Pavel Petrovich Sokolov-Skalia

Born June 21 (July 3), 1899, in Strel’na, now part of Leningrad; died Aug. 3,1961, in Moscow. Soviet painter and graphic artist. People’s Artist of the RSFSR (1956); member of the Academy of Arts of the USSR (1949). Member of the CPSU from 1952.

Sokolov-Skalia studied at L. I. Mashkov’s studio in Moscow from 1914 to 1918 and at the Moscow Vkhutemas (State Higher Arts and Technical Studio) from 1920 to 1922. He became the chairman of the Bytie (Being) Association in 1920 and a member of the Association of Artists of Revolutionary Russia in 1926. He was artistic director of the Okna TASS (Windows of TASS) from 1941 to 1945. He taught at the M. B. Grekov Studio of War Artists (1935–1) and at other institutions of art studies.

Most numerous among Sokolov-Skalia’s works are historical revolutionary and battle scenes imbued with a romantic spirit. Examples include The Road From Gorky (1929, V. I. Lenin Central Museum, Moscow), the triptych Shchors (1938, Central Museum of the Armed Forces, Moscow), and The Young Fighters of Krasnodon (1948, Russian Museum, Leningrad; State Prize of the USSR, 1949). Sokolov-Skalia was a master of the panorama and diorama, a poster artist, a theatrical artist, and a book illustrator. During the Great Patriotic War (1941–5) he was awarded the State Prize of the USSR for the Okna TASS (1942). In 1954 he directed the restoration of F. A. Rubo’s panorama The Defense of Sevastopol.