Soviet Russian artist Pyotr Dmitrievich Buchkin

Pioneers. canvas, oil. 1927. Painting by Soviet Russian artist Pyotr Dmitrievich Buchkin (January 22, 1886 – June 21, 1965)
Soviet Russian artist Pyotr Dmitrievich Buchkin
Born 22 January 1886 in the village of Sofronovo, Tver province, Pyotr Buchkin lived in Uglich since 1891. He graduated from the three-grade school and studied painting with local icon painters.
In 1899 he came to Petersburg, and began studying at the Central School of Technical Drawing of Baron A. L. Stieglitz (1899-1904). Then, at the Higher Art School under the Imperial Academy of Arts (1904-1912). At the end of school, as a grant of the Academy of Arts, the artist visited Italy, France, Germany, Spain and other countries (1912-1914).
Honored Artist of the RSFSR, a member of the Leningrad organization of the Union of Artists of the RSFSR, he became known for a series of portraits of his contemporaries – cultural and art figures. In genre works he paid much attention to the peasant theme and provincial life. During the Great Patriotic War, he began work on one of his most iconic painting, “The Appeal of Kozma Minin to the Russian People” (completed in the 1950s).
From 1947 until the end of his life, Buchkin was in charge of the Department of Monumental Painting at the Leningrad Higher School of Art and Industry named after V.I. Mukhina. His works are in the State Tretyakov Gallery, the State Russian Museum, and the Uglich Historical and Art Museum.

Young forest. 1952. Painting by Soviet Russian artist Pyotr Dmitrievich Buchkin (January 22, 1886 – June 21, 1965)
Since 1907, Buchkin participated in exhibitions. He painted portraits, genre paintings, landscapes, illustrated magazines and books. Worked in the technique of watercolor, drawing with pencil and sanguine, pastels, etching, oil and tempera. Meanwhile, in 1914, Buchkin became a member of the Kuindzhi Society of Artists, in 1918 he was elected a member of the Society of Russian Watercolorists.
After the October Revolution in 1918-1921, Buchkin served in the command of commandants of the Baltic Fleet submarine division. After that (1921-1936) he worked as the head of the technical department of the publishing house “Rainbow” in Leningrad. In particular, illustrated books for publishing houses of Leningrad and Moscow. Buchkin was a member of the Leningrad Union of Soviet Artists (LSSH) since 1932.
In 1936-1940 he taught at the Leningrad Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture of the All-Russian Academy of Arts, Professor of the Drawing Department (1937). Besides, in 1947-1965 he taught at the Leningrad Higher School of Art and Industry named after VI Mukhina, professor (1952), head of the department of monumental decorative painting (1951-1955, 1962-1965).
A talented draftsman and portraitist, Pyotr Butchkin was fluent in various techniques of painting the theme. Their choice, as a rule, was determined by the genre of the work, interest in revealing the inner content of the image. The artist was most famous for portraits of artists. Noteworthy, he painted Vladimir Lenin and Fedor Chaliapin from nature. In 1989-1992, after the death of the artist, his works presented at exhibitions and auctions of Russian painting L ‘Ecole de Leningrad and others in France.
Pyotr Dmitrievich Buchkin died in Leningrad on June 21, 1965, at the age of eighty, buried at the Bogoslovsky Cemetery.
His works are in the collections of the Russian Museum, the Tretyakov Gallery, and other Russian museums. In addition, in numerous private collections in Russia, Finland, Britain, the USA, France and other countries.