Dmitry Belyaev (artist)

Dmitry Vasilievich Belyaev (Дмитрий Васильевич Беляев, November 18, 1921, Ryazan Province — September 25, 2007, Saint Petersburg) was a Russian and Soviet painter, who lived and worked in Saint Petersburg (former Leningrad), an Honored Artist of the Russian Federation, a member of the Leningrad Union of Soviet Artists, regarded as one of representatives of the Leningrad School of Painting.

Biography
Dmitry Vasilievich Belyaev was born on 18 November 1921 in the village Bortnoe, Rybnovskij district of the Ryazan province, 18 kilometres from Ryazan city. In 1929, after the death of his mother he moved to Moscow together with his father and other children. In Moscow he initially studied in a children's art studio, then at the Moscow Art School of the Memory of Revolution of 1905.

From the last course of the Moscow Art School he was drafted into the Red Army. A Member of the Great Patriotic War, he fought in the Southwestern Front and 2nd Ukrainian Front as a tankman. He has wounded, marked by military awards.

In 1952 Belyaev graduated from the Department of Painting of the Repin Institute of Arts, where he studied of Boris Ioganson, Genrikh Pavlovsky, Alexander Zaytsev, Semion Abugov. His graduate work was a genre picture entitled "For Peace!".

Since 1952 Belyaev begins to participate in art exhibitions. He painted portraits, genre and historical composition, landscapes, still lifes. In 1952 he was admitted to the Leningrad Union of Soviet Artists. In 1970-1980s Belyaev was a head of creative groups of artists in the House of creativity «Staraya Ladoga» in Staraya Ladoga. In 1998 he was awarded the honorary title of the Honored Artist of the Russian Federation. In 2004 Dmitry Belyaev was awarded the Prize of the St. Petersburg government in the field of literature, art and architecture for his paintings of recent years. In 2005 he became a laureate of State Prize of Repin. He was a full member of Peter's Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Dmitry Vasilievich Belyaev died in Saint Petersburg on September 25, 2007, at the age of 86. His paintings reside in Russian museum, in Art museums and private collections in Russia, Finland, in the U.S., Japan, Germany, France, and other countries.