Stepan Meliksetovich Agadzhanian

Born Dec. 16 (28), 1863, in Shusha, Nagornyi Karabakh; died Dec. 13, 1940, in Yerevan. Soviet artist and portraitist; became People’s Artist of the Armenian SSR in 1938.

Agadzhanian studied at an art studio in Marseilles from 1886 until 1890 and at the Julian Academy in Paris with J. P. Laurens and B. Constant from 1897 until 1900. He worked in Rostov-on-Don from 1903 and in Yerevan from 1922. His realistic portraits are distinguished by meaningful detail and restrained colors—for example, the portraits of his parents, both done in 1900. Some of his works become character portraits—for instance, Grandpa Sedrak (1926), Vasil (1926), and Urchin (1928). His self-portraits (1925 and 1926) are marked by a profound psychological understanding. All the named works are in the Picture Gallery of Armenia, Yerevan.