Tyrsa, Nikolai Andreevich

Born Apr. 27 (May 9), 1887, in the village of Aralykh (present-day Arahk, Turkey); died Feb. 10,1942, in Vologda. Soviet graphic artist and painter.

Tyrsa studied at the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts from 1905 to 1909 and under L. S. Bakst at E. N. Zvantseva’s school from 1906 to 1910. He taught at the Academy of Arts in Petrograd from 1918 to 1922 and at the Leningrad Institute of Civil Engineering from 1924 to 1942. He helped design posters for Boevoi Karandash (The Militant Pencil) from 1939 to 1942. Tyrsa was one of the originators of the Soviet school of children’s book illustration. His best illustrations, including drawings, watercolors, and lithographs, are executed in a sketchlike manner, creating the illusion of being taken directly from nature; these include the illustrations to V. Bianki’s Snow Book (published 1926) and G. Miroshnichenko’s Young Army (published 1933). His easel works, primarily landscapes and still lifes, are noted for their dec-orativeness and their rich yet subtle color schemes, for example Bouquet and Viatka Toy (1940, collection of the artist’s family).