Fyodor Pavlovich Reshetnikov

Fyodor Pavlovich Reshetnikov (Russian: Фёдор Павлович Решетников) (July 28 [O.S. July 15] 1906 – December 13, 1988) was a prominent Soviet painter. A preeminent practitioner of "socialist realism", Reshetnikov was recognized by the government for his work and was a member for three and a half decades of the Soviet Academy of Arts. His creations are held in Russia's finest collections, including the Tretyakov Gallery (Moscow), the Russian Museum (Saint Petersburg), the State Historical Museum (Moscow), and others.

Reshetnikov was born in Sursko-Litovskoe village in what is now Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, Ukraine, into a family of icon painters. Orphaned at an early age, Reshetnikov was raised by his brother, who painted church frescoes and icons for a living, and who employed Reshetnikov as an apprentice.

Having never attended secondary school, Reshetnikov enrolled in a remedial "Rabfak" institution as preparation for attending Moscow's elite art college VKHUTEIN.

While still an art student, Reshetnikov's prowess in realist representation got him a position as resident "artistic reporter" on two arctic expeditions in 1932-34 with famous explorer Otto Schmidt on the Sibiryakov and on the doomed Chelyuskin. Reshetnikov was one of the people rescued from the ice after the Chelyuskin sank.

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