Isaak Brodsky

In this name that follows East Slavic naming customs, the patronymic is Izrailevich and the family name is Brodsky.

Isaak Izrailevich Brodsky (Russian: Исаа́к Изра́илевич Бро́дский, Ukrainian: Іса́к Ізраїльович Бро́дський; 6 January 1884 [O.S. 25 December 1883] – 14 August 1939) was a Russian painter and draughtsman of Jewish descent best known for his portrayals of Vladimir Lenin and other Soviet leaders, renowned as blueprint examples of the Socialist realist style.^[1]

Isaak Brodsky
Born	Isaak Izrailevich Brodsky 6 January 1884 [O.S. 25 December 1883] Sofiyivka, Taurida Governorate, Russian Empire
Died	14 August 1939(1939-08-14) (aged 55) Leningrad, RSFSR, USSR
Resting place	Literatorskiye Mostki [ru], Saint Petersburg
Nationality	Russian Soviet
Education	Odessa Art Academy Imperial Academy of Arts
Known for	Painting
Movement	Socialist realism
Awards	Order of Lenin Honoured Artist of the RSFSR [ru]

Self-portrait

Life and career

Portrait of Brodsky by Ilya Repin, 1913

Brodsky was born in the village of Sofiyivka near Berdyansk in modern day Ukraine to Yisrael, a Jewish merchant. He studied at Odessa Art Academy and the Imperial Academy of Arts in Saint Petersburg. For five years he studied at the Academy under Ilya Repin. In 1916, he joined the Jewish Society for the Encouragement of the Arts. When Brodsky asked Lenin to autograph his painting Lenin, he said: "I am signing to what I don't agree with for the first time".^[2]

Brodsky was on good terms with many leading Russian painters, including his mentor, Ilya Repin. He was an avid art collector who donated numerous first-class paintings to museums in his native Ukraine and elsewhere. His art collection included important works by Repin, Vasily Surikov, Valentin Serov, Isaak Levitan, Mikhail Vrubel, and Boris Kustodiev.

Brodsky was an Honoured Artist of the Russian SFSR and a member of the Union of Russian Artists. He was the first painter to be awarded the Order of Lenin.^[3] In 1934, he was appointed Director of the All-Russian Academy of Arts. From 1934 to 1939, he was also a head of personal Art workshop in institute, where his pupils included the well-known Soviet painters: Nikolai Timkov, Alexander Laktionov, Yuri Neprintsev, Piotr Belousov, Piotr Vasiliev, Mikhail Kozell and others.^[4]

Legacy

He died in Leningrad in 1939. His memoirs were published posthumously.^[5] After his death, Brodsky's apartment on Arts Square in St. Petersburg was declared a national museum. His art collection is still on exhibit there.^[6]

Odesa Fine Arts Museum bore Brodsky's name in 1938-1941.

The Berdyansk Art Museum, founded by Brodsky in 1930, bears Brodsky's name, where the artist gave about 200 paintings by Russian artists from his collection.

Gallery

• 
  Ludmila Burluk, 1906
• 
  Cavalry Officer, 1909
• 
  Fairy Tale, 1911
• 
  Alexander Kerensky, 1918
• 
  Lenin and soldiers of Red Army on the way to Poland, 1920
• 
  Lenin during the 2nd Congress of the International, 1924
• 
  Lenin's Funeral, 1925
• 
  Joseph Stalin, 1928
• 
  Lenin at Putilov factory at May 1917, 1929
• 
  Kliment Voroshilov, 1929
• 
  Mikhail Frunze, 1929
• 
  Day of Constitution, 1930
• 
  Alley in a Park, 1930
• 
  Lenin in Smolny, 1930
• 
  State Portrait of Stalin, 1933
• 
  Maxim Gorky, 1937

See also

• Fine Art of Leningrad