Solomin Nikolay

1916 — 1999

Nikolay Solomin was born in 1916 in Moscow in a family of a printer. In 1931 he entered the State art and pedagogy college in memory of the year 1905. For the first three years Nikolay Solomin studied at the decorative design department and then transferred to the easel painting department, at that time led by Nikolay Krymov, the student of Valentin Serov and Konstantin Korovin, who went down in art history as an outstanding master of landscape. Krymov had a great influence on the future artist and thanks to him Solomin decided to go on with his artistic education. In 1936, having graduated from the college with an Honors Degree, he was admitted to Moscow Institute of Fine Arts (now called Moscow State Art Institute named after V.I.Surikov) without any exams.

The war which started in 1941 interrupted the artist's studies and he went to the front as G.I of the 18^th Division of People's Militia. Having gone through the war and reached Berlin, he was captured and later freed. After the war Solomin finished his studies at Surikov's institute, where his teachers werе well-known Soviet painters, masters of realism Sergey Gerasimov and Georgiy Riazhskiy. Immediately after his graduation in 1948 Solomin joined the Union of Artists of the USSR. Since that moment he started taking active part in Moscow, regional and all-union exhibitions and since 1949 he taught at Moscow secondary art school. In 1954 Solomin participated in the restoration of the panorama “The Defense of Sebastopol" by F. A. Rubo under the supervision of the people's artist of RSFSR P. P. Sokolov-Skalya.

Nikolay Solomin is a bright representative of Russian realistic art school, which implies thorough elaboration of the finest detail to such extent that he was even reproached for naturalism. He became famous for his artworks depicting rural life and his portraits. In the opinion of the people's artist of the USSR Y.Kugach Solomin's portraits don't seem “unnatural" due to his masterly skill of drawing, and some of his impromptu portraits painted in one or two sessions vividly demonstrate his genuine mastership.

In 1976 and 1985 the artist had personal exhibitions in Moscow and in 1974 he was rewarded the title of “Honored Artist of RSFSR" and later “People's Artist of RSFSR", and in 2000 an exhibition was organized in Moscow in memory of the artist.

Nikolay Solomin's artworks are presented at the State Tretyakov Gallery and in more than twenty art museums of the former Soviet republics, as well as in numerous private collections in Russia and abroad.