Dmitry Nikolayevich Kardovsky (; 5 September 1866 – 9 February 1943) was a Russian draughtsman and painter during the Modernist period, particularly known for his

illustration An illustration is a decoration, interpretation, or visual explanation of a text, concept, or process, designed for integration in print and digitally published media, such as posters, flyers, magazines, books, teaching materials, animations, vi ...

s and stage designs.

Biography

He was born near

Pereslavl-Zalessky Pereslavl-Zalessky (, ), formerly known as Pereyaslavl-Zalessky, or simply Pereyaslavl, is a town in Yaroslavl Oblast, Russia, located on the main Moscow–Yaroslavl road and on the southeastern shore of Lake Pleshcheyevo at the mouth of the ...

in the

Yaroslavl Yaroslavl (; , ) is a city and the administrative center of Yaroslavl Oblast, Russia, located northeast of Moscow. The historic part of the city is a World Heritage Site, and is located at the confluence of the Volga and the Kotorosl rivers. ...

province. After studying

law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior, with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been variously described as a science and as the ar ...

Moscow University Moscow State University (MSU), officially M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University,. is a public research university in Moscow, Russia. The university includes 15 research institutes, 43 faculties, more than 300 departments, and six branches. Al ...

, he then studied at the

Imperial Academy of Arts The Imperial Academy of Arts, informally known as the Saint Petersburg Academy of Arts, was an art academy in Saint Petersburg, founded in 1757 by Ivan Shuvalov, the founder of the Imperial Moscow University, under the name ''Academy of th ...

St Petersburg 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 ...

from 1892, under

Pavel Chistyakov Pavel Petrovich Chistyakov (; 5 July 1832 — 11 November 1919) was a Russian painting, Russian painter and art teacher. He is known for historical and Genre art, genre scenes as well as portraits. Biography His father was a freed serf who ha ...

and

Ilya Repin Ilya Yefimovich Repin ( – 29 September 1930) was a Russian painter, born in what is today Ukraine. He became one of the most renowned artists in Russian Empire, Russia in the 19th century. His major works include ''Barge Haulers on the Volga' ...

. Kardovsky moved to

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

in 1896 with

Igor Grabar Igor Emmanuilovich Grabar (, 25 March 1871 – 16 May 1960) 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 Pe ...

and studied at the private studio of

Anton Ažbe Anton Ažbe (30 May 1862 – 5 or 6 August 1905) was a Slovene realist painter and teacher of painting. Ažbe, crippled since birth and orphaned at the age of eight, learned painting as an apprentice to Janez Wolf and at the Academies in Vienn ...

. He returned to St. Petersburg in 1900 and received his

diploma A diploma is a document awarded by an educational institution (such as a college or university) testifying the recipient has graduated by successfully completing their courses of studies. Historically, it has also referred to a charter or offi ...

from the academy in 1902. He was appointed as professor of the academy in 1907. Kardovsky explored various styles, including

Impressionism Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by visible brush strokes, open Composition (visual arts), composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passage ...

and

Jugendstil (; "Youth Style") was an artistic movement, particularly in the decorative arts, that was influential primarily in Germany, Austria and elsewhere in Europe to a lesser extent from about 1895 until about 1910. It was the German and Austrian cou ...

, but was more concerned with faithful representation than formal experiment. From 1902, he was prolific as a book illustrator, and worked mainly on the Russian literary classics by

Chekhov Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (; ; 29 January 1860 – 15 July 1904) was a Russian playwright and short-story writer, widely considered to be one of the greatest writers of all time. His career as a playwright produced four classics, and his b ...

Gogol Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol; ; (; () was a Russian novelist, short story writer, and playwright of Ukrainian origin. Gogol used the grotesque in his writings, for example, in his works " The Nose", " Viy", "The Overcoat", and " Nevsky Prosp ...

Lermontov Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov ( , ; rus, Михаи́л Ю́рьевич Ле́рмонтов, , mʲɪxɐˈil ˈjʉrʲjɪvʲɪtɕ ˈlʲerməntəf, links=yes; – ) was a Russian Romantic writer, poet and painter, sometimes called "the poet of ...

and

Tolstoy Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy Tolstoy pronounced his first name as , which corresponds to the romanization ''Lyov''. () (; ,Throughout Tolstoy's whole life, his name was written as using pre-reform Russian orthography. ; ), usually referr ...

. He also dabbled with political

caricature A caricature is a rendered image showing the features of its subject in a simplified or exaggerated way through sketching, pencil strokes, or other artistic drawings (compare to: cartoon). Caricatures can be either insulting or complimentary, ...

, providing illustrations for the radical

journals A journal, from the Old French ''journal'' (meaning "daily"), may refer to: *Bullet journal, a method of personal organization *Diary, a record of personal secretive thoughts and as open book to personal therapy or used to feel connected to onesel ...

''Zhupel (Bugbear)'' and '' Adskaya Pochta'' from 1905 to 1906. In 1934

Isaak Brodsky Isaak Izrailevich Brodsky (, ; – 14 August 1939) was a Russian painter and draughtsman of Jewish descent best known for his portrayals of Vladimir Lenin and other Soviet leaders, renowned as blueprint examples of the Socialist reali ...

, a disciple of Ilya Repin was appointed director of the National Academy of Arts and the Leningrad Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. Brodsky invited Kardovsky among the most distinguished painters and pedagogues to teach at the academy. The system of master's workshops was restored at the Department of Painting. Students were assigned to one of the workshops after they completed their second-year courses. Professor Kardovsky had their own workshops. He also taught 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 ...

, where one of his students was

Grigor Vahramian Gasparbeg Grigor Vahramian Gasparbeg (; ) was an Iranian painter of Armenian descent. Most of Gasparbeg's paintings are in oil and of classical style. Early life Gasparbeg was born in 1900 to Stepan and Mariam Gasparbeg in Nakhchivan (city), Old Nakhichev ...

. He was an admirer of

Mikhail Vrubel Mikhail Aleksandrovich Vrubel (; – ) was a Russian painter, draughtsman, and sculptor. A prolific and innovative master in various media such as painting, drawing, decorative sculpture, and theatrical art, Vrubel is generally character ...

, whose posthumous exhibition he organized in 1912. Kardovsky died in Pereslavl-Zalessky in 1943.

Family

Dmitry was married to fellow painter, Olga Della-Vos, from April 1899. They had one daughter together, Yekaterina (1900–1985).

Students at the St Petersburg Academy of Arts

* The Latvian-born painter Frédéric Fiebig trained under his guidance in 1906. * The Socialist Realist artist Serafima Ryangina trained under Kardovsky between 1912–18 and 1921–23.Serafima Ryangina.
Starov Gallery, 2013. Retrieved 5 May 2013
Archived here.
/ref>

References

Bibliography

* Ivanov, Sergei. ''"Unknown Socialist Realism. The Leningrad School"''. Saint Petersburg: NP-Print, 2007, , .

External links

artnet
Biography {{DEFAULTSORT:Kardovsky, Dmitry 1866 births 1943 deaths People from Pereslavl-Zalessky 19th-century painters from the Russian Empire Russian male painters 20th-century Russian painters Painters from Saint Petersburg Imperial Academy of Arts alumni Imperial Moscow University alumni 19th-century male artists from the Russian Empire Full Members of the Imperial Academy of Arts Moscow State University alumni 20th-century Russian male artists Academic staff of the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture