Vasilii Nikolaevich Iakovlev

Born Jan 2 (14), 1893, in Moscow; died there June 29, 1953. Soviet painter. People’s artist of the RSFSR (1943); member of the Academy of Arts of the USSR (1947).

Iakovlev studied at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture under K. A. Korovin and S. V. Maliutin from 1914 to 1917. He taught at Vkhutemas (State Higher Arts and Technical Studios) from 1918 to 1922, at the Moscow Architectural Institute from 1934 to 1936, and at the V. I. Surikov Moscow Art Institute from 1948 to 1950. He became a member of the Association of Artists of Revolutionary Russia in 1922. Iakovlev was chief artist for the Permanent All-Union Agricultural Exhibition in 1938 and 1939 and in 1949 and 1950. He headed the restoration studio of the A. S. Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts from 1926 to 1931.

Iakovlev produced thematic paintings that depicted the life and work of Soviet people. He painted such portraits as Hero of the Soviet Union V. N. Iakovlev (1941, Tret’iakov Gallery, Moscow; State Prize of the USSR, 1943), The Partisan (1941–42, Tret’iakov Gallery, Moscow; State Prize of the USSR, 1943), and Kolkhoz Herd (1948, Tret’iakov Gallery, Moscow; State Prize of the USSR, 1949). Inspired by his studies of 17th-century art, Iakovlev’s paintings are marked by solidity of figures and by a stylized use of color. These techniques are especially discernible in his still lifes, such as Fish of the Barents Sea (1931, private collection, Moscow).

Iakovlev was awarded the Order of Lenin and various medals.