Sergey V. Gerasimov (1885-1964)

Painter, graphic artist. Born in Mozhaisk. He studied at the Mozhaisk City College (1896-1901) and the Stroganov College (1901-1907) where his teachers were Alexey Korin, Sergey Ivanov, Konstantin Korovin and Dmitry Scherbinovsky. He also studied in the lithographic workshop of Sergey Goloushev and the Moscow College of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture (1907 1913) under Abram Arkhipov, Alexey Korina and Konstantin Korovin. Gerasimov participated in exhibitions from 1906. He was a member of the “Makovets” society (1922-1925), a founding member of the Society of Moscow Artists (1926-1929), and a member of the Association of Artists of Russia (1930-1932). In 1932 he joined the Union of Artists of Russia (1932). Gerasimov was an outstanding artist who produced numerous portraits and compositions on historical and revolutionary themes such as: "War veteran" (1926), "October in Moscow" (1932-1933), "The Oath of the Siberian partisans" (1933), "Chairwoman of the collective farm" (1935), "A Festival at a Collective Farm"(1936-1937),"Windy Day"(1941),"The Partisan’s Mother"(1943, reworked in 1950),"The Rise of Pugachev "(1944-1945), “The Son is back"(1947), "Kutuzov at Borodino field"(1952), and "For Soviet Power" (1957). His other works include the "Mozhaisk landscapes" series (1953-1964) and illustrations for the works of Chekhov, Gaydar, Sholokhov, Gorky, Ostrovsky, Pushkin and Gogol (1930-1950s).

Gerasimov taught at the Art School of Sytin’s Typographical Association (1912-1914), the State School of printing of Narcompros at the First Exemplary Printing House (1918-1923), the High Art workshops of Moscow (1920-1929), the Institute of Printing (1930-1935), the Institute of Fine Arts (1936-1937), the Moscow State Institute of Fine Arts (1936-1950), the Moscow Higher School College of Art and Industry (formerly the Stroganov) (1950-1964 - Head of the Faculty of monumental painting). During the Great Patriotic War he was evacuated to Samarkand. There were solo exhibitions of his works in 1934, 1936, 1939, 1944, 1945, 1956, 1960, 1966-1967, 1980 and 1985-1986 in Moscow, in 1936, 1956, 1966-1967 and 1985-1986 in Leningrad, 1956 and 1966-1967 in Kiev, in 1959 in Bucharest, in 1981 in Mozhaisk, in 1982 in Paris. He received many state awards, including the Honored Artist of the RSFSR (1943), People's Artist of the USSR (1958), Doctor of Arts (1956), Professor (1940). Laureate of the State Prize of the USSR (1966, posthumously).