Pavel Shillingovsky (1881–1942). Famous and Unknown

Peter and Paul Fortress, Neva Curtain Wall

Pavel Shillingovsky exhibition incorporates more than 230 works of a famous Russian graphic artist, master of drawing and easel engraving. His wood-engravings became a classic in the Russian graphic art. The exhibition is based on the collections of State Museum of the History of St Petersburg and a well-known art historian Peter Kornilov. Most of works by Shillingovsky are exhibited for the first time.

The exhibition in Peter and Paul Fortress traces the life and career of Peter Shillingovsky (1881–1942). Among the exhibits are: his first wood-engraving “Mointain scene with trees” (1917), works of the 1920s–1930s, book-plates, book illustrations, portraits of Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin.

The centerpiece of the exhibition are series of engravings “St Petersburg. Ruins and Revival” (1921–1923), and “Besieged City” (1941), showing St Petersburg during the Civil War (1917–1923) and the Second World War (1941–1945), which were the most difficult periods in the city’s history. The “Besieged City” series remained unfinished because of the artist’s death in 1941.