Mikhail Avilov

Painter, graphic artist, theatrical designer, teacher. Born in the family of Ivan Avilov in St Petersburg (1882). Studied at the School of Drawing of the Society for the Encouragement of the Arts (1893), Lev Dmitriyev-Kavkazsky’s studio in St Petersburg (1903–04) and under Franz Roubaud and Nikolai Samokish at the Imperial Academy of Arts (1904–05, 1907–13). Full member of the Academy of Arts of the USSR (1947), People’s Artist of the RSFSR (1953). Died in Leningrad and buried at the Tikhvin Cemetery in the St Alexander Nevsky Monastery (1954). Contributed to exhibitions (from 1908). Contributed to the exhibitions of the Imperial Academy of Arts (1915–18), Fellowship of Artists (1916), Society of Russian Watercolourists (1917), Arkhip Kuinji Society (1917–18, 1926–30), Exhibition of Pictures of Petrograd Artists of All Directions (1923), Four Arts (1926) and the Association of Artists of Revolutionary Russia (1928).