Boris Dmitrievich Grigoriev (July 11, 1886 – February 7, 1939) – the famous Russian artist of the first half of the twentieth century, a prominent representative of avant-garde. Boris Grigoriev is best known for painting portraits. The heroes of his works were many prominent figures of the Russian intelligentsia. In his work, the master also often turned to the theme of village life. The artist’s biography is full of numerous travels around the world, especially in the post-revolutionary period.

Boris Grigoriev was also a recognized master of graphics and a skilled book illustrator. He created a huge number of drawings for the works of the classics of Russian literature. But at the final stage of his professional career, he devoted a lot of time and effort to teaching in private schools and academies.

Biography of Boris Grigoriev

Boris Grigoriev was born on July 11, 1886 in Moscow. He was born out of wedlock, the father of the future artist worked as a bank clerk in Rybinsk, and his Swedish mother was a simple housewife. At the age of four, his own father officially adopted Boris and took him with him to the Yaroslavl province.

After school, young Grigoriev entered the Moscow Art School. He graduated from college in 1907 and moved to St. Petersburg. In the northern capital, he got a job as a free student at the Academy of Arts, where he studied under the guidance of professors Alexander Alexandrovich Kiselev and Dmitry Nikolaevich Kardovsky until 1913.

Thanks to the financial support of his father, while still studying at the Academy, Boris often traveled around Europe. He visited relatives on his mother’s side in Stockholm. He visited Oslo and Rome, Budapest and Athens, and in the spring of 1913 he first came to Paris and fell in love with this wonderful city forever. In the capital of France, Grigoriev studied for several months at the private academy de la Grande Chamière, created many drawings that glorify the cheerful atmosphere of a large and noisy metropolis.

The young artist quickly became widely known.

For the first time his paintings were presented to the public at an exhibition in 1909. And after another two years, Boris began to collaborate with several prestigious St. Petersburg magazines that published his drawings. At the same time, Grigoriev acquired numerous connections among St. Petersburg bohemia. He was friends with artists and writers, painted portraits of his acquaintances, thanks to which he soon gained fame as one of the best masters of the portrait genre in the Russian Empire.

Fearing for his life, in the spring of 1919 Grigoriev secretly fled from Petrograd to Finland. From Helsinki he moved to Berlin. In 1921, Grigoriev went to Paris, where by that time a solid Russian diaspora had formed from among the recently arrived emigrants.

Fortunately, the brilliant Russian master turned out to be in demand even far from Russia

His works were popular with the Parisian public and brought a good income to the author. In 1927, Grigoriev purchased a small plot of land in the south of France and built a cozy house on it. From the beginning of the 1930s, Boris Dmitrievich devoted most of his time to illustrating books. In addition, he was engaged in teaching work at a private Russian academy in Paris. He founded his own school of painting, and also traveled a lot around the world.

The artist led an active social life, he was often invited to exhibitions in the United States and European countries. Despite the warnings of doctors, the brilliant master worked intensively, which led to severe physical and emotional exhaustion. As a result, being at the zenith of fame, Boris Grigoriev died suddenly on February 7, 1939 at the age of 52.