Aleksey Ilych Kravchenko, 1889-1940

Exh. Cat. Aleksei Kravchenko and his Family, Russian Academy of Art, Moscow, Oct-Nov 2001, p.11 (illustrated) 

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The art of Alexei Kravchenko is firmly rooted in the nineteen twenties and thirties. In 1904 Kravchenko was admitted to the Moscow Art School, where he studied under Valentin Serov, Konstantin Korovin and Apollinary Vasnetsov, and graduated with distinction in 1910. He then travelled in Italy and Greece, researching large-scale painting and frescoes. His Italian and Russian landscapes received much public recognition and were exhibited by the Union of Russian Artists, the World of Art movement, and the Moscow Artists' Fellowship.

Kravchenko's later travels in India, Japan and Sri Lanka revealed new possibilities for his painting and colour engraving. On his return to Russia at the beginning of the First World War, Kravchenko served as a war artist, sketching for newspapers and magazines.

In 1921 he moved from Saratov to Moscow, and devoted more time to sketching, engraving, etching and aquatint. He also illustrated editions of Pushkin, Gogol', Leskov and Hoffmann, and quickly established himself at the forefront of Russia's Romantic engraving tradition. In 1925, Kravchenko became one of the organisers of the '4 Arts' movement, uniting architects, sculptors, painters and graphic artists. Later he became a professor at the Surikov Art Institute, Moscow. Despite his multifaceted activities, Kravchenko always continued painting, successfully uniting Russian and European classical traditions in his work.

Kravchenko bequeathed a great creative legacy. He produced nearly a thousand engravings, numerous etchings, linocuts, sketches and watercolours, and more than 300 paintings. His works are in the State Tretyakov Gallery, State Russian Museum, Pushkin Museum of Fine Art, the Metropolitan Museum in the USA, the British Museum, and in many other museums and private collections in Russia and abroad.