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Rudolf
Rudolfovich Frenz

born in XX century
(July 23, 1888, Marienburg, St. Petersburg Province, Russian Empire - December 27, 1956, Leningrad, USSR) - Russian and Soviet painter, graphic artist and teacher, professor and head of the battle workshop of the Repin League of Artists, professor V. I. Mukhina, member of the Leningrad Union of Artists.
Born July 23, 1888 in the city of Marienburg, St. Petersburg province, in the family of the famous animal painter Rudolf Ferdinandovich Frenz (1831-1918), who became the first teacher of the future artist. In 1909, after graduating from a correspondence school he entered the Higher Art School at the Imperial Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg, where he studied for a year and a half in the testing class, then for six months in the studio of Vasily Savinsky, and in 1912 he moved to the battle studio of Nikolai Samokish. In 1912 he made a trip to Europe (Italy, France and England). In 1915, he was sent as an artist to the Cavalry Corps in the Western Dvina Region, where he made a great number of watercolors and drawings, many of which were published in 1916 on the covers and pages of the "Lukomorye" magazine. In 1916 he was mobilized into the army, and together with a group of artists led by N. Samokish visited the Western Front, Fortress Osovets, General Headquarters in Baranovichi, the Black Sea Fleet in Sevastopol and the Caucasus Front. Performed up to 100 watercolors. In 1916 he returned to the Academy to prepare for the contest picture "After the Battle", which he painted in the Tula Province in the stud farm. In view of the reorganization of the Academy the competition was canceled and in March 1918 the artist graduated from the Higher Art School with the title of artist. After the revolution, in addition to creative work he was actively engaged in educational activities in the Decorative Institute, various art schools of the city. From 1929 he taught at the VHUTEIN - INPI - Leningrad Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, head of the battle workshop (1935-1956), professor of painting (since 1939). From 1949 to 1956, he was part-time Professor at the Department of Monumental and Decorative Painting of the Higher School of Art named after V. I. Mukhina. Rudolf Frents was a member of the AHRR, in 1929 became a member of the "Society of Artists", and since 1932 a member of the Leningrad Union of Artists, entered the first Board of the Union, elected August 2, 1932 at the general constituent assembly of artists of different unions and societies. R.Frents participated in exhibitions since 1904. He painted battle, genre and historical compositions, portraits, city and landscape landscapes, genre scenes. He also worked in easel and monumental painting, water colors and drawings, and created dioramas (The Seizure of the Winter Palace, 1929) and panoramas (Defense of Petrograd, 1939). In 1918-1925, while working in the agitation-placard workshop of the Decorative Institute, he painted agitation posters, fabrics, porcelain, and made sketches for festive decoration of city buildings and events. His greatest recognition R. Frents achieved as a master of thematic and battle paintings and panoramic. He was a member and exhibitor at the "Community of Artists" (1922-1925) and the Leningrad Union of Artists. Among the works created by R.R.Frents, the paintings "On Znamenskaya Square in the February days of 1917" (1917), "The Krukov Channel" (1920), "Still Life", "Daredevil" (both 1921), "The Yard of the Lomoviki on the International avenue", "Carousel" (both 1922), "Nevsky at Night. The Cabby", "People's Parade" (both 1923), "First Village Councils", "Partisan" (both 1924), "Assault on the Winter Palace", "Amazon" (both 1925), "Portrait of a Wife" (1926), "On the Perekop", "The Taking of the Winter Palace" (both 1927), "The Defense of Petrograd from Yudenich" (1928), "Kirov S. M. at the May Day Parade," "Blucher's Campaign. The Workers of the Southern Urals join a partisan detachment" (both 1929), "Storming Kronstadt" (1935) "S. M. Kirov in the North Caucasus. M. Kirov in the North Caucasus", "Joint actions of tanks, aviation and cavalry. Combined Attack"[15] (both 1937), "Forest Stream", "M.V. Frunze leads the crossing of Sivash" (both 1940), "Partisan Trails" (1947), "Stalingrad. february 2, 1943" (1950), "Storm of the Winter" (1951), "Hounds" (1953) and others. Rudolf Frenz is also well-known as the author of the monumental panoramas The Seizure of the Winter Palace (1920, second version - 1929, size 6 x 25 meters), Defence of Petrograd (1937, 7 x 32 meters) and The Battle of Stalingrad (1946). Beginning in the 1930s, his decorative and graphic style of painting, with its characteristic sharp silhouette, localism and saturation of color, and somewhat conventional constructional patterning, was gradually replaced by traditional plein air painting. Personal exhibitions of Rudolf Frenz were held in Leningrad in 1928 at the Central House of Artists, in 1970 in the halls of the Leningrad Artists Society, and in St. Petersburg in 2006 at the State Russian Museum. He died on December 27, 1956 in Leningrad at the sixty-ninth year of life. His works are kept at the State Russian Museum, the State Tretyakov Gallery, in museums and private collections in Russia and abroad.
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