Vladimir Mikhailovich Konashevich

Born May 7 (19), 1888, in Novocherkassk; died Feb. 27, 1963, in Leningrad. Soviet graphic artist. Honored Art Worker of the RSFSR (1945).

Konashevich studied at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture (1908–13) under K. A. Korovin, S. V. Maliutin, and L. O. Pasternak. He taught at the Academy of Arts in Leningrad from 1921 to 1930 and from 1944 to 1948. From 1922 to 1924 he was a member of the World of Art (Mir iskusstvd) movement.

Characteristic of Konashevich’s illustrations, his still lifes, and his landscapes are emotionality, heightened ornamentation, and shimmering, artistic lines combined with a calligraphically precise drawing technique (watercolors, india-ink drawings on Chinese paper, and lithographs). Reality and poetic fantasy, gay inventiveness in depicting scenes and characters, and ornamental expressiveness in drawing (brush or pen) are typical of his numerous illustrations for children’s books.

Among Konashevich’s works are the illustrations for a number of books—Fet’s Poems (published in 1922), Marshak’s Fire (published in 1923), Prévost’s Manon Lescaut (published in 1932), Chukovskii’s Tales (published in 1935), Andersen’s Tales (published in 1950), and The Boat Sails and Sails (published in 1956). His easel works include Park in Pavlovsk (color autolitho-graph, 1921–23) and Winter Landscapes of Pavlovsk (india ink on Chinese paper, 1932–40; Russian Museum, Leningrad, and Tret’iakov Gallery).