Peter Dmitrievich Buchkin (January 22, 1886, Sofronovo, Tver Province, Russian Empire - June 21, 1965, Leningrad, USSR) - Russian and Soviet artist, painter, graphic artist, illustrator, teacher, professor of the I. Repin Leningrad Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture and the Leningrad Higher Industrial School named after V.I. Mukhina. Honored Artist of the RSFSR, member of the Leningrad Organization of the Union of Artists of the RSFSR.
Pyotr Dmitrievich Buchkin was born on January 22, 1886 in the village of Sofronovo in the Tver province. In 1891 he moved with his family to the city of Uglich, where he graduated from a three-year school with P. A. Kritsky. The future artist received the first drawing lessons from local icon painters. In 1899, Peter Buchkin arrived in St. Petersburg, studying at the Central School of Technical Drawing A. L. Stieglitz with N. A. Koshelev. In 1904, Buchkin entered the Higher Art School at the Imperial Academy of Arts, studying with Vasily Mate and Vasily Savinsky. In 1912, Buchkin graduated from the Higher Art School in the studio of Professor Vasily Mate with the title of artist with the right to teach in educational institutions. As a pensioner of the Academy of Arts in 1912-1914, the artist visited Italy, France, Germany, Spain, and other countries.
Since 1907, Buchkin participated in exhibitions. He painted portraits, genre paintings, landscapes, illustrated magazines and books. He worked in watercolor, pencil and sanguine, pastel, etching, oil and tempera painting. In 1914, Buchkin became a member of the A. I. Kuindzhi Society of Artists, in 1918 he was elected a member of the Society of Russian Watercolorists.
After the October Revolution in 1918-1921, Buchkin served on the command team of the submarine division of the Baltic Fleet. In 1921-1936 he worked as the head of the technical department of the Rainbow Publishing House in Leningrad, and illustrated books for the publishing houses of Leningrad and Moscow. Buchkin has been a member of the Leningrad Union of Soviet Artists since 1932. In 1936-1940 he taught at the Leningrad Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture of the All-Russian Academy of Arts, professor of the department of drawing (1937). In 1947-1965 he taught at the Leningrad Higher Industrial Art School named after V.I. Mukhina, professor (1952), head of the department of monumental and decorative painting (1951-1955, 1962-1965).
A talented painter and portrait painter, Peter Buchkin was fluent in various techniques of painting the theme, their choice, as a rule, was determined by the genre of the work, interest in revealing the inner content of the image. Among the works he created are paintings «On the Volga. Bathers», «Portrait of a Wife» (both 1922), «A Village Under the Snow» (1929), «Autumn Putin» (1931), «Bread» (1934), «All-Russian Labor Day May 1, 1920» (1935), «Portrait of People's Artist of the USSR P.Z. Andreev» (1935), «What Wheat!» (1936), «Underground Assembly» (1937), «Mission on Flight» (1938), «Meeting of Unit Commanders and Commissars in Oranienbaum on June 14 1919» (1939), «Speech by V. I. Lenin at the April Conference» (1939), «Sailors at a reception with M. I. Kalinin in 1940» (1940), «On threshing current» (1947), «Harvest», «Collective Farm Shepherd», «At the Field Camp in the Fall» (all 1951), «Portrait of a wife» (1956), «A. M. Gorky and F. I. Chaliapin», «Fyodor Ivanovich Chaliapin» (both 1957), «Bread growers», «Portrait of the artist N. E. Timkov», «Portrait of the sculptor I. V. Krestovsky», «Appeal of Kozma Minin to to the Russian people», «Portrait of the Artist P. Vasiliev», «Portrait of the Film Actress A. Zavyalova» (all 1960), «Song» (1961), «After the Operation», «Pensioners» (both 1964).
The most famous artist brought portraits of cultural and art figures. He wrote from nature of Vladimir Lenin, Fedor Chaliapin. In 1989-1992, after the artist’s death, his works were successfully presented at exhibitions and auctions of Russian painting by L 'Ecole de Leningrad and others in France.
Peter Dmitrievich Buchkin died in Leningrad on June 21, 1965, in his eightieth year of life. He was buried at the Theological Cemetery.
The artist’s works are in the collections of the Russian Museum, the Tretyakov Gallery, other museums in Russia, in numerous private collections in Russia, Finland, Great Britain, the USA, France and other countries. Famous paintings, graphic and sculptural portraits of P. Buchkin, performed in different years by Leningrad artists and sculptors, including I.V. Krestovsky (1956), G.P. Tatarnikov (1964), S.A. Rotnitsky (1963), D.P. Buchkin (1971).
