Boris Anisfeld

1878 – October 2. Boris Izrailevich (Srulevich) Anisfeld is born in Bieltsy, in the Bessarabia Governorate of the Russian Empire (present-day Moldova), into the family of Srul Ruvinovich Anisfeld, an estate manager, and Gitlya Istkovna Anisfeld. Until he is seventeen, the future artist lives in his parents’ home. He learns German and French. 1885 – Anisfeld learns to play the violin, and begins to take up drawing. 1895 – Anisfeld enters the Odessa Drawing School, where he studies with K. K. Kostandi, at that time the leading teacher of portraiture and figure painting in Odessa. He meets V. A. Izdebsky, S. L. Abugov, and D. D. Burliuk. 1900 – Anisfeld enters the Imperial Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg. His first teacher is P. O. Kovalevsky, a painter of battle pictures. 1901 – Due to poor health (according to a medical certificate), Anisfeld takes a leave of absence, and spends the summer in Odessa. 1902 – Anisfeld transfers to I. A. Repin's class, which Repin's assistant D. N. Kardovsky directs after 1903. (In 1907, Kardovsky became a teacher of genre and portrait painting). Anisfeld takes a room on the Petersburg Side, at Bolshaya Spasskaya Street, number 15, apt. 23. He shares the room with A. I. Savinov, who also studying with Kardovsky. Although he studied under Repin, his drawings gravitated more towards the symbolism of Mikhail Vrubel. 1903 – The academy's Advisory Council denies Anisfeld a one-time grant of financial aid. Yet twice – in March and December – his sketches are praised. 1904 – The Council decides to give Anisfeld a one-time grant. With the understanding of the academy that he will apply himself to his art studies, Anisfeld spends the summer traveling around Russia-and also every summer thereafter, until 1909. In December, he marries Frieda Glaeserman, the daughter of a Pskov merchant. She, apparently, had been taking art lessons with Anisfeld.

1905 – The artist and critic I. E. Grabar ‘discovers’ the young painter, and introduces him to S. P. Diaghilev. Anisfeld joins a circle of artists who are close to The World of Art group. That summer, he and his wife travel along the Neva and the Western Dvina, and then via the Dnepr to Crimea, where they spend some time in Gurzuf, and meet Maxim Gorky. 1905–06 – Anisfeld does illustrations for the satirical journals Zhupel (Bugbear), Adskaya Pochta, and V. L. Burtsyev's Calendar of the Russian Revolution. 1906 – Anisfeld stays in Paris in Jan. and Feb. For the first time, he participates in exhibitions of the Union of Russian Artists, in Moscow, and of the World of Art in Petersburg. One of his watercolors, Flowers is acquired by the Tretyakov Gallery. Anisfeld is now living on Vasilevsky Island, Bol’shoi Prospekt, number 8/4, apt 34. Diaghilev organizes an exhibit of Russian art at the Paris Salon d’Automne. Anisfeld is a participant, and is one of six Russian artists chosen as Societaires. Diaghilev's exhibition is continued in Berlin, at the Kunstsalon Schulte. Together with L. Bakst and M. Dobushinsky, Anisfeld teaches at A. Zvansteva's art school. I. A. Repin supports Anisfelds's request to the Advisory Council of the academy, for permission to travel abroad for half a year. He apparently uses only two or three months.

1907 – The Russian Exhibition from the Salon d’ Automne is shown in a drastically abbreviated form in Venice. Anisfeld spends several months in the south of Russia for reasons of health. He finishes his courses at the Higher Art School of the Imperial