Igor E. Grabar (1871-1960)

Painter, restorer, art historian, museum worker
Grabar studied at the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts (1894-1896) under Vasily Savinsky, Nikolay Bruni and Ilya Repin, and then went to the school of Anton Aschbe in Munich (1896-1898). He worked in St. Petersburg (from 1889) and Moscow (from 1903). He began participating in exhibitions in 1898. He was a member of the "World of Art" group and the Union of Russian Artists. An outstanding painter, creator of landscapes, still-lifes and portraits, he initiated and edited the first scholarly edition of "The History of Russian Art" (Vol. 1-6, 1909-1916). In 1913-1925 was in charge of the Tretyakov Gallery. Grabar became one of the founders of the study and restoration efforts of Soviet museums and led the creation of the Central Restoration Workshops (Director in 1918-1930, supervisor from 1944). He wrote several monographs and articles on Russian art, and was editor and co-author of "The History of Russian Art" (Vol. 1-13, 1953-1969). He taught at the Moscow State University (professor from 1921), the Moscow Institute of Fine Arts - Moscow State Art Institute (1937-1943, director), the Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture (1943-1946, director). During the Great Patriotic War Grabar became a member of the State Commission to account for destruction and damage inflicted by the Nazi invaders and led the Commission's recording and protection of art works at the Arts Committee of the USSR. In 1941-1943 he was evacuated to Nalchik, Tbilisi and Samarkand. He later worked as director of the Institute of Art History, in the USSR’s Academy of Sciences (1944). There were solo exhibitions of his works in 1935, 1936, 1939, 1944, 1946, 1947, 1971-1972 and 2001 in Moscow, in 1946 and 1971-1972 in Leningrad, 1971-1972 in Kiev, Krakow and Warsaw. He was made a People's Artist of the USSR (1956) and won a Stalin Prize (1941).