Vasily Ivanovich Surikov

Russian painter

Written by

Andrei D. Sarabianov

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Britannica Editors

History

Vasily Ivanovich Surikov (born Jan. 12 [Jan. 24, New Style], 1848, Krasnoyarsk, central Siberia, Russia—died March 3 [March 19], 1916, Moscow, Russia) was a Russian historical painter, one of the few members of the Peredvizhniki (“Wanderers”) whose work has withstood the test of time. Surikov, who was of Cossack descent, was born in Siberia in a community that had retained much of its traditional way of life (dating from the pre-Petrine times of Yermak’s conquest...