Boris Kustodiev (1878-1927)
Kustodiev grew up in the Russian village with his widowed mother and three siblings. Even as a young boy, he knew he wanted to become a painter, so Kustodiev entered the Academy of Arts, where he studied under Ilya Repin. He received a grant to travel to Europe with his young family and then settled near the Volga river setting up a workshop called Terem. His quiet family life did not last very long. Kustodiev had tuberculosis and had to receive treatment overseas. The illness progressed, and the painter became paralysed from the waist down. He then became chained to his bed but painted some of the most joyous and colourful paintings in his career, The Beauty and The Merchant’s Wife. The illness took his life at the age of 49.
The Beauty | © Wikimedia Commons
