Mikhail Alexandrovich Kaneev (April 5, 1923, the village of Kaneevo, Chukhloma district of Kostroma province, USSR - March 6, 1983, Leningrad, USSR) - Soviet painter, teacher, Honored Art Worker of the RSFSR, member of the Leningrad organization of the Union of Artists of the RSFSR.
Mikhail Aleksandrovich Kaneev was born on April 5, 1923 in the village of Kaneevo, Chukhlomsky District, Kostroma Region. In 1927 (some sources indicate 1928), the Kaneev family moved to Leningrad. In 1931-1937 Kaneev studied at a children's art school and at the same time at the Central House of Parenting by teachers E.V. Tikhomirova and M.F. Kobyshev. In 1937-1941 he studied at the Secondary School of Art (now the Lyceum named after B.V. Johanson) at the All-Russian Academy of Arts. In 1941, Kaneev entered the first year of the Leningrad Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. After the start of World War II, he was drafted into the army and sent to the school of signalmen. In early 1942, a seriously ill patient was evacuated from the besieged Leningrad to Sverdlovsk. After recovery, he graduated from the school of medical assistants and was enrolled in the airborne regiment, which transported blood to the front. The regiment was based in Tushino near Moscow, and from the end of 1944 was relocated to Poland. After demobilization in 1945, with the rank of lieutenant, Kaneev returned to study at the institute. He studied with Leonid Ovsyannikov, Mikhail Avilov, Ivan Stepashkin, Yuri Neprintsev. In parallel with his studies from 1947 to 1961 he taught at the famous children's art studio of the Palace of Pioneers named after A. Zhdanova, where she gained her first pedagogical experience.
In 1951 Kaneev graduated from the Leningrad Institute of Painting and Sculpture. I.E. Repin in the workshop of R. Frents. Thesis - the painting «On the Stalinist route» («Flight of Chkalov, Belyakov, Baidukov»). In the same issue, Ivan Andreev, Nikolai Baskakov, Alexei Eremin, Maya Kopytseva, Anatoly Levitin, Evgeny Lesin, Nikolai Ovchinnikov, Avenir Parkhomenko, Valentin Pechatin, Erich Rebane, Igor Skorobogatov, Lyudmila Bystrova, Mikhail Trufanov, Boris Ugarov and others graduated from the institute. young artists who soon became famous Leningrad painters. Close creative communication and friendship with them will remain with Mikhail Kaneev for many years.
For the first time, Kaneev participated in the exhibition "Ural Military District" in Sverdlovsk in 1943, receiving the first prize for a series of drawings «Heroic Leningrad in the difficult days of the blockade». Since 1953, he constantly participated in exhibitions, exhibiting his works together with the works of leading masters of fine art of Leningrad. In the same year he was admitted to the Leningrad Union of Soviet Artists. He painted urban, architectural and landscape landscapes, genre paintings, portraits, sketches from nature. He worked in the technique of oil painting, drawing and watercolor. In 1953, the first solo exhibition of Kaneev took place at the Creative House in Zelenogorsk near Leningrad, in which he showed over 100 works (portraits, sketches).
Kaneyev’s works shown at the exhibitions speak of searches for his theme, peculiarities of his picturesque manner and methods of working on him, among them are «Awarding with the revolutionary banner of the First Horse Army», «Old Kiev», «Chukhloma» (all 1956), «In the Khibiny» (1957 ), «Krylov Lane», «Tolmachev Lane», «Chukhloma» (all 1958), «Leningrad. Gorokhovaya Street», «Leningrad. On the former Sennaya» (all 1959), «Leningrad Yard», «Republican Drive», «Search» (all 1960), «Fontanka», «Leningrad Circus» (both 1961), «Leningrad. Spit of Vasilyevsky Island», «Czechoslovakia. Street of the city of Znojmo»(both 1962) and others. In 1954-1960, Kaneev also commissioned a series of paintings for the Museum of the Arctic and Antarctic in Leningrad. Among them are the paintings «Arrival of an Airplane at a Drifting Station» (1955), «In the North» (1957), «Conversation of V.I. Lenin with Scientists on the Development of the North» (1959). This great work played an important role in his professional development. Among other orders of this period, the portrait of General A. A. Brusilov (1963), written for the Museum of A. V. Suvorov in Leningrad, should be highlighted.
By the mid-1960s, Kaneev decided on the main theme of his work, becoming widely known as a master of the Leningrad landscape-painting. This was confirmed by a personal exhibition, shown in 1966 in the halls of the LOSH, which exhibited over 70 new works created by the author in recent years. A recognizable individual style of the artist has developed. The decorative-graphic style of his writing was distinguished by the sharpness of the silhouette, black-and-white contrasts, the active use of a black stroke, which allowed to write bright places without whitened colors, achieving color intensity. In addition to the Leningrad landscape, Kaneev writes to Moscow, Pskov, Novgorod, Kostroma, makes creative trips to Romania, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Austria.
The features of the painting of this period are shown by the works «Republican Drive», «Comedy Theater» (both 1961), «Narva Outpost» (1963), «Malaya Sadovaya», «At St. Isaac's Cathedral», «Builders Bridge» (all 1964) ), «Novgorod. Yaroslav's yard», «Pskov. Church of the Archangel Michael», «Novgorod Street» (all 1965), «Kizhi», «At the Vitebsk Station», «At the St. Isaac's Cathedral» (1967), «Leningrad. Moika Embankment» (1968), «Makarov Embankment», «Budapest. St. Stephen's Cathedral» (both 1971), «On Konyushennaya Square», «At the Vitebsk Station» (both 1972), «Russian Antiquity» (1974), «Leningrad. Kirov bridge», «Leningrad. Kryukov Canal Embankment», «Leningrad. Theater Square» (all 1975), «Neva», «Leningrad. Pushkin Square» (all 1976), «Leningrad. Konyushennaya Square», «Leningrad. The Moika River», «Chukhloma» (all 1977), «Leningrad. Palace Square», «Leningrad. Bridge of Builders», «Leningrad. On the former Sennaya Square», «Leningrad Yard», «Leningrad. Nevsky Prospect» (all 1978), «Pskov», «Novgorod» (both 1979), «Leningrad. On the Palace Square», «Leningrad. At the Kazan Cathedral» (both 1980), «Sadovaya Street» (1981), «Smolny Cathedral» (1982) and others.
The journal “Artist”, having placed a reproduction of Kaneyev’s painting «The Comedy Theater», wrote about the author: «The Leningrad painter Mikhail Aleksandrovich Kaneev is known as a master of urban landscape. In his canvases, exhibited at almost all republican and all-Union exhibitions of recent years, the artist depicts the noisy, crowded Nevsky Prospect, the thoughtful, lyrical Fontanka, streets washed with rain, and evening Leningrad flickering with color advertisements. With his master’s brush and the heart of a true Leningrader, he captured in his works remarkable architectural and sculptural monuments, which the hero city is famous for. One of these works is The Comedy Theater, created in 1961».
In 1961-1983 Kaneev taught at the Leningrad State Pedagogical Institute named after A.I. Herzen, From 1966 he headed the department of drawing at the art-graphic faculty. Professor (1972), Honored Artist of the RSFSR (1982). Personal exhibition in the Leningrad Union of Artists of the RSFSR in 1966.
He died in Leningrad on March 6, 1983 at the 60th year of his life. The works of M. A. Kaneev are in the State Russian Museum, in other museums and private collections in Russia, Great Britain, France, the USA, Japan and other countries.
