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Nina VeselovaRussian Soviet artist, painter, PhD in art history
Date of Birth: 06.01.1922
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Content:
- Childhood and Education
- Wartime and Post-War Period
- Artistic Career and Diploma Work
- Exhibitions and Major Works
- Death and Legacy
Childhood and Education
Nina Leonidovna Veselova was born on January 6, 1922, in Petrograd, Russia. Her father, Leonid Georgievich Veselov (1883-1942), was an accountant, while her mother, Anastasia Ivanovna (1892-?), was a homemaker.
In 1934, after participating in a competition for young talents, Veselova was accepted into the Secondary Art School at the All-Russian Academy of Arts, graduating in 1941. That same year, she enrolled in the first year of the painting faculty at the Leningrad Institute of Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture.
Wartime and Post-War Period
During World War II and the Siege of Leningrad, Veselova remained in the city with her parents, working at a factory, a kindergarten teacher, and in logging. From 1943-1944, she studied at the reopened Tavrichesky Art School.
After the Leningrad Institute of Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture returned from evacuation on July 18, 1944, Veselova resumed her studies in the painting faculty. Her teachers included Boris Fogel, Leonid Ovsyannikov, Semyon Abugov, Genrikh Pavlovsky, and Alexander Zaitsev. In 1946, she married her classmate, Alexander Pushnin.
Artistic Career and Diploma Work
In 1950, Veselova graduated from the institute in Boris Ioganson's studio, earning a qualification as a painter. Her diploma work was the painting "Congratulations to the Teacher on the Award" (in later sources, it is known as "The Awarded Teacher"), which was exhibited that same year at the All-Union Art Exhibition in Moscow.
After graduating, Veselova pursued postgraduate studies from 1950-1954 at the creative studio of Alexander Gerasimov, a People's Artist of the USSR and professor. She became a Candidate of Art History in 1954 with the painting "The Exam is On." In 1950, she was admitted as a member of the Leningrad Union of Artists.
Exhibitions and Major Works
Veselova first participated in an exhibition in 1939. From 1950 onwards, she was a regular participant in city, regional, and national exhibitions, exhibiting her works alongside renowned artists of Leningrad. Her works included portraits, genre and thematic compositions, landscapes, and still lifes.
Veselova was a talented portraitist and draftswoman. She favored the genre of the portrait-painting with an elaborate plot. Her painting style was characterized by soft plasticity of drawing, a restrained decorative-flat color scheme, and refinement of tonal relationships.
Among the works created by Veselova in her short creative life of less than ten years are the paintings "In the Hydro-Turbine Shop of the I. V. Stalin Factory" (co-authored, 1951), "Penalty Assigned" (1952), "Portrait of a Participant in the Revolution of 1905, P. P. Alexandrov" (1955), "Before the Third Hooter," "Portrait of the Best Milkmaid of the Gvardeets Kolkhoz, E. V. Rusova," "Lilacs. Still Life" (all 1957), "Flowers. Still Life" (1958), "Portrait of the Chairman of the 'Gvardeets' Kolkhoz, M. G. Dolgov," "Chauffeur's Spring," "Red and White Flowers. Still Life," "Who's Right? 1917" (all 1959), "Festival in Voronovo (Chuvashia)" (1960), and others. Some of these became classics of Soviet painting, standing the test of time.
Death and Legacy
Nina Leonidovna Veselova passed away on March 3, 1960, in Leningrad at the age of thirty-nine. Her works can be found in the State Russian Museum, the State Tretyakov Gallery, as well as museums and private collections in Russia, Japan, the USA, France, China, Germany, Italy, and other countries.
