Maksimov, Vasily Maksimovich (1844-1911), an artist

Subject / Art/Personnel
MAKSIMOV, Vasily Maksimovich (1844, Lopino Village, Novaya Ladoga Uyezd – 1911), painter. He was born in a family of peasants, graduated from a school at the monastery. He painted icons at St.Nicholas Monastery in Staraya Ladoga Village. In 1855 he moved to St.Petersburg and worked at icon-painting studios. In the period 1863-66 he studied at the St.Petersburg Imperial Academy of Arts (A.T. Markov’s class). Maksimov worked as a tutor of painting at the estate of Golenishchevs –Kutuzovs in Tver Gubernia. In 1867 he came back to Lopino Village and settled down at his brother’s in a small peasant’s log hut; in1868 he moved to a neighbouring Chernavino Village. Since 1888 he lived in his parents’-in-law Lyubsha estate on the bank of the Volkhov River near Chernavino Village (doesn’t exist), he sometimes visited St.Petersburg. The main subject of Maksimov’s paintings is the life of Russian village. In Lopino Village, Chernavino Village and Lyubsha Village he created his best paintings: “Bolnoye Ditya” (“A Sick Child”), (1864), “Babushkiny Skazky” (“Granny’s Fairy-tales”) (1867), “Semeiny Razdel” (“Family Division”) (1876), “Bolnoy Muzh” (“A Sick Husband”) (1881), “Slepoy Khozyain” (“A Blind Master”) (1884), “Vse v Proshlom” (“It’s All Dead”) (1889), “U Svoyey Polosy” (“At His Plot”) (1891), “Likhaya Svekrov” (“Hard Mother-in-Law”) (1893), etc. In 1872 he was admitted to the Circle of Itinerants (Association of mobile art exhibitions - Peredvizhniki ). In 1875 he acquired a status of academician of painting for a picture “Prokhod Kolduna na Krestyanskyuy Svadby” (“Sorcerer’s Arrival at Peasant Wedding”. In 1878 magazine “Khudozhestvennye Sokrovishcha Rossiy” (“Art Treasures of Russia”) published V.V. Mate’s engravings to Maksimov’s drawings depicting churches and Staraya Ladoga Village suburbs. Maksimov died in St.Petersburg and was buried in Chernavino Village Church Cemetery. In 1957 a granite monument with a bas-relief was placed on Maksimov’s grave. Kruzhnov, Yuri Nikolayevich
Golenishchev-Kutuzovs, the
Maksimov, Vasily Maksimovich
Markov, Aleksey Tarasovich
Mate, Vasily Vasilyevich
Leningrad Oblast, the/Volkhov District/Chernavino Village
Leningrad Oblast, the/Volkhov District/Lopino Village
Leningrad Oblast, the/Volkhov District/Staraya Ladoga Village
Topographical landmarks/Volkhov River, the
Леонов А. И. Василий Максимович Максимов. Жизнь и творчество. М., 1951
Громов В.И., Файнштейн Л.А. Памятные места Ленинградской области. Л., 1959., 261-265
Lyubsha, a country estate
Staraya Ladoga Monastery of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker