34 Facts About Andrey Avinoff

Andrey Avinoff was an internationally-known artist, lepidopterist, museum director, professor, bibliophile and iconographer, who served as the director of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh from 1926 to 1945.

Andrey Avinoff has been firmly established by curatorial experts as one of the most important artists in America from the Russian Silver Age of Art, Mir iskusstva.

Andrey Avinoff amassed the largest collection of Asiatic butterflies in the world discovering and naming several new species of butterflies in Central Asia, including several variations of the genus Parnassius found in the Himalayan regions.

Andrey Avinoff won the coveted Gold Medal of the Imperial Geographical Society for his work and published seven articles in three languages about his discoveries.

Andrey Avinoff was a generation older than the famed Russian-born novelist Vladimir Nabokov, himself a distinguished lepidopterist.

Andrey Avinoff became known as the leading botanical painter of the day.

Andrey Avinoff was the grandson of Admiral Alexander Avinoff, who fought at the Battle of Trafalgar, and a great-grandson of Vladimir Panaieff, minister of the Imperial Court during the reign of Tsar Nicholas I, under whom Panaeff acquired art for the Hermitage Museum and what became the New Hermitage Museum collection in 1852.

In 1915, during World War I, Avinoff went to New York as an emissary of the Zemsky Union, an organization similar to the Red Cross, on a mission to purchase military supplies for the Imperial Army during World War I He was back in New York on a second mission, representing the Provisional Government, when the October Revolution of 1917 broke out.

Nicholas Andrey Avinoff was then serving as the Assistant Minister of Interior Affairs in the Kerensky Provisional Government.

Andrey Avinoff was imprisoned a number of times and finally executed by the secret police during the Yezhov Purge of 1937.

Andrey Avinoff is described in R H Bruce Lockhart's Memoirs of a British Agent.

In February 1919, Avinoff returned to Pine Bush, where his family had become frequent visitors at nearby Yama Farms Inn, a fashionable Catskills resort that attracted Thomas Edison, Harvey Firestone, Henry Ford, and John D Rockefeller as well as famous writers, musicians and philosophers.

Andrey Avinoff rendered advertising illustrations for the products of many major companies of the day, including Colgate-Palmolive's Cashmere Bouquet, and the first modern typewriter for the Underwood Typewriter Company.

Andrey Avinoff painted over 3,000 portraits of industrialists, international leaders and members of some of the most celebrated society families in the United States.

Andrey Avinoff designed the "Winged S," the first logo for Sikorsky Aircraft, and other early promotional artwork for the then-fledgling company.

Andrey Avinoff did not accept at first but occasionally worked for the department while continuing his successful career as a commercial artist.

Andrey Avinoff's accomplishments included acquisitions, such as the museum's Tyrannosaurus rex, and significant contributions in the fields of botany, entomology, and biology.

Andrey Avinoff guided the museum through the Great Depression and World War II while helping to develop museology as a field.

Andrey Avinoff was awarded an honorary Doctor of Science degree from the University of Pittsburgh in 1927.

In Russia, Andrey Avinoff sponsored more than 40 butterfly collecting expeditions in Central Asia.

Andrey Avinoff personally traveled on arduous expeditions in 1908 to Russian Turkestan and the Pamir, in 1912 through India and Kashmir over the Karakoram Pass to Ladakh and "Chinese Turkestan", before these regions were open to explorers.

When he left Russia for the last time in September 1917, Andrey Avinoff had to abandon his voluminous personal collection of over 80,000 specimens, the largest collection of Asiatic butterflies in the world, including his beloved Parnassus species.

Andrey Avinoff named five variations of this rare high altitude butterfly including: Parnassius Autocrator, Parnassius Hannyngtoni, Parnassius Jacobson, Parnassius Kiritshenkoi, Parnassius Maharaja and the 'Avinoff Hairstreak' was named after him.

Andrey Avinoff was a prominent member of the Entomological Society of America, of which he became a fellow in 1939.

Andrey Avinoff's groundbreaking work on the biogeography of speciation showed how members of the genus Karanasa evolved into new, separate species in isolated mountain valleys in the Pamir Range.

Andrey Avinoff collaborated with his colleague Walter Sweadner, a curator of entomology at the museum, on The Karanasa Butterflies, A Study in Evolution.

Andrey Avinoff applied equal versatility to his work as an artist, bringing his expertise as a polymath in both art and zoology to bear on the exhibits, publications, and drawings at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History during his tenure there.

The artist in Andrey Avinoff seemed to flow from the scientist, as he believed that art and science are inextricably intertwined.

Andrey Avinoff sold his Dutch Manner paintings to prominent families to raise funds to re-collect his Asiatic butterfly collection.

Also known for his visual exploration of metaphysical realms, Andrey Avinoff created fantastical works with mystical qualities and symbolism.

In 1944 Andrey Avinoff published these illustrations, originally rendered in charcoal, chalk, brush, pen, spattering, and scraping on paper, in a limited folio edition of photogravures.

In every area of his expertise, Andrey Avinoff invoked an expansive and inspiring approach, which drew standing-room-only audiences to the talks that he gave in the lecture halls of the University of Pittsburgh.

Andrey Avinoff was a sought-after speaker, and his talks were broadcast over the radio in Pittsburgh.

Andrey Avinoff has continued to receive growing recognition as a homosexual artist and advocate, "an aspect of his life that he never publicized" during his lifetime.