Somov K.A., (1869-1939), Artist

Categories / Art/Fine Arts/Personalia
SOMOV Konstantin Andreevich (1869 - 1939, St. Petersburg) painter and graphic artist. Son of A. I. Somov. He studied at the Academy of Arts from 1888 to 1897, as well as teaching there. He was a member of the Academy from 1914. He was a representative of the Petersburg Art Nouveau, and one of the founders of the journal and union World of Art (Mir Iskusstva). In 1903-10, he was a member of the Union of the Russian Artists. He painted small pictures touching upon motives of everyday life of the aristocracy of the 18th century in oil and water-colours in which a loving-nostalgic attitude for the past was melded with irony and the grotesque, often accentuated with eroticism: Island of Love (1900, State Tretyakov Gallery), Mocked Kiss (1908-09, State Russian Museum). He executed sharply expressive portraits of A. P. Ostroumova (1901, State Russian Museum), Lady in a Blue Dress (a portrait of E. M. Martynova, 1897-1900), A. A. Blok (1907), M. A. Kuzmin (1909, all are on exhibition in the State Tretyakov Gallery). He painted for the journals Mir Iskusstva, Khudozhestvennye sokrovishcha Rossii and Zolotoe Runo. He illustrated books by Petersburg poets-symbolists: Lyrical Poems by Blok (1908), Cor Ardens by Vyach. I. Ivanov (1911) etc.; he illustrated the poem by Alexander Pushkin, Count Nulin (1899), the stories by N. V. Gogol Nevsky Prospect and The Portrait (1901), he also executed a cycle of erotic illustrations for the Book of the Marquise by F. von Bley (Petrograd, 1918). He made figurines for the Imperial Porcelain Factory in 1905-06. He taught at the art school of E. N. Zvantseva from 1915 to 1918. He lived on 97 Ekateringofsky Avenue (today Rimsky-Korsakov Avenue). In 1923, he went abroad; he lived in Paris from 1925. The works of the last years of his life include: the portrait of S. V. Rachmaninov (1925), illustrations for the book Daphnis et Chloe (1930), a series of water-colours devoted to Russian ballet.

References: Эрнст С. Р. К. А. Сомов. СПб., 1918; Константин Андреевич Сомов: Письма. Дневники. Суждения современников. М., 1979; Журавлева Е. В. Константин Андреевич Сомов. М., 1980.

O. L. Leikind, D.Y. Severyukhin . Bley F. von
Blok G.P.
Gogol Nikolay Vasilievich
Ivanov Vyacheslav Ivanovich
Kuzmin Mikhail Alexeevich
Martynova Е.М.
Ostroumova-Lebedeva Anna Peterovna
Pushkin Alexander Sergeevich
Rachmaninov Sergey Vasilievich
Somov Andrey Ivanovich
Somov Konstantin Andreevich
Zvantseva Elizaveta Nikolaevna
Rimsky-Korsakov Ave/Saint Petersburg, city, house 97
Эрнст С. Р. К. А. Сомов. СПб., 1918
Константин Андреевич Сомов: Письма. Дневники. Суждения современников. М., 1979
Журавлева Е. В. Константинович Андреевич Сомов. М., 1980 Academy of Arts
Academy of Arts
Mir Iskusstva (World of Art), journal
World of Art, Association
Russian Museum, State
Khudozhestvennye Sokrovishcha Rossii (The Art Treasures of Russia), album
Lomonosov Porcelain Factory