ZVORYKIN Boris Vasilievich

October 1, 1872 (Moscow) — the beginning of 1942 (Paris)

Painter, graphic artist

Boris Zvorykin was born to a family of a merchant. He was interested in drawing from early childhood. He did not study at any art school or university. He probably attended Moscow School of painting, sculpture and architecture (MUZhVZ) as a noncredit student in early 1890s. Zvorykin was under the influence of drawings by E. D. Polenova, paintings by V. M. Vasnetsov, S. V. Malyutin.

Since 1898 Zvorykin created book illustrations for publishing houses of N. D. Sytin, A. I. Mamontov and I. N. Knebel in Moscow, A. F. Marks and A. A. Levinson in St. Petersburg. In 1906–1908 he collaborated with the magazine Vesy (“The Scales”). He also designed artistic and historical albums Lavras, Monasteries and Churches of Holy Russia (1909), Serfdom and Will (1911), In the Memory of the 100th Anniversary of the Patriotic War. 1812–1912 (1912), Annalistic and Illuminated Anthology of the House of the Romanovs (1913), Moscow (1914) and others. Zvorykin created design for Christmas and Easter cards and open letters. The series of cards Troublous times, Napoleon’s Invasion in 1812, Russian children, Russian bylinas, Hunting were published after the watercolors by Zvorykin. He exposed his works at the exhibition Art in books and posters in St. Petersburg (1911–1912).

Zvorykin worked by the orders of the Imperial Court, in particular he designed the menu card of the banquet in honor of French senators and deputies in Moscow (1910), in honor of arrival of British Trade Mission (1912).

Zvorykin was engaged in monumental painting. He decorated the walls of the Saint Alexander Nevsky Cathedral in Simferopol (1910s, was lost). He took part in design of the Fedorovsky Cathedral in Tsarskoye Selo, and gained gratitude of Nicholas II. In 1915 Zvorykin was one of the founders of the Society for the Rebirth of Artistic Rus.

After October revolution, Zvorykin was invited to design the Epistle of the Local Council on patriarchate reinstatement; he also created design of the patriarch’s seal and the epistle of Patriarch Tikhon to the heads of Christian churches abroad.
In 1918–1919 Zvorykin created covers for the magazine Krasnoarmeets (“Red Army Soldier”), designed literary miscellany Tvorchestvo (“Art”; Moscow – Petrograd; together with A. N. Benois and S. N. Chekhonin), books Early Rus in proverbs and sayings by V. Volzhenin, Christmas old man and Yaga and wild strawberry by V. A. Smirnov. Zvorykin created agitation poster The Battle of Red Knight with Dark Forces.