16.08.1876 – 07.02.1942

Familiar since childhood illustrations – Ivan Tsarevich, trying to keep the Firebird; Baba-Yaga, flying in a mortar; Vasilisa the Beautiful, wandering through the forest – executed in a characteristic, very recognizable decorative-graphic manner, framed by ornamentation, belong to the brush of the famous Russian artist Ivan Bilibin.

He was born August 16, 1876, the estate Tarkhovka near St. Petersburg in the family of a naval doctor. Ivan Yakovlevich expected to become a lawyer and graduated from the Faculty of Law of St. Petersburg University, but he simultaneously studied at the Drawing School of the Society for the Encouragement of Artists. In 1900 Bilibin became a member of the association “World of Art” and continued his artistic education as an auditor in the studio of Ilya Repin in the Academy of Arts.

The artist brought his own unique style not only to the illustration, he also created advertising posters, political cartoons, and made up plays.

In the midst of the revolution of 1917, Bilibin left Petrograd for the Crimea, and then for Egypt, in 1925 he moved to Paris. During these years he was actively engaged in scenography, especially his work on the design of operas “The Tale of Tsar Saltan”, “Boris Godunov”, “Prince Igor”.

In 1936, Ivan Bilibin returned to his homeland, where he became a professor at the graphic workshop of the Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. In the first blockade winter in Leningrad, Bilibin died of hunger.