Serge Férat

Painter, graphic artist, applied artist, illustrator. Cousin of Baroness Hélène d’Oettingen. Born in Moscow in the family of Count Nikolai Yastrebtsov (1881). Trained as a lawyer. Studied at the Kiev Institute of Art (early 1900s). Moved to Paris to live with Baroness Hélène d’Oettingen (c. 1905) and studied at the Académie Rodolphe Julian (second half of 1900s), developing an interest in the Italian Quattrocento. Moved towards Cubism after meeting Pablo Picasso and Guillaume Apollinaire (1910). Financed and published avant-garde magazine Les Soirées de Paris with Baroness Hélène d’Oettingen (1913–14). Illustrated Apollinaire’s Surrealist drama Les mamelles de Tirésias and designed a production of the work at the Paris Conservatoire. Collaborated on the Udar literary-artistic journal (1921–23) and joined the Golden Section. Worked in the Cubist style, moving towards a decorative style (1930s). Designed tapestries for the Bovais factory. Contributed to the design of the anthology The Poetry of Unknown Words compiled by Ilya Zdanevich (1949). Died in Paris (1958). Contributed to exhibitions (from 1906). Contributed to the exhibitions of the Society of French Artists (from 1906, under the pseudonym of “Roudnev”), Salon des Indépendants (1906–28), Salon d’Automne (1924), Golden Section (1920–25), group exhibitions of French Artists in Paris (1931, 1938), international exhibitions in Cologne, Chicago (1931), exhibition of Russian art in Prague (1935), Cubist Exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in Paris (1953) and one-man shows in Paris (1917, 1932, 1938).