Studied at the Studio of Ye. Ye. Shreider in Kharkov (1895, 1900–1904); Imperial Kharkov University (1904–1905, 1907–1912); Imperial St Petersburg University (1912); the New Artistic Workshop studio (1913–1916) under A. N. Benois, M. V. Dobuzhinsky, B. M. Kustodiev, A. P. Ostroumova-Lebedeva and Ye. Ye. Lanceray. Exhibited from 1904. Member of the associations Koltso (Ring, 1911–1914), Mir iskusstva (World of Art, 1915–1924), Obschina khudozhnikov (Commune of Artists, 1922–1925), Chetyre iskusstva (Four Arts, 1926), Shestnadtsat (Sixteen, 1927), Union of Soviet Artists (1932). Worked as a curator at the Hermitage Cabinet of Engravings and Drawings (1918–1930), head of the department (from 1921); in the Graphic Art Laboratory- Studio affiliated with the Leningrad Branch of the Union of Soviet Artists (from 1933). Taught at the State Free Art Workshops (1918–1919); the Higher Institute of Photography (1918); VKhUTEMAS, Pg – VKhUTEIN, Pg–L (1921–1923), Professor. Honoured Art Worker of the RSFSR (1946), People’s Artist of the RSFSR (1962); Academician of the USSR Academy of Arts (1949). Awarded the Stalin Prize 2nd class (1946), the Order of the Red Banner of Labour (1946). Main collections: A. S. Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, State Central Theatre Museum, State Museum of A. S. Pushkin, State Museum of the History of Russian Literature, State Tretyakov Gallery (all Moscow), Institute of Russian Literature, Research Museum of the Russian Academy of Arts, State Central Museum of the Modern History of Russia, State Museum of Theatre and Music, State Russian Museum (all St Petersburg), State art museums in Arkhangelsk, Astrakhan, Ivanovo, Irkutsk, Nizhny Tagil, Vologda, Yekaterinburg and others; National Gallery of Armenia (Yerevan), National Art Museum of Ukraine (Kiev).

© Museum of 20th–21st Century Art of St Petersburg, 2022