Kuzmin, Nikolai Vasilievich (artist)

Born December 7 (19), 1890 in Serdobsk (now - Penza region). Parents, who came from the Kirsanovsky district of the Tambov Humeria, were tailors who, before moving to Serdobsk, kept an atelier in the city of Kirsanov .

In 1909, a self-taught from the province sent his drawings to the magazine of Moscow symbolists " Libra ". V. Ya. Bryusov liked the drawings and printed them.

In 1910 , having graduated from a real school, Kuzmin went to St. Petersburg .

At the request of his parents, he entered the Polytechnic Institute , but did not stop drawing classes. He spent a lot of time in the library of the Academy of Arts, and then began to attend classes of the Society for the Promotion of Arts and lectures of the Institute of Art History. Further, Kuzmin studied with I. Ya. Bilibin at the Drawing School at the collective farm (1912-1914), with P. A. Shillingovsky in Petrograd Vkhutein (1922-1924).

In 1914-1922, Kuzmin took part in the First World War and the Civil War in Russia , fighting in parts of the Red Army.

In the late 1920s, a group of young artists was formed in Moscow - the group "13". Kuzmin became one of its organizers. “ Draw without corrections, without retouching. So that in the work of the draftsman, as in the work of the acrobat, you can feel the pace! "- the artist explained his position.

In adulthood, Kuzmin illustrated Russian and Western classics (“Actress” E. de Goncourt , 1933; “Theater” by A. de Musset , 1934, etc.) and books by contemporary authors, especially books about the life of writers - A. S. Pushkin , M. Yu. Lermontov , L.N. Tolstoy . Member of the Moscow Union of Artists since 1938 .

In the 1950s, his drawings were devoted to the story of N. S. Leskov about Tula Lefty , then there were “ Notes of a Madman ” by N. V. Gogol (1958), “ Kozma Prutkov ” (1965), “ Count Nulin ” (1957), epigrams of A. S. Pushkin (1979) and much more.

Died January 9 ^{[ specify ]} 1987 in Moscow. He was buried in 1 site of the Vagankovsky cemetery ^[1] .

N. V. Kuzmin is the author of the books The Circle of King Solomon (1964), Long and Recently (1982), The Artist and the Book (1985) and others ^[2] . In the archive of N.V. Kuzmin, which is kept in the Russian State Archives of History, there are also unpublished manuscripts.

2013

“Known and Unknown” , gallery open club , Moscow

• 1924-1940 the first wife - a novice artist Maria Ivanovna Kuzmina (Petrova)
• 1942 - second wife - artist Tatyana Mavrina (1900-1996).
• Children from their first marriage:

  Ivan Nikolaevich Kuzmin (1925-2012) - political scientist, professor, doctor of political sciences.

  Mikhail Nikolaevich Kuzmin (born 1931) is a corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Education.

• The big silver medal of the annual exhibition at the School of the OPH (1914)
• From 1916 to 1917 he was awarded the Order of Courage four times - twice by “Anna” of the 4th degree, with the words “For Bravery”, “Stanislav” and “Anna” of the 3rd degree, both with swords and a bow.
• Gold medal at the International Exhibition in Paris (1937, for illustrations to "Eugene Onegin").
• Honored Artist of the RSFSR (1966).
• Corresponding Member of the Academy of Arts of the USSR (1967).
• People's Artist of the RSFSR (1972).

• A special place in the collection of the K. A. Savitsky Picture Gallery in Penza is occupied by the works of artists whose life and work are connected with the Penza region. So, N.V. Kuzmin is represented here by illustrations for the works of Pushkin, Saltykov-Shchedrin, Leskov and other classics of Russian literature.
• “ The most literary of all our schedules, ” said Korney Chukovsky about it. ^[3]

• KUZMIN Nikolay Vasilievich (inaccessible link)
• Nikolay Vasilievich Kuzmin
• Rudneva A. B. ““ Full bounty is pleasing to heaven ”” // Our Heritage. - 2011. - No. 98.
• “Known and Unknown” Nikolai Kuzmin in Moscow