Background
Stepan Pisakhov was born into a merchant family. At the same time his father was a craftsman – a jeweler and engraver.
Stepan Pisakhov was born into a merchant family. At the same time his father was a craftsman – a jeweler and engraver.
After completing his early schooling in Arkhangelsk, Pisakhov studied in Baron Stieglitz’ Arts College in St. Petersburg.
He continued his education as an artist in Paris and in a private St. Petersburg studio. Ilya Repin himself invited him to work in his studio. Stepan Pisakhov started to compose and tell his tales quite early, but rarely put them down on paper.
The peculiarity of his texts, which were first of all intended for listening audiences, was conditioned by their spoken origin.
Only in 1924 were his tales from the Northern Munchausen cycle published in the collection On Northern Dvina. In 1927 northern folktales recorded and commented upon by Stepan Pisakhov were published in the almanac “Sovetskaya Strana”.
In 1938-1940 Pisakhov’s own tales (in two volumes) saw the light in Arkhangelsk. The geography of Pisakhov’s active creative scope stretched from Novaya Zemlya to Cairo.
As an artist he received myriad impressions from his travels as a young man in Italy, France, Turkey and Egypt.
Yet his major focus, both as a writer and an artist, was his native North - its images, folklore and speech. Pisakhov explored the coastline of the White Sea, visited Novaya Zemlya, the waters of the Yugorsky Shar Strait connecting the Barents and Kara Seas, and took part in Arctic expeditions. Most of his tales are set in the village of Uyma, a suburb of Arkhangelsk.
The protagonist and narrator of the tales, a Pomor peasant from Uyma, has the name of Semyon (Senya) Malina.
In 2008, the Stepan Pisakhov Museum was opened in Arkhangelsk, and his paintings were transferred to this museum.