| Mikhail Alexandrovich Vrubel (1856 - 1910), list of works |
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 | | Considered by many to be the founder of Russian Art Noveau, Mikhail Alexandrovich Vrubel was in his time Russia's leading exponent of symbolism. In 1880, he entered St. Petersburg University to study law, but joined the Academy of Arts the same year. A trip to Venice in 1884 instilled in Vrubel a lifelong passion for Byzantine art, and his first major commission was the restoration of Byzantine frescoes and icons. In 1889, Vrubel moved to Moscow and quickly joined the artist colony at the estate of Savva Mamontov, a famous art patron. His best known works are the series illustrating Lermontov's poem "The Demon," displaying his characteristic improvisation and fragmentary composition. His manic artistic style bled into his life, however, and Vrubel was diagnosed as insane in 1902, spending the remainder of his life in a mental institution. |
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