AVINAV Andrey (Andrey Avinoff)

14 февраля 1884 (Tulchin, Podolia) — 16 июля 1949 (new-Йорк)

graphic artist, painter, art historian, entomologist, lepidopterist, botanist

From a noble family. He studied at Moscow University (graduated in 1905). Formal artistic education is not received; since childhood, fond of painting and drawing.

Lived in St. Petersburg. He served as assistant Secretary-General of the Senate (1905-1911); worked with the correspondence of Russian immigrants suspected of revolutionary activities abroad. 1911 — cameras-юнкер of Emperor Nicholas II. During the First world war was responsible for the procurement of ammunition, medicines and food for the Zemstvo Union; in 1916 on business trip to Union made its first trip to the USA.

In his childhood began to collect and study butterflies. In the summer of 1908 to this end he took an expedition to the Pamirs. Between 1908 and 1914 he organized the forty-two TRANS-Asian expedition (India, Tibet, the Himalayas, Ceylon, Turkestan), the participants were entomologists: Н. М. Романов, А. Г. Якобсон, М. С. Мамаев and others. Discovered and described a previously unknown species of butterflies. The correspondent of the Imperial Russian geographical society (awarded the gold medal of the Society), London entomological society, entomological society of new-Йорка.

in Parallel with the scientific activities engaged in the arts. He painted landscapes, performed sketches of butterflies in expeditions; worked a lot in watercolors. A member and Exhibitor of Moscow Association of artists (1904 — Moscow, 1905 — Petersburg; member since 1902).

In September 1917 to the business of the Zemstvo Union went to the USA; to Russia has not returned. Then it became the official representative of Provisional government in Washington. Member of the Congress of Versailles (1919).