Evsey Moiseenko

Evsey Moiseenko (1916-1988) was a Soviet painter and teacher, born in Russia and active mainly in Leningrad, where he lived from 1936. He is important for developing a romantic, heroic realism during the Soviet period, which earned him the titles People's Painter of the USSR (1970) and Hero of Socialist Labour (1986).

He trained at the Academy of Arts under Alexander Osmerkin and taught there from 1947, becoming a professor in 1957. His themes centred on romantic heroism, as in The Reds Came (1961) or Comrades (1964), and he also painted city and village landscapes, such as Tulsky Lane, Leningrad (1963). In 1974 he was awarded the Lenin Prize.

His portraits include those of the artist A. A. Osmerkin (1970) and the art historian G. V. Kekusheva (1971). His series Memory (1976-1980) earned the USSR State Prize in 1983, and in his last years he worked on a series devoted to Pushkin. He was buried at Volkovo Cemetery in Saint Petersburg.