Konstantin Yuon

Konstantin Fyodorovich Yuon or Juon (russian: Константи́н Фёдорович Юо́н; – April 11, 1958) was a noted Russian painter and theatre designer associated with the Mir Iskusstva. Later, he co-founded the Union of Russian Artists and the Association of Artists of Revolutionary Russia.

Biography

Yuon was born in Moscow to the family of a banking clerk of Swiss-Russian origin (the surname ''Juon'' being of Walser origin''Quellen zur Schweizer Geschichte'' vol. 10, 1891, p. 171; see als
verwandt.ch
for current-day distribution.). His brother Paul Juon was a notable composer.

From 1892 to 1898 he studied at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture where Konstantin Savitsky and Konstantin Korovin were among his distinguished teachers. After graduating from the Moscow Art School he took private lessons from Valentin Serov (1898–1900). During several trips to Western Europe, particularly in Paris, he became acquainted with the cityscapes of Camille Pissarro and other Impressionists, but retained his own distinctive style.

In 1900 he opened the first private painting and drawing school in Moscow. Some noted Russian painters received art education in the school (for example, Olga Zhekulina). Later he taught in Leningrad Academy of Arts and the Surikov Art Institute in Moscow. His studio in Moscow was widely used by other painters. He designed sets for plays at the Moscow Art Theatre and the Maly Theater, becoming the official designer for this theater from 1945 to 1947. He also contributed sets for operas.

In the Soviet era, Yuon was the director of the Research Institute of the Academy of Arts (1948–1950) and the First Secretary of the Union of Soviet Artists (1956–1958). He won a Stalin Prize (1943), received the Order of Lenin and other orders and medals. He died in Moscow on April 11, 1958.

Selected works

Konstantin Yuon started as an Impressionist landscape and genre painter with a Symbolist note. Among the impressionist landscapes are ''To the Trinity'' (1903) and ''Tverskoy Boulevard'' (1909). Later he toyed with the ideas of lyrical landscape mixed with the imitations of Palekh miniature and Icon arts. The most Symbolist of his works are the cycle of engravings ''Creation of the World'' on the theme of Genesis (1908–1912) and the painting ''New Planet'' that shows the October Revolution as the result of a cosmic catastrophe. To the end of his life he became a strict socialist realism artist, producing paintings like ''Parade on the Red Square on November 7, 1941''.

File:Soft goods.jpg, Soft goods, 1905
File:Blue bush.jpg, The blue bush, 1908
File:Yuon boulevard.jpg, Tverskoy Boulevard, 1909
File:Spring sunny day.jpg, Spring sunny day, 1910
File:Yuon Lavra1911.jpg, View of the Troitse-Sergiyeva Lavra from Vokzalnaya Street, 1911
File:Portrait of Claudia Yuon.jpg, Portrait of Klavdiya Yuon, the artist's wife, 1911
File:Yuon New Planet 1921.jpg, New Planet, 1921
File:Yuon RedSquare Parade 1941.jpg, Parade on the Red Square on November 7, 1941, painted in 1949

See also

* List of Russian artists

References

External links

Biography and art samples

{{DEFAULTSORT:Yuon, Konstantin
1875 births
1958 deaths
Russian Impressionist painters
Artists from Moscow
19th-century painters from the Russian Empire
Russian male painters
20th-century Russian painters
Soviet painters
Full Members of the USSR Academy of Arts
Stalin Prize winners
Russian people of Swiss descent
Russian people of German descent
Recipients of the Order of Lenin
Soviet people of Swiss descent
Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture alumni