Shur Yakov Mikhailovich

Shur Yakov Mikhailovich

1902, Soloki Village, Kovno Province (now Salakas, Lithuania) – 1993, Leningrad

Painter, author of dioramas; practiced decorative and applied arts. Studied at the School of Drawing, Society for the Encouragement of Arts; State Free Art Studios/VKhUTEMAS in Petrograd (1920–1925) under Osip Braz and Alexander Savinov and under Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin in the last years. Member and exhibitor of the Circle of Artists (from 1926). Member of the Leningrad Branch of the Union of Artists (from 1932). Artist at the House of Sanitary Culture, designed the museum and educating exhibitions; decorated the city (the 1930s, chief artist of the Oktyabrsky District). Painted dioramas for Leningrad museums (1938–1939, from 1945). During the Great Patriotic War fought in the militia troops near Luga, later was attached to the House of Defense, contributed to masking of large objects.

After the war, the family returned to Leningrad. The flat on Vasilyevsky Island where the artist had lived before was occupied by other people, and the pictures were lost. The artist was granted a room on the Tuchkov Embankment with the view onto the Malaya Neva River and the Peter and Paul Fortress. From 1948 practiced predominantly applied arts. From 1953 recommenced painting: painted cityscapes, in summer, created studies in Ukraine and Belarus, after 1959 – in Ust-Narva. Up to 85 years old was an active member of the artistic board of the Leningrad Branch of the Union of Artists. The last years of the artist were marked by the creative upsurge: he painted about a hundred of small-scale lyrical landscapes.