18.09.1882 – 14.04.1954

135 years ago, on September 18, 1882, Mikhail Ivanovich Avilov, one of the greatest battle artists of the first half of the 20th century, was born. His paintings are distinguished by a dynamic interesting composition and sonority of the coloristic decision. A striking example – one of the most famous works of the master “The Duel of Peresvet with Chelubey.” Peresvet’s victory in this battle, despite the death of both soldiers, decided the outcome of the Battle of Kulikovo. The master wrote this painting in 1943 to support the spirit of the Soviet soldiers who fought against the fascist invaders.

Mikhail Avilov knew firsthand what war was, he was a participant of the First World War and felt all the hardships of front life. But the passion for drawing was so great that at any free moment he took up a pencil. There are many sketches of the artist, which were printed in Petrograd journals.

Military subjects were always of interest to the young artist, he entered the Higher Art School and studied exactly in the class of battle painting from 1903 to 1913, but personal experience made his works scrupulously accurate: the details of uniforms, weapons, reliability poses – in Avilov’s paintings there is no place for approximations or inattention.

From 1918 to 1921, Mikhail Avilov spent in Siberia. He lived in Irkutsk, Barnaul and Tyumen. He designed city holidays, taught at an art school, wrote a lot. Basically, these are battle scenes dedicated to the Civil War, historical events.

In 1922, Mikhail Avilov returned to Petrograd and got a job teaching at the Leningrad Art and Industrial College, where he worked for more than 8 years. In 1947 he entered the Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. I.E. Repin. All his life the artist did not stop writing. In the artist’s heritage, not only monumental canvases, but also book graphics, and a poster.

Pictures of Mikhail Avilov are in the most famous museums of the post-Soviet space, including the Russian Museum, the Tretyakov Gallery and many others.

Mikhail Avilov died on April 14, 1954, in the seventy-second year of his life and was buried in the Tikhvin Cemetery in St. Petersburg.