Vladimir Aleksandrovich Beklemishev

Born Aug. 3 (15), 1861, in Ekaterinoslav, now Dnepropetrovsk; died 1920 in Rzhev. Russian sculptor, whose main specialty was portraiture and genre work.

Beklemishev studied in the St. Petersburg Academy of Art (1878–87) with N. A. Leveretskii. He was a professor (from 1894) and rector (1900–02 and 1906–11) at the St. Petersburg Academy of Art. Beklemishev’s creative and educational work encompassed the traditions of late academic art and the influence of peredvizhniki (members of the Society of Wandering Exhibitions), but his works are characterized by a treatment of form more picturesque than that of the peredvizhniki sculptures. Among his pupils were V. V. Lishev, M. G. Manizer, and L. V. Shervud. Beklemishev’s works include How Beautiful, How Fresh Were the Roses(bronze, 1892), a portrait of A. I. Kuindzhi (marble, 1909) both in the Russian Museum in Leningrad, and Village Love (bronze, 1896) in the Tret’iakov Gallery in Moscow.