Sergei Pavlovich Diaghilev, usually referred to outside Russia as Serge Diaghilev, was a Russian art critic, patron, ballet impresario and founder of the Ballets Russes, from which many famous dancers and choreographers would arise.
Léon Bakst – born as Leyb-Khaim IzrailevichRosenberg, Лейб-Хаим Израилевич (Самойлович) Розенберг was a Russian painter and scene and costume designer of Jewish origin. He was a member of the Sergei Diaghilev circle and the Ballets Russes, for which he designed exotic, richly coloured sets and costumes. He designed the décor for such productions as Carnaval (1910), Spectre de la rose (1911), Daphnis and Chloe (1912), The Sleeping Princess (1921) and others.
Ivan Yakovlevich Bilibin was a Russian illustrator and stage designer who took part in the Mir iskusstva, contributed to the Ballets Russes, co-founded the Union of Russian Artists and from 1937 was a member of the Artists' Union of the USSR. Ivan Bilibin gained popularity with his illustrations to Russian folk tales and Slavic folklore. His work was throughout his career inspired by the art and culture of Rus'.
Alexandre Nikolayevich Benois was a Russian artist, art critic, historian, preservationist and founding member of Mir iskusstva, an art movement and magazine. As a designer for the Ballets Russes under Sergei Diaghilev, Benois exerted what is considered a seminal influence on the modern ballet and stage design.
Konstantin Andreyevich Somov was a Russian artist associated with the Mir iskusstva.
Igor Emmanuilovich Grabar was a Russian post-impressionist painter, publisher, restorer and historian of art. Grabar, descendant of a wealthy Rusyn family, was trained as a painter by Ilya Repin in Saint Petersburg and by Anton Ažbe in Munich. He reached his peak in painting in 1903–1907 and was notable for a peculiar divisionist painting technique bordering on pointillism and his rendition of snow.
Vladimir Vasilievich Stasov, was a Russian critic of music and art. Born into a wealthy, noble family Stasov became a prominent figure in mid-19th-century Russian culture. He discovered a large number of its greatest talents, inspired many of their works and fought their battles in numerous articles and letters to the press. As such, he carried on a lifelong debate with Russian novelist and playwright Ivan Turgenev, who considered Stasov "our great all-Russian critic." He wanted Russian art to liberate itself from what he saw as Europe's hold. By copying the west, he felt, Russian artists could be, at best, second-rate. However, by borrowing from their own native traditions, they might create a truly national art that could match Europe's with its high artistic standards and originality. By "national" Stasov meant an art that would not only portray people's lives but also be meaningful to them and show them how to live.
Yevgeny Yevgenyevich Lanceray, also often spelled Eugene Lansere, was a Russian graphic artist, painter, sculptor, mosaicist, and illustrator, associated stylistically with Mir iskusstva.
Mstislav Valerianovich Dobuzhinsky or Dobujinsky was a Russian and Lithuanian artist noted for his cityscapes conveying the explosive growth and decay of the early twentieth-century city.
The Ballets Russes was an itinerant ballet company begun in Paris that performed between 1909 and 1929 throughout Europe and on tours to North and South America. The company never performed in Russia, where the Revolution disrupted society. After its initial Paris season, the company had no formal ties there.
Alexandre Yevgenievich Jacovleff was a Russian neoclassicist painter, draughtsman, designer and etcher.
Vladimir Alekseyevich Shchuko was a Russian architect, member of the Saint Petersburg school of Russian neoclassical revival notable for his giant order apartment buildings "rejecting all trace of the moderne". After the Russian Revolution of 1917 Shchuko gradually embraced modernist ideas, developing his own version of modernized neoclassicism together with his partner Vladimir Gelfreikh. Shchuko and Gelfreikh succeeded through the prewar period of Stalinist architecture with high-profile projects like the Lenin Library, Moscow Metro stations and co-authored the unrealized Palace of Soviets. Shchuko was also a prolific stage designer, author of 43 drama and opera stage sets.
The Faculty of Law at Saint Petersburg State University is the oldest law school and one of the biggest research centers in Russia.
Zinaida Yevgenyevna Serebriakova was a Russian and later French painter.
The year 1922 was marked by many events that left an imprint on the history of Soviet and Russian Fine Arts.
The year 1924 was marked by many events that left an imprint on the history of Soviet and Russian Fine Arts.
The year 1942 was marked by many events that left an imprint on the history of Soviet and Russian Fine Arts.
Maria Klavdievna Tenisheva (née Pyatkovskaya, in the first marriage - Nikolaeva, was a Russian Princess, artist, educator, philanthropist and collector. She was born May 20, 1858, in St. Petersburg. Maria Tenisheva is famous as the founder of the Art studio in St. Petersburg, and the Drawing School at the Museum of Russian antiquity in Smolensk, handicraft college in Bezhitsa town, as well as by artistic and industrial workshops held in her own estate of Talashkino.
The Nevsky Pickwickians was an informal circle of art-loving and intellectual friends who were students at the University of St. Petersburg, Russia at the end of the 19th century. The group originally included Alexandre Benois, Léon Bakst, Walter Nouvel, Dmitry Filosofov and Konstantin Somov.
The fine art of Leningrad is an important component of Russian Soviet art—in the opinion of the art historians Vladimir Gusev and Vladimir Leniashin, "one of its most powerful currents". This widely used term embraces the creative lives and the achievements of several generations of Leningrad painters, sculptors, graphic artists and creators of decorative and applied art from 1917 to the early 1990s.
