- Boris Kustodiev, Russian painter born in 1878 in Astrakhan and passed in 1927.
- His style mixes bright color, russian folk moods, and lively scenes with a bit of simbolic charm.
- He painted merchants, festive markets, russian towns, family portraits, and joyful everyday life filled with rich details and warm atmosphers.
- His work is kept in major museums, and the active Wikipedia page holds basic info about his art and life.
His lively Russian scenes can be viewed alongside the work of Ilya Repin, another major Russian realist painter whose art focused on everyday life and people.
Boris Kustodiev at a glance
- Born: 1878, Astrakhan, Russia
- Died: 1927, Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg)
- Nationality: Russian
- Training: Studied under Ilya Repin at the Imperial Academy of Arts
- Style: Bright color, Russian folk moods, lively scenes
- Known for: Merchants, festive markets and everyday town life
- Signature works: The Merchant’s Wife (1918), Pancake Tuesday (1919)
Boris Kustodiev, portrait of a young woman in a dark coat and red headband, hands on her hips. 
Boris Kustodiev, Portrait of Fyodor Chaliapin, 1922 – the bass singer in a fur coat before a snowy Shrovetide fair. 
Boris Kustodiev, Maslenitsa (Shrovetide) winter fair, c. 1916 – troikas and crowds in the frost beneath a church. 
Boris Kustodiev, The Bolshevik, 1920 – a giant striding over the city with a red banner. 
Boris Kustodiev, Portrait of Emperor Nicholas II, 1915 – in uniform before the Moscow Kremlin. 
Boris Kustodiev, a summer view over the Volga – a woman and child resting on a birch-lined hill. 
Boris Kustodiev, portrait of a man in a blue coat holding folded newspapers. 
Boris Kustodiev, a Russian town in autumn colors with a crowd gathered beneath towers and frosted trees. 
Boris Kustodiev, A Merchant’s Wife at Tea, 1918 – a woman with a samovar, watermelon and a cat. 
Boris Kustodiev, Portrait of Pyotr Kapitsa and Nikolay Semyonov, 1921 – two physicists with laboratory glassware. 
Boris Kustodiev, portrait of a man at a worktable among large prints and drawings. 
Boris Kustodiev, portrait of a red-bearded man in a green jacket before a Russian riverside town. 
Boris Kustodiev, a birch grove in summer with villagers gathered in the shade. 
Boris Kustodiev, stage costume design of a king in an ermine robe and crown. 
Boris Kustodiev, portrait of an elderly gentleman seated at a desk with maps and papers. 
Boris Kustodiev, cover illustration for the journal “Olymp” – a caricatured, heavy-jowled figure in a dark tunic. 
Boris Kustodiev, spring thaw in a Russian village – meltwater pooled around wooden houses under bare trees. 
Boris Kustodiev, still life of a red-green apple beside an old banknote. 
Boris Kustodiev, a yellow watchtower and church in a Russian provincial town square. 
Boris Kustodiev, Fair Booths (Balagany), 1917 – a snowy Shrovetide festival with a decorated booth and crowds. 
Boris Kustodiev, a bonfire beside a horse at dusk on a river bank. 
Boris Kustodiev, poster design for the Bolshoi Drama Theatre production of “The Flea” (Bloha), 1925 – a moustached face under a tall fur hat. 
Boris Kustodiev, autumn in a provincial town – a blazing maple and two women in the foreground. 
Boris Kustodiev, a crowd with red flags beneath factory chimneys, a revolutionary-era scene. 
Boris Kustodiev, a village fair in front of a red-and-white church with colorful wares and shoppers. 
Boris Kustodiev, the bronze Horses of St Mark’s on the façade of the basilica in Venice. 
Boris Kustodiev, portrait of a woman in a black dress seated in a green chair beside hydrangeas. 
Boris Kustodiev, a man in a rowing boat on a wide river beneath a luminous sky of clouds. 
Boris Kustodiev, a holiday gathering under birch trees with flags and townspeople in their best clothes. 
Boris Kustodiev, a festival crowd on a Volga river bank with a distant white church. 
Boris Kustodiev, Celebration in Honor of the Second Congress of the Comintern, 1921 – red banners above a Petrograd square. 
Boris Kustodiev, portrait of a bearded man in dark clothing beside a white plaster sculpture. 
Boris Kustodiev, Portrait of the artist Ivan Bilibin, 1901 – seated in a dark frock coat with a red flower on his lapel. 
Boris Kustodiev, a man in a long brown coat with a pipe, carrying a framed painting through the city. 
Boris Kustodiev, portrait of a woman with bare shoulders and a dark patterned shawl before a river landscape. 
Boris Kustodiev, stage set design – a red-roofed pavilion in an autumn-colored landscape.