Arshak Abrahami Fetvadjian ( hy, Արշակ Աբրահամի Ֆեթվաճյան; October 1, 1866 – October 7, 1947) was an

Armenian Armenian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Armenia, a country in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia * Armenians, the national people of Armenia, or people of Armenian descent ** Armenian Diaspora, Armenian communities across the ...

artist, painter and designer. He is best known for his

watercolor Watercolor (American English) or watercolour (British English; see spelling differences), also ''aquarelle'' (; from Italian diminutive of Latin ''aqua'' "water"), is a painting method”Watercolor may be as old as art itself, going back to ...

paintings of the architectural monuments of the medieval Armenian city of

Ani Ani ( hy, Անի; grc-gre, Ἄνιον, ''Ánion''; la, Abnicum; tr, Ani) is a ruined medieval Armenian city now situated in Turkey's province of Kars, next to the closed border with Armenia. Between 961 and 1045, it was the capital of the ...

, and for designing the currency and postage stamps of the first

Republic of Armenia A republic () is a "state in which power rests with the people or their representatives; specifically a state without a monarchy" and also a "government, or system of government, of such a state." Previously, especially in the 17th and 18th c ...

(1918–1920). As a result of over 20 years devoted to art, Fetvadjian produced no less than 2,000 works, varying from pencil drawings to watercolors, that depicted historically significant churches, monasteries, chapels and palaces. Chookaszian, Levon. "Ֆեթվաճյան, Արշակ Աբրահամի" etvatchyan, Arshak Abrahami

Armenian Soviet Encyclopedia The ''Armenian Soviet Encyclopedia'' ( hy, Հայկական սովետական հանրագիտարան, ''Haykakan sovetakan hanragitaran''; ASE) publishing house was established in 1967 as a department of the Institute of History of the Armen ...

. Yerevan: Armenian Academy of Sciences, 1986, vol. 12, pp. 623-624. A considerable number of his other works were also portraits of Armenians at the turn of the 20th century.

Biography

Fetvadjian was born in Trebizond in 1866, in the then

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...

. He attended a national art institute in the city of his birth and continued his studies at the State Fine Arts School (Imperial Academy of Art) in the capital at

Constantinople la, Constantinopolis ota, قسطنطينيه , alternate_name = Byzantion (earlier Greek name), Nova Roma ("New Rome"), Miklagard/Miklagarth (Old Norse), Tsargrad ( Slavic), Qustantiniya ( Arabic), Basileuousa ("Queen of Cities"), Megalopolis ( ...

, which had only been recently opened by an Armenian sculptor named Yervand Voskan.Sim, Steven
ARSHAK FETVADJIAN AND ANI
VirtualANI.org. Accessed January 29, 2009. Fetvadjian graduated from the academy in 1887 and pursued higher learning abroad: he left for

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

and was admitted to the San Luca Art Academy, where he was taken under the wing of Italian painter and sculptor

Cesare Maccari Cesare Maccari (; 9 May 1840 – 7 August 1919) was an Italian painter and sculptor, most famous for his 1888 painting ''Cicerone denuncia Catilina'' (usually translated as ''Cicero Accuses Catiline'' or ''Cicero Denounces Catiline''). Early l ...

. Fetvadjian's artistic talents were brought into the public spotlight when he participated in the Italian national art exhibition in 1891. His studies would later take him to

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

(1891–1895) and later

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

. In

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...

, he participated in art exhibitions and joined the Russian Artists' Society. Throughout the early 20th century, he continued to hold exhibitions, and his artwork was seen on displays at the

Louvre The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the ''Venus de Milo''. A central l ...

(1919, 1920) and the

Victoria and Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and nam ...

Works

Watercolors of Ani

After Fetvadjian completed his studies in Europe, he traveled to

Russian Armenia Russian Armenia is the period of Armenian history under Russian rule from 1828, when Eastern Armenia became part of the Russian Empire following Qajar Iran's loss in the Russo-Persian War (1826–1828) and the subsequent ceding of its territorie ...

. He organized several art exhibitions displaying his own works in such major

Transcaucasia The South Caucasus, also known as Transcaucasia or the Transcaucasus, is a geographical region on the border of Eastern Europe and Western Asia, straddling the southern Caucasus Mountains. The South Caucasus roughly corresponds to modern Arme ...

n cities as

Batum Batumi (; ka, ბათუმი ) is the second largest city of Georgia and the capital of the Autonomous Republic of Adjara, located on the coast of the Black Sea in Georgia's southwest. It is situated in a subtropical zone at the foot of t ...

Tiflis Tbilisi ( ; ka, თბილისი ), in some languages still known by its pre-1936 name Tiflis ( ), is the capital and the largest city of Georgia, lying on the banks of the Kura River with a population of approximately 1.5 million pe ...

and Baku. In the early 1900s, Fetvadjian had the opportunity to participate in the excavations led by Russian archaeologist

Nicholas Marr Nikolai Yakovlevich Marr (, ''Nikolay Yakovlevich Marr''; , ''Nikoloz Iak'obis dze Mari''; — 20 December 1934) was a Georgian-born historian and linguist who gained a reputation as a scholar of the Caucasus during the 1910s before embarking ...

of the medieval Armenian capital of

, a city which boasted several of the most outstanding examples of Armenian architecture of the High Middle Ages. Some of his most memorable works come from the watercolor paintings of the chapels, palaces, churches and monasteries at Ani which are "factual and literal depictions of the buildings."

Caucasus

In addition to the historical monuments of Ani, Fetvadjian's paintings also documented other Armenian cultural monuments of the

Caucasus The Caucasus () or Caucasia (), is a region between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, mainly comprising Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia (country), Georgia, and parts of Southern Russia. The Caucasus Mountains, including the Greater Caucasus range ...

(e.g., "Tekor basilica" in Kars), the life and the natural landscape of Armenia (e.g., "Oriental Mail", "Mount Aragats," "Lake Sevan"), and portraits of Armenians and other ethnic peoples. As one of the first artists to depict the

Armenian genocide The Armenian genocide was the systematic destruction of the Armenian people and identity in the Ottoman Empire during World War I. Spearheaded by the ruling Committee of Union and Progress (CUP), it was implemented primarily through t ...

in art, one of Fetvajian's most famous paintings is the "Sasuntsi Kin" ("The Woman of Sasun").Tiftick, Caitlin.
Kazan Visiting Professor Levon Chookaszian Gives His Second Lecture On Armenian Art
". Fresno State University Armenian Studies Program. December 2006, Vol. 28, № 2 (96). Accessed January 29, 2009. The painting shows a woman breastfeeding her child, a rifle in hand, with the child in the painting representing Armenia.

Banknotes and stamps

Following the creation of the First Republic of Armenia in 1918, the members of the country's Finance Ministry commissioned Fetvadjian to draw up the new currency (to replace the Russian

ruble The ruble (American English) or rouble (Commonwealth English) (; rus, рубль, p=rublʲ) is the currency unit of Belarus and Russia. Historically, it was the currency of the Russian Empire and of the Soviet Union. , currencies named ''rub ...

) and stamps for the nascent state. The printing was conducted in Europe, and some of Fetvadjian's attractive designs featured animal motifs that were found on the decorations in Ani. But just as the banknotes were being printed in Paris,

Soviet Russia The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, Russian SFSR or RSFSR ( rus, Российская Советская Федеративная Социалистическая Республика, Rossíyskaya Sovétskaya Federatívnaya Soci ...

was completing its conquest of the republic and by December 1920, the Armenian state was finally absorbed by the Soviets. The banknotes were never put into circulation.

Legacy

With the fall of the republic, Fetvadjian moved to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

in 1922 and lived there for the remainder of his years. He continued to paint and was inducted to the art societies of the universities of Harvard, Columbia and

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

. He died in Medford, Massachusetts in 1947. Although approached by several prestigious American universities to publish his works, Fetvadjian ultimately donated all of his paintings and drawings to the

National Gallery The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, in Central London, England. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of over 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The current Director ...

of the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic. Fetvadjian's works were highly valued for preserving a visual memory of Armenian artwork that otherwise might have been lost forever during the turbulent years following the end of the Russian Empire. Armenian historian Vahan Kurkjian gives credence to that belief, stating "Many valuable relics of Armenian art and architecture of the sixth to thirteenth century, which had escaped the ravages of time were destroyed during the last incursions of 1917-1921, and would have been eventually forgotten had it not been for Fetvadjian's meticulously exact paintings of them."Kurkjian. ''History of Armenia'', p. 346. His remains were interred in the capital

Yerevan Yerevan ( , , hy, Երևան , sometimes spelled Erevan) is the capital and largest city of Armenia and one of the world's oldest continuously inhabited cities. Situated along the Hrazdan River, Yerevan is the administrative, cultural, and i ...

Gallery

File:A._Fetvadjian._Mikayel_vardapet._Ani.jpg, Portrait of Mikayel Vartabed (1907) File:A._Fetvadjian._Sea_wave.jpg, Sea Wave (1903) File:Fetvadjian Ani cathedral 1905.jpg,

Cathedral (1905) File:Fetvadjian the woman of sasun.jpg, Woman of Sassoun File:ArmeniaP32-250Rubles-1919-donatedoy b.jpg, First Republic of Armenia 250 Rubles Bill File:ArmeniaP30-50Rubles-1919-donatedoy b.jpg, First Republic of Armenia 50 Rubles Bill

Notes

External links

*Steven Sim
Arshak Fetvadjian and Ani
VirtualANI.org - Dedicated to the Deserted Medieval Armenian City of Ani . {{DEFAULTSORT:Fetvadjian, Arshak Emigrants from the Ottoman Empire to the Russian Empire Soviet emigrants to the United States American people of Armenian descent Armenians from the Ottoman Empire People from Trabzon Stamp designers 1866 births 1947 deaths Armenian artists Painters from the Russian Empire 20th-century Armenian painters