Араты, 19th century painting, Russian Empire, 19th century

Russian and Soviet painter, graphic artist, Art Nouveau and Neoist book illustrator, architect, interior designer and theatre artist. He is also known as the author of the first Russian matryoshka painting and an advocate of the "a la russe" style in art, the creator of his own fairy-tale "Malyutinsky" version of Art Nouveau, based on a special interpretation of Old Russian motifs. In his work, the desire for a convergence of painting, applied arts and architecture, for the erasure of the clear boundaries between them, for their mutual enrichment, was particularly evident. He was a member of the Union of Russian Artists (from 1903), a wanderer (from 1915), one of the organisers of the Association of Artists of Revolutionary Russia, Honoured Artist of the RSFSR (1932).