d. May 6, 1939
Born in St Petersburg into a family of a major art historian and Hermitage Museum curator, he became interested in the 18th century art and music at an early age. Konstantin Somov (whose self-portrait you see here) was one of the gay members of the World of Art group.
In high school he had a passionate love affair with Dmitry Filosofov, who later became Diaghilev's lover. Somov studied at the Fine Art Academy of St Petersburg. Somov studied at the Imperial Academy of Arts under Ilya Repin from 1888 to 1897. While at the Academy, he befriended Alexandre Benois, who would introduce him to Sergei Diaghilev and Leon Bakst. The three founded the artistic movement "Mir Iskusstva" (the World of Art) and were protagonists of Art Nouveau movement. Somov liberally contributed to its periodicals. Somov was homosexual, like many of the World of Art members.
His lover from 1910 to 1932 was Mefodii Lukyanov. (Methodius Luk'yanov.) Following the Russian Revolution, he emigrated to the United States, but found the country "absolutely alien to his art" and moved to Paris, where he died. He was buried at the Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois Cemetery.
No comments:
Post a Comment