Kuzma Sergeevich Petrov-Vodkin
(1878-1939)
Kuzma Sergeevich Petrov-Vodkin, a Russian and Soviet painter and writer, was born in 1878 in Khvalynsk to the family of a shoemaker. His first exposure to art was in his early childhood, when he took some lessons from a couple of icon painters. After finishing the secondary school, he got a summer job at a small shipyard planning to enter the Railroad College in Samara. After failing his exam, he turned to Art Classes of Fedor Burov in 1893.In April 1895, Burov died. By chance, his mother's employer invited a well-known architect, R. Meltzer. Petrov-Vodkin was introduced to the guest and impressed him enough to get an invitation to study art at Saint Petersburg. At that time he met Borisov-Musatov, who encouraged Petrov-Vodkin to continue his studies. Petrov-Vodkin stayed in Saint Petersburg from 1895 to 1897 studying at the Baron Stieglitz School, before moving to the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. There Petrov-Vodkin was a student of Valentin Serov, Isaak Levitan and especially Konstantin Korovin. In 1901 he travelled to Munich to be taught by Anton Aschbe. He graduated in 1904.While in Paris in 1906 he met and married Maria Jovanovic (1885-1960). From 1924 to 1926 Petrov-Vodkin lived in France with his family. In 1922 he painted a portrait of the Russian poet Anna Akhmatova. With the help of the Soviet government, he made several trips across the Soviet Union Petrov-Vodkin died of tuberculosis on February 15, 1939 in Leningrad.
