(b Nizhniy Novgorod, Russia, 12 July 1892; d 30 May 1980). French painter, sculptor and stained-glass artist of Russian descent. He studied literature at Moscow University while also taking painting courses at private academies; his painting teachers included Il'ya Mashkov, one of the founders of the Jack of Diamonds group. After leaving the Russian Socialist Federal Soviet Republic in 1920, he lived for two years in Florence and then for a year in Berlin, where he designed sets and costumes for the Ballets Russes. He settled in Paris in 1923 and in the 1920s and 1930s painted in a figurative style influenced by Renaissance masters such as Leonardo and Michelangelo; his themes included biblical subjects, prophets, vagabonds, gypsies and landscapes.
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