Russian Academy of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture
Career
Gallery of Mikhail Larionov
Mikhail Larionov, Sergey Mikhailovich Romanovich, Vladimir Andreevich Obolensky, Natalia Goncharova, Moris Albertovich Fabbri and Alexander Vasilyevich Shevchenko at the Donkey's Tail exhibition, 1913
Gallery of Mikhail Larionov
Mikhail Larionov and Natalia Goncharova working on the decorations of the ballet ‘The Golden Cockerel’ at the Workshops of Bolshoi Drama Theatre, 1913
Mikhail Larionov, Sergey Mikhailovich Romanovich, Vladimir Andreevich Obolensky, Natalia Goncharova, Moris Albertovich Fabbri and Alexander Vasilyevich Shevchenko at the Donkey's Tail exhibition, 1913
Mikhail Fedorovich Larionov was a Russian artist, painter, scenographer and art theorist who stood at the origins of the Russian avant-garde and helped to expand abstractionism in pre-Revolutionary Russia.
Background
Mikhail Fedorovich Larionov was born on June 3, 1881, in Tiraspol’, Kherson Governorate, Russian Empire (currently the Republic of Moldova). He was a son of Fedor Mikhailovich Larionov, a military nurse practitioner, and Alexandra Fedoseevna Petrovskaya, a daughter of a local landowner.
Mikhail spent his childhood at the south of Russia and in his native Tiraspol’.
At the age of ten, Mikhail Larionov relocated with his family to Moscow.
Education
Mikhail Larionov studied at the Real School of K. P. Voskresenskiy (doesn’t exist nowadays) in Moscow.
In 1898, he entered the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture (currently Russian Academy of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture) where he was taught by the landscapist Isaac Levitan and the portraitist Valentin Serov.
While at the institution, the young artist met many friends and like-minded fellows. Mikhail was an independent and wayward student, a leader of the artistic youth. In 1902, he was excluded because of his “obscene canvases”. A year later, he was reinstated.
Mikhail Larionov started his career at the beginning of the 1900s when he became involved in the art life in Russia and abroad. In 1906 Larionov was represented in the World of Art Show (Saint Petersburg), in the Union of Russian Artists exhibition (Moscow), and in a special section of Russian art organized by Sergei Diaghilev for the Salon d'Automne (Autumn Salon) in Paris.
Reflecting the tendency toward primitivism, as in the work of Gauguin or Rousseau, in 1907 the artist started to paint in a manner inspired by Russian folk art.
In one year, Larionov tried his hand as an art promoter and helped to arrange The Golden Fleece exhibition in Moscow. Later in his career, he also directed his efforts toward organizing such shows of avant-garde Russian art as the Ass's Tail, Target, and Knave of Diamonds exhibitions in Moscow.
The same year, the artist was called up for one-year military service during which he did his "soldier" series that is similar to the contemporary German Expressionist work of Nolde, Kirchner, or Mueller. As early as 1908 Larionov used broken, angular forms in a representational context, much like the German Expressionists, in combination with rich, Fauve colour.
After his demobilization, Larionov continued his active participation at the artistic life. So, in 1909, he co-founded the artistic group Jack of Diamonds and three years later the group called Donkey's Tail. In 1911, he had his first solo exhibition in Moscow.
One more activity in which the painter became involved during this period, was the book illustration. Mikhail Larionov produced the pictures for many writings by the futurist poets, like Alexei Kruchenykh or Velimir Khlebnikov and other authors. By 1912, the artist wrote his own essay containing the theoretical basis of Rayonism, which was formally propounded in his "Manifesto of Rayonists and Futurists" of 1913. Larionov thought of light rays as the primary element to visual perception and as dynamic forces moving through space.
With the outbreak of World War I in 1914, Mikhail Larionov was inducted into the Russian army, but he was discharged the following year. Along with his life partner Natalia Goncharova, the artist moved to Lausanne, Switzerland, to work with Diaghilev's Ballets Russes. In 1919 they permanently settled in Paris where the collaboration continued until 1929. While they had earlier done some work for the theatre, Larionov and Goncharova hereafter worked exclusively for various ballet troupes. Their scenery and costume designs were so radically different and imaginative that they influenced the interpretation of the ballet in question.
After Diaghilev’s death, the amount of the theatre work decreased, and they earned the money from rare stage sets commissions and book illustrations.
In the post-war period, Mikhail Larionov was obliged to sell paintings from his personal collection to earn the living.
Since a serious stroke in 1950, Larionov had painted less. However, he produced a great number of nuance colourful paintings during the last period of his life.
Matchmaker. Sketch of the Costume for the Ballet "The Jester"
Costume Design for Soleil de Nuit (Night Sun)
The Peacock Mechanical Costume
Lady with a Fan. Sketch of a Costume for the Ballet "Natural History"
Costume Design
Costume for a Buffoon's Wife
painting
Resting Soldier
Russian Tales
Velimir Khlebnikov
A Smoking Soldier
Russian Venus
Portrait of a Man
Venus with a Cat
Spring
Resting Soldier
Rayonist Sausages and Mackerel
Portrait of Natalia Goncharova
Glass
Sunset after Rain
Venus
Blue Rayonnism (The Fool)
Nocturne
Bread
Barber of an Officer
Rayonist Landscape
Winter
Spring
A Dancer in Motion
Circus Dancers
Natalia Goncharova
Bull's Head
Venus
A Tree
Provintial Dandy
Fish at Sunset
Gypsy in Tiraspol’
Lilac
Jewish Venus
The Hairdresser
Soldiers Playing Cards
Autumn
Venus and Mikhail
Red and Blue Rayonism (Beach)
Venus with a Cat
Waitress
Geese
Rooster and Hen
Venus with a Bird
Self-portrait
Spring
Soldier on a Horse
Summer
A Turkish Scene. A Smoker
Happy Autumn
Still Life with Lobster
Rain
The Girl at the Barber
Alexei Kruchenykh
Venus with a Bird
Midnight Sun
Membership
World of Art
,
Russian Federation
Jack of Diamonds
,
Russian Federation
Donkey's Tail
,
Russian Federation
Interests
Artists
Niko Pirosmani, Henri Matisse, André Derain, Georges Braque, Paul Gauguin, Vincent van Gogh, the Fauves
Connections
Mikhail Larionov met his future life partner, the artist Natalia Goncharova, at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture where she studied architecture. She became his life-long companion for about sixty years, but they married officially only in 1955 in order to preserve their common heritage.
After Natalia’s death on October 17, 1962, Larionov married Alexandra Klavdievna Tomilina.