KRYLOV Porfiry Nikitich

August 22 (9), 1902 (Shchelkunovo, Tula province) — May 15, 1990 (Moscow)

Graphic artist, painter

Porfiry Krylov was born to a family of the ammunition factory’s workers. He finished primary school; for some years he worked in the tool workshop at the ammunition factory. At the same time he studied in the art studio at the factory under the guidance of G. M. Shegal. He attended the Higher State Artistic and Technical Workshops (VKhUTEMAS) — the Higher Art Technical Institute (VKhUTEIN) in Moscow (1921–1928), studied under A. A. Osmerkin, A. V. Shevchenko, and P. P. Konchalovsky.

Since 1922 Krylov worked in co-authorship with M. V. Kupriyanov, under the pseudonyms Kukry and Krykup; since 1924 — in co-authorship with Kupriyanov and N. A. Sokolov. Krylov was engaged in satirical graphic art, political caricature, poster and book illustration. He worked for the newspapers Komsomolskaya Pravda (“Komsomol Truth”, Komsomol is Communist Union of  Youth), Literaturnaya Gazeta (“Literary Newspaper”), Pravda (“Truth”), Krasnaya Zvezda (“Red Star”), the magazines Prozhektor (“Searchlight”), Krokodil (“Crocodile”), Smekhach (“Laugher”), Smena (“Shift”). During the Great Patriotic War he collaborated with Windows of TASS (the Telegraph Agency of the Soviet Union). Krylov drew illustrations to many works by I. A. Ilf and E. P. Petrov, M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin, A. P. Chekhov, A. M. Gorky, M. de Cervantes, and M. A. Sholokhov.

He also was involved in easel painting and graphic art (individually); he painted landscapes, portraits, still lifes, and composition with scenes of Soviet life. Krylov worked in Yasnaya Polyana, Polenovo in Tula province, at the Academy dacha in Tver province, in Abramtsevo, in the Crimea, in the Caucasus. He visited Italy, Bulgaria, and France.

In 1947 he was conferred title of the full member of the USSR Academy of Arts, in 1958 — the title of the People’s Artists of the USSR. In 1947–1949 he was a member of the Praesidium of the USSR Academy of Arts.

Krylov was buried in the Novodevichy cemetery in Moscow.

Works by Porfiry Krylov are in the State Tretyakov Gallery, the State Russian Museum, in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence. The memorial Museum of P. N. Krylov (branch of Tula Museum of Fine Arts) was organized in Tula.