Apollinary Mikhaylovich Vasnetsov was a Russian painter and graphic artist whose elder brother was the more famous Viktor Vasnetsov. He specialized in scenes from the medieval history of Moscow. Vasnetsov did not receive a formal artistic education. He studied under his older brother, Viktor Vasnetsov, the famous Russian painter. From 1883, he and his brother lived and worked in Abramtsevo where he fell under the influence of Vasily Polenov. In 1898–1899, he travelled across Europe. In addition to epic landscapes of Russian nature, Apollinary Vasnetsov created his own genre of historical landscape reconstruction on the basis of historical and archaeological data. His paintings present a visual picture of medieval Moscow. He was a member of the Association of Travelling Art Exhibitions from 1899, and an academician from 1900. He became one of the founders and supervisors of the Union of Russian Artists.
Early life
The future painter had three elder and two younger brothers. Their only sister died at the age of four months. Their father played an important role in the upbringing and education of his sons. He taught them to love nature and to become familiar with the life of birds and animals. The death of his father in 1870 was a terrible blow for Vasnetsov.
In 1890, he made a journey across the North of the Russian Empire. Beautiful views of Siberia and the Urals were captured by Apollinary Vasnetsov in a large number of his canvasses, including:
In 1895, Vasnetsov visited the Caucasus. He was deeply impressed by the beauty of the rugged Caucasus mountains. Whilst there, he climbed the glaciers of Mt. Elbrus, visited Tiflis and lived in the Darial Gorge. He created a great number of his sketches during this period, including:
In 1890, he made a journey across Europe, visiting France and Italy, where he studied the works of famous masters. At the beginning of 1920, the Committee of Archaeology invited Apollinary Vasnetsov and some other painters to draw the old places of Voronezh. A minor planet, 3586 Vasnetsov, discovered by Soviet astronomer Lyudmila Zhuravlyova in 1978, is named after Viktor Vasnetsov and Apollinary Vasnetsov.
