Pyotr Alexandrovich Nilus (russian: Пётр Александрович Нилус; – 23 May 1943). was a Russian and

Ukrainian Ukrainian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Ukraine * Something relating to Ukrainians, an East Slavic people from Eastern Europe * Something relating to demographics of Ukraine in terms of demography and population of Ukraine * So ...

impressionist painter and writer. Pyotr was born in Baltsky Uyezd,

Government of Podolia The Podolia Governorate or Podillia Governorate (), set up after the Second Partition of Poland, was a governorate (''Governorate (Russia), gubernia'', ''province'', or ''government'') of the Russian Empire from 1793 to 1917, of the Ukrainian Pe ...

, in the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...

(present-day Ukraine). His grandfather took part in the

Patriotic War of 1812 The French invasion of Russia, also known as the Russian campaign, the Second Polish War, the Army of Twenty nations, and the Patriotic War of 1812 was launched by Napoleon Bonaparte to force the Russian Empire back into the continental block ...

. There has been some confusion about the origin of the surname "Nilus" in Russia. This was primarily in the context of mystic

Sergei Nilus Sergei Aleksandrovich Nilus (also ''Sergius'', and variants; russian: Серге́й Алекса́ндрович Ни́лус; – 14 January 1929) was a Russian religious writer and self-described mystic. His book ''Velikoe v malom i antik ...

, publisher of '' The Protocols of the Elders of Zion'' in Russia. Sergei's ancestry was variously reported as Swedish or Swiss (but more recent research has shown that he was of Livonian extraction),

Michael Hagemeister Michael Hagemeister (born 9 January 1951 in Ellwangen, Baden-Württemberg) is a German historian and Slavist, an authority on ''The Protocols of the Elders of Zion'' and on Sergei Nilus. Hagemeister was employed at the universities of Marburg, B ...

, "Wer war Sergej Nilus?" Ostkirchliche Studien 40 (1991), 49-63. and

Gregor Schwartz-Bostunitsch Gregor Schwartz-Bostunitsch (born 1 December 1883, d. after 1945) was a prominent figure in Nazi Germany. He was a German-Russian author in the völkisch movement and became SS-Standartenführer in 1944. Life Gregor Schwartz-Bostunitsch was a ...

has claimed that the painter Pyotr Nilus was related to Sergei Nilus. At the age of seven Pyotr moved to

Odessa Odesa (also spelled Odessa) is the third most populous city and municipality in Ukraine and a major seaport and transport hub located in the south-west of the country, on the northwestern shore of the Black Sea. The city is also the administrativ ...

where he studied at the local Peter and Paul

real school ''Realschule'' () is a type of secondary school in Germany, Switzerland and Liechtenstein. It has also existed in Croatia (''realna gimnazija''), the Austrian Empire, the German Empire, Denmark and Norway (''realskole''), Sweden (''realskola''), ...

and attended art classes of

Kyriak Kostandi Kiriak Konstantinovich Kostandi ( uk, Киріак Костянтинович Костанді; russian: Кириак Константинович Костанди; – 31 October 1921) was a prominent Ukrainian painter and an art scholar. A m ...

. Then he attended the

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

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

and participated in exhibitions of Peredvizhniki. In contrast to "antisemite" Sergei Nilus, Pyotr Nilus married a Jewess, one Berta Solomonovna, and in 1906 together with Korney Chukovsky he also participated in at literary and artistic collection for the benefit of "Jewish children who were orphaned during the October pogrom in Odessa". During the

Russian Civil War , date = October Revolution, 7 November 1917 – Yakut revolt, 16 June 1923{{Efn, The main phase ended on 25 October 1922. Revolt against the Bolsheviks continued Basmachi movement, in Central Asia and Tungus Republic, the Far East th ...

, in 1920 ,he emigrated to

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

where he worked until his death in 1943. Pyotr Nilus was a friend of

Aleksandr Kuprin Aleksandr Ivanovich Kuprin (russian: link=no, Александр Иванович Куприн; – 25 August 1938) was a Russian literature, Russian writer best known for his novels The Duel (Kuprin novel), ''The Duel'' (1905)Kuprin sc ...

and Ivan Bunin. For the first years in Paris they lived in the same house. They led an intensive correspondence; there were published more than one hundred letters of Pyotr Nilus to Bunin.Savva Dudakov,
That Nilus and the other
', Lehaim, February 2001

Paintings

File:Nilus On the beach.jpg, On the Beach File:Nilus After the rain.jpg, After the Rain File:Nilus Three women in the park.jpg, Three Women in the Park File:Nilus morning.jpg, Footman (Morning)

References

External links

''Pyotr Nylus, the poet of art'', Odessa, N3, 1996

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nilus, Pyotr 1869 births 1943 deaths 19th-century writers from the Russian Empire 19th-century painters from the Russian Empire 20th-century Russian painters 20th-century Ukrainian writers 19th-century Ukrainian writers 19th-century Ukrainian painters 19th-century Ukrainian male artists 19th-century male artists from the Russian Empire 20th-century Ukrainian painters 20th-century Ukrainian male artists Painters from the Russian Empire Russian male painters White Russian emigrants to France Artists from the Russian Empire People from the Russian Empire of Swiss descent Emigrants from the Russian Empire to France 20th-century Russian male artists