Yevgeny Lanceray (Lanseré)

Graphic artist, painter, illustrator, theatrical designer, interior designer, teacher. Grandson of Nicolas Benois, son of Eugène Lanceray and Catherine Benois (1850–1933), nephew of Albert Benois, Léon Benois and Alexander Benois, brother of Zinaida Serebryakova. Grew up at the family estate of Neskuchnoe in Kursk Province (1875–86), moved with his family to St Petersburg after the death of his father (1886) and lived in the house of his maternal grandparents at 15 Nikolskaya (now Glinka) Street. Joined Alexander Benois’s Society of Self-Education (1890). Studied under Jan Ciagli?skj, Nikolai Samokish and Baron Ernst Friedrich von Liphart at the School of Drawing of the Society for the Encouragement of the Arts (1892–95) and at the Académie Colarossi (1895–96) and Académie Julian (1896–97) in Paris. Founding member of the World of Art (1898, 1910), member of the Union of Russian Artists (1903). Collaborated with the World of Art magazine (1898–1904), illustrated Nikolai Kutepov’s Royal Hunting in Russia (1902), Alexander Benois’s Tsarskoe Selo in the Reign of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna (1904–12) and Leo Tolstoy’s Hadji Murat (1912–15) and The Cossacks (1917–36). Visited the Far East, Manchuria and Japan (1902). Designed picture postcards for the Community of St Eugene (1904). War correspondent in Port Arthur and Manchuria during the Russo-Japanese War (1904–05) and on the Caucasian Front during the First World War (1914–15). Collaborated with the Bugbear and Hellish Post satirical magazines (1905–08). Travelled across Italy (1907). Designed the sets for performances of Nikolai Yevreinov’s La foire de la Saint Denis (1907–08) and Pedro Calderón de la Barca’s El purgatorio de San Patricio (1911–12) at the Historical Theatre in St Petersburg, William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar at the Maly Theatre in Moscow (1924), Camille Saint-Saëns’s Samson et Dalila at the Odessa Theatre of Opera (1925), William Shakespeare’s Macbeth and King Lear at the Lado Meskhishvili Georgian Theatre in Kutaisi (1928) and Alexander Griboyedov’s Woe from Wit at the Maly Theatre in Moscow (1938). Taught at Ekaterina Zarudnaya-Cavos’s school (from 1910), New Art Studio (1915–16), Tbilisi Academy of Arts (1922–34), All-Russian Academy of Arts in Leningrad (1934–38) and the Moscow Institute of Architecture (1934–43). Worked for the Imperial Lapidary Factory, Imperial Porcelain Factory and the Imperial Glass Factory (1912–15). Academician of painting (1912), full member of the Imperial Academy of Arts (1916). Moved to Dagestan (1917) and served as an artist in the White Army of General Anton Denikin (1918–19). Lived and worked in Tbilisi (1920–34), visiting Turkey (1922) and France (1927). Moved to Moscow (1933), where he decorated the interiors of the Kazan Railway Station (1933–34, 1945–46) and the Hotel Moscow (1935–37). Painted the Trophies of Russian Arms series of gouaches (1942). Died in Moscow and buried at the Novodevichy Cemetery (1946). Contributed to exhibitions (from 1898). Contributed to the Exhibition of Russian and Finnish Artists (1898), World of Art (1900–06, 1911–16), 36 Artists (1901), Union of Russian Artists (1903–10), New Society of Artists (1907, 1908) and the Association of Artists of Revolutionary Russia (1926, 1928). Honoured Artist of the Georgian SSR (1933), winner of the Stalin Prize (1943), People’s Artist of the RSFSR (1945).