Nikolai Andreevich Tyrsa (April 27 (May 9), 1887 - February 10, 1942) - Russian and Soviet painter, graphic artist, specialist in applied art and teacher, representative of the Leningrad school of landscape painting. One of the founders of the Leningrad school of book graphics.
Nikolai Andreevich Tyrsa was born in the village of Aralikh of the Erivan province (now Aralik, Turkey) in the family of an officer of the Kuban Cossack army. In 1905-1909 he studied intermittently at the architectural department of the Higher Art School at the Imperial Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg (he did not finish the course) and at the private School of Painting and Drawing by E. Zvantseva with L. Bakst and M. Dobuzhinsky (1906-1910).
He was engaged in teaching - at the Petrograd Academy of Arts, State Art and Industrial Workshops (1918-1922) and the Leningrad Institute of Civil Engineers (1924-1942). Since 1921, Tyrsa began to engage in book graphics. His first work in this direction was the design of the book «Comedy about Tsar Maximilian and his rebellious son Adolf».
Among his works are illustrations for books such as The Siege of the Palace by V. A. Kaverin, The Republic of SCDT [School of the commune for difficult teens named. F.M. Dostoevsky] by G. Belykh and L. Panteleev, The Snow Book by V. V. Bianchi, War Horses by N. S. Tikhonov , «Childhood» by M. Gorky.
“What he did with the“ Republic of SCDT [School of the commune for difficult teens named. F.M. Dostoevsky]” seemed (and seems) to be on the verge of magic,” wrote L. Panteleev in the biographical sketch of Tyrsa. “This is a very accurate realistic design with a subtle tinge of the grotesque.” In short, this is the style of the story itself. <...> I will not forget how impressed me and my co-author, the late Grigory Georgievich Belykh, the almost photographic similarity of many characters in the story, people whom Nikolai Andreyevich did not see and could not see. He drew, relying only on our text, far from perfect, and on his own intuition. ”
One of the best in this direction was his work on the design of books by B. S. Zhitkov. In 1940-41 worked with V. I. Mukhina in the experimental workshop of the Leningrad Mirror Factory, designing glass products (decanters, glasses, vases). June 14, 1941 in the Russian Museum in Leningrad opened the first and last lifetime personal exhibition of the artist's works.
January 29, 1942 a seriously ill artist was evacuated from the besieged Leningrad. He died on February 10, 1942 in Vologda.
