An intriguing artist – Ivan Vladimirov (1869-1947). I recently posted one of his paintings, “Peasants Returning After the Pillage of a Landlord’s Estate Near Pskov”, and became curious about what else he might have created.
Included in the annex are some of his paintings, which were taken to the US after the revolution. In Soviet Russia, he continued his career as the creator of paintings and drawings on historical and revolutionary themes, crafted in the style of Soviet official art. Yet here, we find works that could have earned him a lengthy prison term, or worse, during the 1930s.
The son of a Russian and an Englishwoman, Ivan Vladimirov was fluent in English. Until 1918, he worked as an artist-correspondent for two illustrated magazines—the Russian “Niva” and the English “The Graphic”, signing his drawings for the English magazine as John Wladimiroff.
The artist spent virtually his entire life in Saint Petersburg – Petrograd – Leningrad. All events that occurred in this “cradle of the revolution” happened before his eyes. According to Wikipedia, in 1917-1918, Vladimirov served in the Petrograd militia. However, according to his drawings, he also spent time in the provinces, observing peasant life.
In 1921, as Petrograd faced famine, the ARA – American Relief Administration began its operations. Vladimirov, being fluent in English, actively participated in it and became closely acquainted with Americans—primarily with Frank Golder and Donald Renshaw. He also befriended people working in Russia under the YMCA, such as Spurgeon Milton Keeny and Ethan Theodore Colton. All four acquired his drawings, which were later taken to America.
Historian Frank Golder, who specialized in the study of Russian-American relations, came to Russia in 1914 and 1917 and witnessed the revolutionary events. In 1920, he was attracted by Herbert Hoover, who had the idea of creating a research institute dedicated to studying World War I and its aftermath at his alma mater—Stanford University. Upon Hoover’s request, Golder began collecting books, periodicals, and various archival materials for the institute. In 1921, he traveled to Soviet Russia under the auspices of the ARA, which was also led by Hoover, and became an unofficial intermediary between the Bolsheviks and the American government (as there were no diplomatic relations with the USA at that time).
Golder was shocked by the famine in Petrograd and the plight of the Russian educated class. Apparently, this motivated him to purchase watercolors by Ivan Vladimirov depicting the horrors of war communism. He paid the artist $5 per drawing from his personal funds.
After Golder left Russia in 1923 due to the cessation of ARA activities, Spurgeon M. Keeny took over the efforts to acquire Vladimirov’s drawings. On July 26, 1923, he wrote to Golder that a total of 30 works by the artist had been sent to the Hoover collection, with the possibility of acquiring ten more. In a letter dated May 21, 1924, Golder authorized Keeny to spend $100 on orders for Vladimirov, anticipating that the drawings would later be purchased by the Hoover Institute.
Currently, 37 works by Vladimirov reside in the archive of the Hoover Institute, with another 10 in the collection of the Brown University Library in Rhode Island. Some are also held in private collections. In 1967, a photo album titled “Russia in Revolution” was published in the USA, featuring Vladimirov’s drawings from the Brown University collection.
Some of the watercolors were specifically painted by the artist for Americans, with inscriptions in English. One of the drawings has a dedicatory inscription: “To Mr. Renshaw a souvenir of the hungry years in Petrograd with my sincere regards John Wladimiroff 19 June 1923.”
In the USSR, he eventually made a career for himself, despite some duplicity. He shifted to depicting battle scenes and leaders such as Lenin, Stalin, and the Communist Party. He died on December 14, 1947, in Leningrad at the age of 78. He is buried at the Serafimovskoe Cemetery in Saint Petersburg.
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Hi, I'm Rauf Aliev. 