Avilov Mikhail Ivanovich (1882-1954) - Russian, Soviet painter and teacher, People's Artist of the RSFSR, laureate of the Stalin Prize of the first degree (1946). Born in 1882. He studied at the Drawing School of the Society for the Encouragement of the Arts (1893), in the studio of L. E. Dmitriev-Kavkazsky (1903), at the Imperial Academy of Arts (1904), the workshop of F. A. Roubaud, from 1910 - with N. S. Samokish . In 1913 he was awarded the title of artist for the painting «The Young Tsarevich and the Boyar-educators». In 1916, the first prize of the Society for the Encouragement of the Arts for the painting «Oprichniki». Member of the Association of Artists of Revolutionary Russia (1923). Honored Artist of the RSFSR (1944). Full member of the Academy of Arts of the USSR since 1947. Until the end of his life he taught at the Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. I.E. Repin in Leningrad.
He worked mainly in the battle genre, a master of historical paintings. Many paintings are built on heroic-historical principles. Basically, the work is dedicated to significant Russian events and the times of the civil war. He also worked in book graphics, the author of many posters from the 1920s.
He took part in exhibitions since 1908, including at the exhibitions of the Academy of Arts, the Society named after A.I. Kuindzhi and others. The artist’s works are in the Russian Museum, the Tretyakov Gallery, Perm Art Gallery, the Dnepropetrovsk Art Museum (Ukraine), and the History Museum. D. I. Yavornytsky (Ukraine), Nikolaev Art Museum named after V.V. Vereshchagin, in public and private collections.