Akishin Pyotr Ivanovich
1889, Rasskazovo Village, Tambov Province – ?
Painter. Akishin is known to be a political prisoner before the Revolution, served his sentence in the penitentiary, released under an amnesty and rehabilitated. Exempted from military service (National Archives of the Russian Academy of Arts, collection 7, series 8, file 36, sheet 5 – 1889; sheet 10 – 1886). Worked as a teacher of drawing (occasionally) at the Rasskazovo Public University (1918–1920). Studied at the First State Free Art Studious /VKhUTEMAS in Moscow (1918– 1922 (1923?), information on finishing it is missing). In 1922 took a long-term sick leave due to illness. Same year submitted for contest his painting Thirst (not finished). Contributed to exhibitions (from 1923): summary exhibition of the Academy of Arts (1923); 6th Exhibition of the Community of Artists (1925); exhibition of paintings of the Leningrad Region House of Artists (1933).
At exhibitions, Pyotr Akishin is represented solely by portraits, which gives us grounds to assume that “Portrait of a Girl” (1928, private collection, St Petersburg) is not a rarity among his works of that period. We know that the portrait depicts Ninel Dolgova (1924–1928). Akishin’s name is mentioned twice with Petrov-Vodkin. In a review of a competitive exhibition at the Academy of Arts, it was noted that: “There are new pursuits, but they are few, and they go no further than a misunderstood Petrov-Vodkin.
For example, Akishin uses an interesting and deeply felt blue; and one wants to say that it is ‘well-understood’” (“Konkursnaya vystavka v Akademii khudozhestv”. Gorod. Isskustvo. Literatura. Vol. 1. Petrograd, 1923, p. 108. Section “Chronicle”). The level of intimacy and trust between teacher and student is evidenced by the fact that, when leaving for a working trip to Paris in 1925, Petrov-Vodkin allowed Akishin and his wife to stay in his apartment. No information on the artist could be found after 1933.