185 years since the birth of Vasily Polenov

[SergeiSK]

June 1 marks the 185 anniversary of the birth of the outstanding Russian artist Vasily Polenov.
Vasily Polenov born in St. Petersburg on May 20 (1 June) in 1844 in an ancient noble family that preserves the traditions of Russian enlightened nobility, dating back to the second half of XVIII century. Father Polenova, Dmitri V., was a famous historian, archaeologist and bibliographer. The artist's mother, Maria, nee Voeikova, a children's writer and artist-lover.
Vasily was in Petrozavodsk school, at the end of the course the students enrolled in the Imperial Academy of Arts. He studied under Pavel Chistyakov. In 1869, for the painting "Job and his friends" Polenov received a small gold medal, and in 1871 (together with Ilya Repin) for the competitive work "Christ raises the daughter of Jairus" - a gold medal.
After graduating at the same time university course on the law faculty in 1872, Polenov went abroad as a pensioner of the Academy. Visited Vienna, Munich, Venice, Florence and Naples, for a long time he lived in Paris and wrote there, among other things now "The arrest of Countess d'Etremon" to provide him in 1876 the title of academician.
Returning to the same 1876 in Russia, soon went to the Russian-Turkish war, during which an official artist at the headquarters of the heir-the Crown Prince (later Tsar Alexander III).
After the war he settled in Moscow, from there in 1884, traveled to Constantinople, Palestine, Syria and Egypt. Since 1879 was a member of the Association of Traveling Art Exhibitions.
Since 1870 Polenov a lot of work in the field of theatrical-decorative painting. In 1882-1895 the artist taught at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, where among his students were Isaac Levitan, Konstantin Korovin, I. Ostroukhov, AE Arkhipov and A. Golovin .
In 1910-1918, the Polenov conducted in Moscow, educational activities, participated in organizing the national theater.
The artist died on July 18, 1927 in the village of Borok (now Polenovo) Tula region, and was buried at the cemetery Behovskom on the steep bank of the Oka, where he had so often loved to draw their sketches.