Reshetnikov, Fedor Pavlovich

Born July 15 (28), 1906, in the village of Sursko-Litovskoe, in present-day Dnepropetrovsk Oblast, Ukrainian SSR. Soviet painter and graphic artist. People’s Artist of the USSR (1974); member of the Academy of Arts of the USSR (1953, vice-president since 1974). Became a member of the CPSU in 1945.

Reshetnikov studied under D. S. Moor and S. V. Gerasimov at the Moscow Vkhutein (Higher Art and Technical Institute) from 1929 to 1934. He participated in expeditions on the icebreakers Sibiriakov (1932) and Cheliuskin (1933–34). From 1953 to 1956, Reshetnikov was on the faculty of the V. I. Surikov Moscow Art Institute. He was made a professor there in 1954.

Reshetnikov’s works include genre compositions (devoted mainly to children), historical-revolutionary and battle scenes, portraits, and satirical compositions. He also has worked as an illustrator and has drawn and sculpted caricatures. His works include He’s Arrived for the Holidays (1948, Tret’iakov Gallery; together with the painting Generalissimo of the Soviet Union I. V. Stalin, awarded the State Prize of the USSR, 1949), For Peace (1950, Tret’iakov Gallery; State Prize of the USSR, 1951), The Secrets of Abstract Act (triptych, 1960, Tret’iakov Gallery) and The Vietnamese Mother (tempera, 1968, USSR Ministry of Culture, Moscow).

Reshetnikov has been awarded two orders and various medals.