Artur Vladimirovich Fonvizin (, from ; 11 January 1883 – 19 August 1973) was a

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

painter of

watercolour Watercolor (American English) or watercolour ( Commonwealth English; see spelling differences), also ''aquarelle'' (; from Italian diminutive of Latin 'water'), is a painting method"Watercolor may be as old as art itself, going back to the ...

Biography

Artur Fonvizin was born on 11 January 1883 in

Riga Riga ( ) is the capital, Primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Latvia, largest city of Latvia. Home to 591,882 inhabitants (as of 2025), the city accounts for a third of Latvia's total population. The population of Riga Planni ...

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(now

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), the son of a German-born forester.

Studies

After finishing high school in 1901, he went to study at the

Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture The Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture (), also known by the acronym MUZHVZ, was one of the largest educational institutions in Russia. The school was formed by the 1865 merger of a private art college, established in Moscow ...

. His early works were signed ''von Wiesen''.Artur V. Fonvizin
- three biographies on artru.info (''in Russian'') His teachers were K. N. Gorski, V. N. Baksheev, and P. I. Klodt. There he met

Mikhail Larionov Mikhail Fyodorovich Larionov (; – May 10, 1964) was a Russian avant-garde painter who worked with radical exhibitors and pioneered the first approach to abstract Russian art. He was founding member of two important artistic groups Knave ...

, the leader of the Union of Youth, ready to "subvert the old art." When the Union arranged an exhibition without the permission of the school authorities, he was expelled from the school, along with Mikhail Larionov and Sergei Sudeikin.S. A. Fonvizin (editor)
''Visible Absence - Exhibition Catalogue of A. V. Fonvizin''
Central House of Artists, Moscow. 1998. In 1904, he moved to

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, where he continued his studies at private art studios. In 1906, he returned to Russia, to live for a time with his parents in their village.

Shows

From 1907 until the Great War, as a member of Larionov's group, Fonvizin was a notable participant in the exhibitions ''Blue Rose'' (1907), ''Stephanos'' (1909), ''Union of Youth'', the first exhibition of the ''Jack of Diamonds'' (December 1910), the exhibitions ''Target'' and ''The Donkey's Tail'' (1910–12). He participated in the salons of the ''Golden Fleece'' and ''Wreath-Stephanos'', and joined the ''World of Art'' movement. His works of this period can be characterized as ''symbolist'', in the so-called ''lyrical primitive'' style. His most famous works of the time are ''The Bride'' (1902), ''Leda'' (1904), and ''Composition with the figure of Christ'' (1904). When the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

started, Fonvizin moved to the province of Tambov, where he painted a great deal from nature. In 1918, he headed the art studio at the Proletarian Culture artistic organisation in

Tambov Tambov ( , ; rus, Тамбов, p=tɐmˈbof) is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, city and the administrative center of Tambov Oblast, Central Federal District, central Russia, at the confluence of the Tsna River (Moksha basin), Tsna ...

. In 1922, he became a member of the creative organization ''Makovets'' and participated in its exhibitions. In 1923, he taught at the Art College of

Nizhny Novgorod Nizhny Novgorod ( ; rus, links=no, Нижний Новгород, a=Ru-Nizhny Novgorod.ogg, p=ˈnʲiʐnʲɪj ˈnovɡərət, t=Lower Newtown; colloquially shortened to Nizhny) is a city and the administrative centre of Nizhny Novgorod Oblast an ...

. In 1926, he returned to the Tambov studio of illustrative art.

A World of Watercolors

In 1927, he went to Moscow, where the following year he joined the Society of Artists of Moscow and the

Association of Artists of Revolutionary Russia The Association of Artists of Revolutionary Russia (, ''Assotsiatsia khudozhnikov revolutsionnoi Rossii'', 1922–1928), later known as Association of Artists of the Revolution (Ассоциация художников революции, ''Assots ...

. At the same time, he moved on to watercolours, his primary medium for the rest of his life. In 1929, he visited

Leningrad Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

, where he sketched views of the city; in the early 1930s he travelled to

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and Askania-Nova. Other works of those years include illustrations for ''1001 Nights'' (1932), and ''A German Romantic Tale'' (1936). His first solo exhibition was held at the

Pushkin Museum The Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts (, abbreviated as , ''GMII'') is the largest museum of European art in Moscow. It is located in Volkhonka street, just opposite the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour. The International musical festival Sviatos ...

in 1936.Roman Gretsky
Giddy Autist: Artur Fonvizin at the Museum of Private Collections
«Kultura», № 6 (7365), 13–19 February 2003 (''in Russian''). In 1937, during a Communist campaign against formalism in art, the Soviet press lumped him with ''The Gang of Formalists'' (which comprised ''The Three F's'': Falk, Favorsky, and Fonvizin). From the beginning of the 1940s to his death, the main themes of the artist's works were portraits of theatre actresses in stage costume, sketches of the circus, pictures of pre-revolutionary life, images of flowers, and landscapes.Фонвизин Артур Владимирович

Great Soviet Encyclopedia The ''Great Soviet Encyclopedia'' (GSE; , ''BSE'') is one of the largest Russian-language encyclopedias, published in the Soviet Union from 1926 to 1990. After 2002, the encyclopedia's data was partially included into the later ''Great Russian Enc ...

(''in Russian'') Fonvizin's distinguishing characteristic is that he painted directly, without the use of preparatory sketches in pencil.

Exiled

In 1943, because of his German descent, Fonvizin was exiled to

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a landlocked country primarily in Central Asia, with a European Kazakhstan, small portion in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the Kazakhstan–Russia border, north and west, China to th ...

. There he began his cycles ''Karaganda'' and ''The Cabmen''. From 1958 to 1960, the artist lived in the village of Pirogovo, where he painted landscapes. He continued to exhibit his works after the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. His personal exhibitions were held in the Union of Theatrical Artists of the Russian Federation (1940), Central House of Artistic Workers (1944, 1947), Central House of Litterateurs (1955), in the halls of the Moscow Union of Artists (1958), and at the

Union of Artists of the USSR The Artists' Union of the USSR () was a creative union of the Soviet artists and art critics embracing the Republics A republic, based on the Latin phrase '' res publica'' ('public affair' or 'people's affair'), is a state in which politic ...

(1969). In 1970, he received the title of Honoured Artist of the Russian Federation. He died on 19 August 1973 in Moscow. Sketches and watercolor portraits of actors and artists, landscapes and still lifes by Fonvizin are kept in the

Tretyakov Gallery The State Tretyakov Gallery (; abbreviated ГТГ, ''GTG'') is an art gallery in Moscow, Russia, which is considered the foremost depository of Russian fine art in the world. The gallery's history starts in 1856 when the Muscovite merchant Pavel ...

, the

, and the

State Russian Museum The State Russian Museum (), formerly known as the Russian Museum of His Imperial Majesty Alexander III (), on Arts Square in Saint Petersburg, is the world's largest depository of Russian fine art. It is also one of the largest art museums in ...

References

Note: This article has been translated from its Russian version {{DEFAULTSORT:Fonvizin, Artur Vladimirovich 1883 births 1973 deaths Artists from Riga 20th-century Russian painters Russian male painters Soviet painters Symbolist painters Russian watercolorists 20th-century Russian male artists Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture alumni Honored Workers of the Arts Industry of the Russian Federation Mir iskusstva artists