Efanov, Vasilii Prokofevich

Born Nov. 10 (23), 1900, in Samara, present-day Kuibyshev. Soviet painter. People’s Artist of the USSR from 1965, member of the Academy of Arts of the USSR from 1947. Member of the CPSU since 1954.

Efanov studied at the studio of D. N. Kardovskii in Moscow from 1921 to 1926. He taught at the Moscow Surikov Institute of Art from 1948 to 1957, becoming a professor there in 1949. In 1960 he began teaching at the Lenin Moscow Pedagogical Institute. Since the mid-1930’s he has painted primarily portraits (including formal ones); his narrative compositions tend toward group portraiture. Efanov’s works, painted in bright, cheerful colors, include The Unforgettable Meeting (1936-37; State Prize of the USSR, 1941), a portrait of G. K. Ordzhonikidze (1937), and At the Sickbed of A. M. Gorky (1940-44; State Prize of the USSR, 1946), as well as a portrait of T. K. Rozhkovai and The Leading People of Moscow in the Kremlin (painted with assistants, both in 1949; State Prize of the USSR 1950)—all in the Tret’iakov Gallery. He also painted The Presidium Meeting of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (painted with assistants, 1951; State Prize of the USSR, 1952, Russian Museum, Leningrad), as well as portraits of A. M. Kanevskii (1967) and I. M. Sverdlov (1969). He has contributed to newspapers and journals and has worked in propagandistic art. Efanov has been awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor and several medals.