Arkhangelsky Dmitry

1885 — 1980

Dmitry Arkhangelsky is a famous graphic artist from Simbirsk (later renamed as Ulyanovsk), a teacher, ethnographer, antiquities collector and the first teacher of А. А. Plastov.

Dmitry Arkhangelsky graduated from Simbirsk clergy school and then seminary, but he did not become a priest. At the same time he studied art with local artists P. I. Puzyrevsky and А. N. Ostrogradsky, and then he went on drawing courses attached to the Russian Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg, where he passed exams for the drawing master degree. In 1910 he had an exhibition together with Puzyrevsky in Saint Petersburg. On returning to Simbirsk the artist started teaching at the local institutions, including the seminary where A.A.Plastov came in 1908. His teaching talent was appreciated by the People's Commissar on Education Nadezhda Krupskaya. She suggested that he should change his place of work and take up a job at one of the experimental schools. Arkhangelsky accepted the proposal with pleasure and began teaching art at the school of the youth custody center named after S. T. Shatskiy.

In 1925 Dmitry Arkhangelsky created a series of pictures dedicated to the city of Cheboksary, and then undertook several expeditions around Chuvashia. During those expeditions he made sketches of Chuvash village architecture, woodcarving, clothes and landscapes. The same year he composed and published an album with the samples of Chuvash embroidery (1925). In 1934 Dmitry Arkhangelsky left Ulyanovsk and in 1941 he moved to the settlement of Rodniki in Moscow area, where he actively got involved in the regional studies. In 1940s–1950s he went on archeological expeditions around Moscow area and Volga region creating numerous sketches from nature. Arkhangelsky also works as an illustrator for scientific editions at that time. Among other scientific works the monography by А. P. Smirnov “Volga Bulgars" stands out, which was published with the illustrations by Dmitry Arkhangelsky in 1951.

The creative heritage of the artist is large and diverse. Most significant watercolors, pictures and lithography are dedicated to Simbirsk – Ulyanovsk. His personal exhibitions took place in Moscow in 1955-56, in Kazan in 1926 and in 1952, in Ulyanovsk in 1960, 1980, 1986, 2005, 2010. One of the lanes in Ulyanovsk bears the name of Dmitry Arkhangelsky.

The artworks of Dmitry Arkhangelsky are presented in the collections of The State Tretyakov Gallery, The State History Museum, A. V. Shusev Sate Museum of Architecture, The Museum of Folk Art (Moscow), Ulyanovsk Regional Art Museum, The State Historical and Memorial Museum of Lenin's Homeland, The State Museum of Fine Arts of Tatarstan Republic, Chuvash State Art museum, Russian Academy of Science Archeology Institute and in private collections in Russia and abroad.