Mikhail Aleksandrovich Vrubel (1856-1910) is a Russian artist of the turn of the XIX-XX centuries, who worked in almost all types and genres of fine arts: painting, graphics, decorative sculpture and theatrical art.
Mikhail Vrubel was born on March 17, 1856 in Omsk. His father, Alexander Vrubel, served as a military lawyer. Mother was the daughter of the Astrakhan governor, famous cartographer and admiral Grigory Basargin.
By the age of ten, Mikhail Vrubel was fond of music, theatrical art and drawing. At the insistence of his father, he entered the law faculty of St. Petersburg University. In his student years, Vrubel was fond of philosophy and theater, created illustrations for literary works. One of the most famous works of that time is a graphic illustration "Date of Anna Karenina with her son", made in black ink on brown paper.
In 1880, the young artist entered the Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg, where he entered the studio of Pavel Chistyakov while simultaneously studying in the watercolor workshop of Ilya Repin.
In 1883, Vrubel went to Kiev, where the artist created sketches for the restoration of old frescoes, painted the walls of the church and painted icons.
In 1885 the artist went to Italy to get acquainted with Byzantine and late Roman painting. During the trip, Mikhail Vrubel worked a lot: he made sketches, painted watercolors, in one night he created a hundred-figure composition "Orpheus in Hell".
Upon returning home in 1889, Vrubel moved to Moscow, where, together with famous artists: Ilya Repin, Ivan Aivazovsky, Ivan Shishkin, he worked on illustrations for the Collected Works of Mikhail Lermontov.
In the same period, Vrubel moved to Abramtsevo in the name of Sava Mamontov, where he became a member of the Abramtsevo circle. In the Mamontov estate, the artist headed the majolica workshop, created plaster sculptures and decorative panels.
In early 1896, Mikhail Vrubel met his future wife, opera singer Nadezhda Zabela.
In 1900, the artist received a gold medal at the World Exhibition in Paris for the tiled fireplace "Volga Svyatoslavich and Mikula Selyaninovich".
In 1901-1902, Vrubel was constantly working on the name of financial problems, creating works to support the family. Constant insomnia and nervous breakdowns worsened the artist′s state of mind, which subsequently leads the artist to a psychiatric hospital.
In 1904, the artist went blind. He spent the last years of his life in the care of his wife and older sister. Vrubel was almost constantly immersed in his own hallucinations.
Mikhail Alexandrovich Vrubel died on April 14, 1910.