1. Boris Kustodiev was born in Astrakhan into the family of a professor of philosophy, history of literature, and logic at the local theological seminary.
16 Facts About Boris Kustodiev
1. 2.
Boris Kustodiev's father died young, and all financial and material burdens fell on his mother's shoulders.
3.
The Kustodiev family rented a small wing in a rich merchant's house.
4.
Between 1893 and 1896, Boris Kustodiev studied in theological seminary and took private art lessons in Astrakhan from Pavel Vlasov, a pupil of Vasily Perov.
5.
Also at this time, Boris Kustodiev made a series of portraits of contemporaries whom he felt to be his spiritual comrades.
6.
Boris Kustodiev visited France and Spain on a grant from the Imperial Academy of Arts in 1904.
7.
Boris Kustodiev contributed to the satirical journals Vampir, Zhupel and Adskaya Pochta.
8.
Boris Kustodiev joined their association in 1910 and subsequently took part in all their exhibitions.
9.
In 1905, Boris Kustodiev first turned to book illustrating, a genre in which he worked throughout his entire life.
10.
Boris Kustodiev illustrated many works of classical Russian literature, including Nikolai Gogol's Dead Souls, The Carriage, and The Overcoat; Mikhail Lermontov's The Lay of Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich, His Young Oprichnik and the Stouthearted Merchant Kalashnikov; and Leo Tolstoy's How the Devil Stole the Peasants Hunk of Bread and The Candle.
11.
Boris Kustodiev pined for his distant homeland, and Russian themes continued to provide the basic material for the works he painted during that year.
12.
Boris Kustodiev meticulously restores his own childhood in the busy city on the Volga banks.
13.
Boris Kustodiev's covers for the journals The Red Cornfield and Red Panorama attracted attention because of their vividness and the sharpness of their subject matter.
14.
Boris Kustodiev first started work in the theatre in 1911, when he designed the sets for Alexander Ostrovsky's An Ardent Heart.
15.
In 1923, Boris Kustodiev joined the Association of Artists of Revolutionary Russia.
16.
Boris Kustodiev continued to paint, make engravings, illustrate books, and design for the theater up until his death of tuberculosis on 28 May 1927, in Leningrad.