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Russian artist, book illustrator and stage designer Ivan Bilibin was born on that day
An outstanding Russian painter, book illustrator and stage designer, a member of the “World of Art” Ivan Bilibin was born in the family of a naval doctor in the Village of Tarkhovka of the St. Petersburg province on the 4th (16th) of August 1876.
In 1896, Ivan Bilibin graduated from high school with a silver medal, and in 1900 completed a full legal course at St. Petersburg University. On nineteen Bilibin studied in School of the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, and then in Munich in the A. Ashbe studio, was a student of I. Y. Repin, under whose guidance he graduated from the Higher Art School of the Academy of Arts.
The most recognition Bilibin earned as a theater artist and illustrator of Russian fairy tales. From 1899 to 1902 Ivan Yakovlevich worked on illustrations for a series of six stories, including “The Tale of Tsar Saltan” and “The Tale of the Golden Cockerel,” later on epic poem “Volga,” the tales of Alexander Roslavlev and on the scenery for the opera “The Golden Cockerel.” It was Bilibin who created a children's book as a work of art: aside from text illustrations, he also come up with decorations, ornaments, developed fonts, headpieces, dropped capital letters. In a single, stylistically adjusted Bilibin’s world of tale merges with images of Russian antiquity and nature. Bilibin widely used engraving, woodcut print, was a true connoisseur of Russian costume, and studied everything that makes a national flavor.
Since 1907 and up to the Revolution of 1917 Bilibin taught graphics in the Drawing School of Society for the Encouragement of Arts. In 1915 he, along with many prominent artists - Victor Vasnetsov, Konstantin Makovsky, Mikhail Nesterov, Nicholay Roerich - took part in the formation of the Society for Artistic Revival of Russia. Besides, the artist created posters, addresses, sketches for stamps (in particular, a series on the 300th anniversary of the Romanov dynasty), and about 30 cards for the Community of St. Eugene.
Immediately after the revolution Ivan Bilibin went to his estate in the Crimea, and in 1920 sailed from Novorossiysk in Egypt. In Cairo, the artist studied the art of ancient Egypt, performed sketches of frescoes and panel murals in the Byzantine style. In Cairo Bilibin was actively involved in the design of the in-house church in Russian clinic initiated by Russian medics. Iconostasis of this church was built upon his project.
In 1925 Bilibin moved to Paris, where he prepared the brilliant scenery for production of Russian operas, designed “The Firebird” ballet of Stravinsky in Buenos Aires and the operas in Brno and Prague; illustrated Russian and the Brothers’ Grimm fairy tales, tales of “One Thousand and One Nights.” After 1925 Bilibin became a founding member of the “Icon” Society. As an illustrator, he created a cover for the charter and rendered a printing stamp for the society. In Prague, he produced the sketches of frescoes and iconostasis for the Russian church on Olshansky Cemetery in Czech capital. He designed greeting cards for the Russian publishing houses in Paris and Berlin.
In 1936, the artist returned to his native land, where he settled in Leningrad and began teaching in the Russian National Academy of Arts, as well as continued illustration and staging work in and theater. The last work of the famous artist was a preliminary illustration of the epic ballade entitled “Duke Stepanovich” in 1941.
Ivan Bilibin died from hunger in Leningrad during the first winter of the siege on February 7, 1942, refusing to get evacuated from the besieged city to the rear. He was buried in the mass Academy of Arts faculty’s grave neare the Smolensk Cemetery.
Based on the Presidential Library’s materials:
И. Я. Билибин (1876-1942). Иллюстрация к «Сказке о царе Салтане» А. С. Пушкина [открытка]. М., 1957;