Soviet artist Dmitry Nalbandyan

Portrait of Indira Gandhi. 1970. Oil. Painting by Soviet artist Dmitry Nalbandyan (1906-1993)

Soviet artist Dmitry Nalbandyan
Artist Ilya Glazunov recalled that, in connection with the preparation to the official visit of Leonid Brezhnev to India 1973, he decided to “make an original gift – a portrait by one of the masters of socialist realism to a friendly government leader Indira Gandhi. To execute a responsible job to Delhi was sent academician Dmitry Abramovich Nalbandyan. He tried very hard, but when he showed the completed work to Indira Gandhi, she barely glanced at the canvas, noting: “I am not an Armenian.” And she refused to take a picture. Nalbandyan then exhibited it in the Arena with the inscription “Property of the author”. Nalbandyan created portraits of many representatives of the Soviet elite (including Lenin, Stalin, Khrushchev, Brezhnev), for which in the art circles he was called “the first brush of the Politburo.” Dmitry Nalbandyan – full member of the USSR Academy of Arts (1953), Stalin Prize (1946, 1951), and Lenin Prize (1982) winner. In 1978, for a group portrait of figures of Armenian culture “Vernatun” was awarded the gold medal of the USSR.

Dmitry Arkadievich Nalbaldyan (born 1906). Lenin speaking on the Red Square in 1919. 1971. Oil

Dmitry Arkadievich Nalbaldyan. Lenin speaking on the Red Square in 1919. 1971. Oil

The works of the Soviet artist Dmitry Nalbandyan are stored in the State Tretyakov Gallery and other major museums. The artist’s self-portrait from 1982 is in the Uffizi Gallery (Florence).

D. Nalbandyan. In the Kremlin, May 24, 1945. (1947)

Dmitry Arkadievich Nalbandyan (1906-1993) – Academician of the Academy of Arts of the USSR (1953), Corresponding Member (1947); People’s Artist of the USSR (1969); Hero of Socialist Labor (1976)’ The winner of the Lenin Prize (1982) and two Stalin Prizes (1946, 1951). Member of the Communist party of the Soviet Union since 1948.