Fyodor Buchholz

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Fyodor Fyodorovich Buchholz (born Teodor Buchholz) was a Russo-German painter and draftsman who worked mainly in Saint Petersburg. He was born on 9 June 1857 in Włocławek, then part of the Russian Empire, to Eleonora and Teodor Gustaw Buchholz, who ran a printing press. He studied at the Imperial Academy of Arts in Saint Petersburg from 1878 to 1886, under Pavel Chistyakov and Valery Jacobi, and later taught there himself.

During his early career he won several medals: three silver medals (1880–1882) and, in 1885, a gold medal with the title "Artist" for Daedalus and Icarus. He worked as a graphic illustrator for magazines such as Niva and Homeland, and in 1891 he joined the Association of Russian Illustrators. From 1893 to 1919 he taught at the Imperial Society for the Encouragement of the Arts. In 1902 he designed the Saint Petersburg Bicentenary medal.

Buchholz showed his paintings in St. Petersburg and at the Zachęta National Gallery of Art in Warsaw. He was a founding member of the Kuindzhi Society in 1909. After the 1917 Revolution he helped with agitprop and designed celebrations for revolutionary holidays, including a 1918 plan for Petrograd’s anniversary with a triumphal arch on Vasilyevsky Island. In 1924 he joined the Association of Artists of Revolutionary Russia, and from 1932 he was with the Union of Russian Artists. He taught in various schools and cultural centers from 1919 to 1932. He was married to Maria Dillon, Russia’s first female sculptor.

Fyodor Buchholz died on 7 May 1942 in Leningrad during the Siege of the city and was buried at the Smolensky Lutheran Cemetery in Saint Petersburg.