, but returned to the Soviet Union after the death of his wife, continuing his career there before his death.

Arnautoff was the son of a Russian Orthodox priest. He showed a talent for art from an early age and hoped to study art after graduating from the gymnasium in Mariupol. With the outbreak of World War I, he enrolled in the Yelizavetgrad Cavalry School. He went on to hold military leadership positions in the army of Nicholas II and the White Siberian army. With the defeat of the Whites in Siberia, he crossed into northeastern China and surrendered his weapons. He remained in China for five years. He again tried to pursue art, but was impoverished and took a position training the cavalry of the warlord Zhang Zuolin. He met and married Lydia Blonsky and they had two sons, Michael and Vasily.

In November 1925 Arnautoff went to San Francisco on a student visa to study at the California School of Fine Arts. There he studied sculpture with Edgar Walter and painting with several instructors. His wife and children joined him and they all continued to Mexico in 1929, where, on Ralph Stackpole's recommendation, he became an assistant to the muralist Diego Rivera. Rivera and Arnautoff first worked on a series of murals at the Palace of Cortés, Cuernavaca. After starting the murals in the National Palace, Rivera went to San Francisco to paint a mural in the new Stock Exchange building, leaving Arnautoff in charge for a time. A third son, Jacob, was born in Mexico.