Sergei Alekseevich Grigorev

Born June 22 (July 5), 1910, in Lugansk, present-day Voroshilovgrad. Soviet painter. People’s Artist of the Ukrainian SSR (1951). Member of the Academy of Arts of the USSR (1958). Member of the CPSU since 1941.

Grigor’ev studied at the Kiev Art Institute (1928–32) with F. G. Krichevskii. Later, he taught there (1934–60), becoming a professor in 1948. His paintings, which are carefully executed, with accurate, lifelike details, are concerned with problems of Soviet morality, the upbringing of young people, and the world of children. Grigor’ev’s works have had an appreciable influence on the development of Soviet genre painting. His paintings include At a Meeting (1947, Kharkov Art Museum) and Admission to the Komsomol (1949, Museum of Ukrainian Fine Arts of the Ukrainian SSR, Kiev) and The Goalie (1949, Tret’iakov Gallery), both of which received the State Prize of the USSR in 1950. Grigor’ev also painted Discussion of a “Poor” Grade (1950, State Prize of the USSR, 1951) and He Has Returned (1954), both of which are in the Tret’iakov Gallery. He has been awarded three orders as well as medals.