LEBEDEV Vladimir Vasilyevich

May 14, 1891 (St. Petersburg) — November 21, 1967 (Leningrad)

Painter, graphic artist

Lebedev was born to a family of mechanic. He finished the Peter’s Commercial College in St. Petersburg. His first art education was at the private studio of A. I. Titov (1909) and at the F. A. Rubo’s studio of the battle-scene painting under the Imperial Academy of Arts (1910–1912). In 1912–1914 Lebedev attended as a noncredit student the Higher Art Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture under the Imperial Academy of Arts. At the same time he studied at the M. D. Bernshteyn and L. V. Shervud School of painting, drawing and sculpture. There Lebedev met V. E. Tatlin, S. D. Lebedeva, V. B. Shklovsky, and N. F. Lapshin.

Since 1911 Lenedev worked as an illustrator in the magazines Satirikon, Noviy Satirikon (“New Satirikon”), Argus, Siniy Zhurnal (“Blue Magazine”).

At the beginning of the World War I, Lebedev was called for military service, in 1917 he was demobilized. In 1918 Lebedev was appointed professor at Petrograd State Free Art Workshops. In the same year he designed the play The Spring in the artistic cabaret theatre Comedians’ Halt (“Prival Komediantov”). Lebedev took part in the exhibition of the modern painting and drawing in Petrograd. In early 1920s he began to work on political posters, he became one of the organizers of Petrograd Windows of ROSTA (the Russian Telegraph Agency).

In 1923 Lebedev drew costume and scene designs to the staging of the play Jokes Dinner by S. Bemenelli at the Bolshoi Drama Theatre in Petrograd.

In 1920–1925 Lebedev worked on the cycle of drawings Laundresses, in 1921–1922 — on the series Abstract compositions; in 1922 he created satirical series Street life of the Revolution, Rabble’s Love, in 1924–1927 he worked on the cycles of drawings New mode of life and NEP (New Economic Policy). Lebedev exposed his works at the exhibition of the Society of new tendencies in art, at the First Russian art exhibition in the Van Diemen Gallery in Berlin (1922). In 1928 the first personal exhibition of the works of Lebedev was held in the State Russian Museum. In the same year Lebedev became a member of the society Four Arts.

Lebedev worked a lot in book graphic art; since 1924 he was art director of children’s book at Leningrad department of the State Publishing House (Gosizdat). He collaborated with the Raduga (“Rainbow”) publishing house. He drew illustrations to the Arabian tale The Lion and the Bull (1918), to the stories The Nose and The Carriage by N. V. Gogol (1919), to the story The Elephant’s child by R. Kipling (1921), and also to his own books The Scarecrow (1922), and Hunting (1924).