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Georges Artemoff

  • It is difficult to say to what extent Istanbul was a fateful impact on Artemoff in terms of his artwork, but there he met his future wife, artist Lydia Nikanorova.
  • Georges
  • Artemoff
  • Георгий Калистратович Артемов

  • 17-02-1892
  • Uryupinsk (RU)
  • 09-07-1965
  • Revel (FR)
  • PainterSculptor
  • It is difficult to say to what extent Istanbul was a fateful impact on Artemoff in terms of his artwork, but there he met his future wife, artist Lydia Nikanorova.

    Word Count: 30

  • Georges Artemoff in Moscow, 1910 (Private Archive of Marie Artemoff-Testa).
  • It is difficult to say to what extent Istanbul was a fateful impact on Georges Artemoff in terms of his artwork, but in terms of his personal life it certainly became one. In Istanbul, Artemoff met his future wife, artist Lydia Nikanorova, who had also left the Russian Empire and who also later moved to France.
    At a young age the artist attended drawing classes in Rostov-on-Don, as well as Konstantin Korovin’s classes at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. Here is what Artemoff, whose father was a Cossack chieftain, had to say about his passion for painting: “When I was very young, I started to draw and paint. This is very rare among us; the Cossacks are horsemen, dancers, musicians, singers, but not painters” (Ruffié 2018, 15–16). Before the First World War, he managed to organise a solo exhibition, participate in various collective exhibitions and even work with Montparnasse artists in Paris, where he ended up thanks to a scholarship. He was evacuated to Istanbul with units of the White Army. He produced a lot of work there, mainly landscapes and portraits, but a contemporary newspaper article noted that he “worked with cheap paints that quickly lose colour”, which suggests that he had limited financial means. In order to acquire greater visibility for his work, Artemoff joined the Union of Russian Painters in Constantinople and took part in two of their major exhibitions (including Exhibition of Russian émigré artists at Taksim Military Barracks). As mentioned above, he also met his future wife, painter Lydia Nikanorova, in the city. From Veniamin Kaverin’s novel we learn about Artemoff living “in the very heart of old Istanbul with its mosques, colourful bazaars, ruins of old baths and city walls” and about his visit to the Kariye Mosque (Chora Church) with Lydia Nikanorova and Nikolai Kluge in 1923. However, it has transpired that Kaverin, who was believed to have written his novel based on Nikanorova’s letters to her mathematician friend Pavel Bezsonov, in fact, most likely wrote it mainly based on her friend’s answers, since Nikanorova’s letters from Istanbul have not survived (Kulakova 2017, 489–490). So, there is a high probability that he was making up a lot of things for the artist. Our knowledge of his Istanbul period is unfortunately incomplete as most of the work he produced during that time was sold. However, some of it can be seen in Paul Ruffié’s book, including some landscape painting (sheaves of wheat), Kariye Mosque, and some theatrical scenery drawings.
    Having fought on the French side in the First World War, Artemoff was granted a visa and in 1923 left for Paris, convinced that he would achieve success there. He was proved right. In France, he became a member of the Union of Russian Artists in France, worked as a sculptor and as a painter, and received gold and silver medals for participation in the salons. After the death of his wife in 1938, he created several works with religious themes. In 1942 he married for a second time, to the artist Jeanne Astre, a student of Maurice Denis, and from 1952 lived in her house in Revel. After World War II, he held about 20 solo exhibitions in a number of different French cities, including Paris, Nice, Toulouse and Cannes. Today, one can see Georges Artemoff’s works in the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, the Musée Toulouse-Lautrec in Albi, the Musée Goya in Castres and many other famous museums.

    Word Count: 578

  • Georges Artemoff in Moscow, 1910 (Private Archive of Marie Artemoff-Testa).
    Anatolian Hills by Georges Artemoff. Most likely created in the Ottoman Empire in 1921/1922 (Stearns Family Papers. Archives & Special Collections. The College of the Holy Cross).
    Émigré artists at Caveau Caucasien in Paris, 1923. From left to right: Sandro Minervine, Serge Pimenoff, Georges Artemoff, Lydia Nikanorova (Private Archive of Marie Artemoff-Testa).
    Georges Artemoff, L'Espagnole (© Ville de Castres – Musée Goya, musée d’art hispanique)
    Georges Artemoff, Saint-Hubert, around 1945 (© Ville de Castres – Musée Goya, musée d’art hispanique)
  • Anonymous. “Vystavka Soyuza Russkih Hudojnikov.” Presse du Soir, 19 June 1922, n.p.

    Anonymous. “L'Exposition de l'Union des Peintres russes à la caserne Mac-Mahon.” Journal D'Orient, 20 January 1923, n.p.

    Anonymous. “Artemoff à la Galerie Moulins.” espritsnomades.net, https://www.espritsnomades.net/arts-plastiques/georges-artemoff-a-la-galerie-moulins/. Accessed 1 October 2020.

    Anonymous. “Georgiy Artemov-hudojnik Russkogo zarubej’ya.” dommuseum.ru, https://dommuseum.ru/kalendar-sobyitij/2018/maj/openartemov. Accessed 24 July 2020.

    Kaverin, Veniamin. Pered Zerkalom. Sovetskiy pisatel’, 1972.

    Kulakova, Asia V. “The Image of Byzantium in the Novel In Front of the Mirror by Veniamin Kaverin.” Slověne, vol. 6, no. 1, 2017, pp. 485–497.

    Ruffié, Paul. Georges Artemoff (1892–1965). Privat, 2018.

    Word Count: 91

  • Private Archive of Marie Artemoff-Testa, France.

    Archives & Special Collections at the College of the Holy Cross (Worcester, Massachusetts).

    Slavonic Library (Slovanská knihovna) in Prague.

    Word Count: 25

  • My deepest thanks go to Marie Artemoff-Testa for her valuable comments and help.

    Word Count: 13

  • Ekaterina Aygün
  • Istanbul, Ottoman Empire/Turkey (1920–1923); France (1923–1965).

  • Sultanahmet, Istanbul (residence); Küçük Yazıcı 4 (now presumably Tarlabaşı Blv. 79), Hüseyinağa, Beyoğlu, Istanbul (studio).

  • Istanbul
  • Ekaterina Aygün. "Georges Artemoff." METROMOD Archive, 2021, https://archive.metromod.net/viewer.p/69/2949/object/5138-10436663, last modified: 16-09-2021.
  • Nikolai Kluge
    PainterPhotographerArt restorerArchaeologistCopyist
    Istanbul

    As a non-regular employee at the Russian Archaeological Institute of Constantinople before the Russian Revolution, Nikolai Kluge was perhaps the émigré artist most familiar with Istanbul.

    Word Count: 26

    Lydia Nikanorova
    Painter
    Istanbul

    In Istanbul, Nikanorova worked at copying the mosaics and frescoes of the Kariye Mosque, and met her future husband, Georges Artemoff, also an émigré artist from the former Russian Empire.

    Word Count: 30

    Exhibition of Russian émigré artists at Taksim Military Barracks
    Exhibition
    Istanbul

    The exhibition of Russian-speaking émigré artists at Taksim Military Barracks was the first major exhibition organised by the Union of Russian Painters in Constantinople.

    Word Count: 24

    Union of Russian Painters in Constantinople
    Association
    Istanbul

    The Union existed for less than two years but in that short space of time a tremendous amount of work was done by its members, refugees from the Russian Empire.

    Word Count: 30