Benois, Aleksandr Nikolayevich (1870-1960), an artist

Subject / Art/Personnel
BENOIS, Alexandr Nikolayevich (1870–1960), artist, art historian, art critic, literary man. He was a son of an architect N.L. Benois. He studied at the St.Petersburg Imperial Academy of Arts (1887, didn’t graduate) and at the Law Department of the St.Petersburg University (1890-94). In the periods 1896-98 and 1905-07 he worked in France. In 1898 he was an initiator of the magazine “Mir Iskusstva” (“World of Art”) and its ideologist and then he was an ideologist of the same name Association. Benois founded and edited collection of works “Khudozhestvennye Sokrovishcha Rossiyi” (“Art Treasures of Russia”) (1901-03), he contributed to the magazine “Starye Gody” (“Old Years”) (1907-13), he worked as a columnist at the newspaper “Rech” (“Speech”), in a weekly critical column (1908-17). Benois was one of the founders of a new school of book graphics (series of graphic works for “Pikovaya Dama” (“Queen of Spades”) and “Medny Vsadnik” (“Bronze Horseman”) by A.S. Pushkin, etc.). In 1909 he became a leader of artistic sector of S.P. Dyagilev’s theatrical enterprise “Russkiye Balety” (“Russian Ballets”). In the period 1913-15 he worked as a chief artist at Moscow Artistic Theatre. In the period 1918-26 he worked as a keeper and a head of the Hermitage picture gallery, as a principal officer at the Russian Museum. Benois made stage decorations for performances in Petrograd theatres. He was one of the organizers of society “Stary Peterburg” (“Old Petersburg”) (1921). Since 1926 he lived in emigration. In the period 1934-55 Benois wrote a book “Moi Vospominaniya” (“My Memoirs”). He died in Paris. Since 1907 Benois many times came to Gatchina Town to make sketches; in the period 1920-26 he spent there summer months with his family, he painted many watercolours with the views of Gatchina Park and he also wrote a book about Italian painter Pietro Rotari “Rotari v Gatchine” (“Rotari in Gatchina Town”) (L., 1929). Kruzhnov, Yuri Nikolayevich
Benois, Alexandr Nikolayevich
Benois, Nikolay Leontyevich
Diaghilev, Sergey Pavlovich
Pushkin, Aleksandr Sergeyevich
Rotari, Pietro Antonio
Leningrad Oblast, the/Gatchina District/Gatchina Town
Выдрин И. И. Бенуа и его адресаты. СПб., 2006