Dmitriev Vladimir Vladimirovich
(1900-1948)

As a young Vladimir Dmitriev was closely associated with two outstanding masters of Russian art - painter K. Petrov-Vodkin and director Meyerhold. In Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin he studied at the Petrograd in private art school Zvantseva E. (1916-17), then in Petrograd GSHM (1918-21) and became his devoted admirer. In Meyerhold in Petrograd he was doing experimental theater studio at Borodino (1916-17) and in courses mastery of stage productions (1918) and was also his ardent fan.

These circumstances have influenced the choice of career: beautiful painter, Dmitriev fully and vividly expressed himself only as a theater artist.

The first success Dmitrieva was associated with the historical performance of Meyerhold "Zori" E. Verhaeren (1920). But so well struck up a creative partnership had continued, mainly due to the complexity of the nature of Meyerhold wonderful sketches for the "Inspector" by Nikolai Gogol (1926) have not been implemented on the stage, and in 1930 between the director and the artist was the final gap , painfully lived through Dmitriev.

His best works of the 1920s. were created for the musical theater in Leningrad and Moscow. Bright picturesque, scenic innovative visual solutions and sensitivity to the music on this has brought fame to his performances as "The Love for Three Oranges" by S. Prokofiev (1926), "Boris Godunov" by Mussorgsky (1928) and especially "The Queen Spades "by Tchaikovsky (1931), the scenery which deservedly considered classics.

Musical theater and Dmitriev did not leave afterwards, but his main work of the 1930s. were mainly associated with a dramatic scene, and mostly from Moscow Art Theatre. The relationship of the artist with this theater evolved hard: play "Bride" for which Dmitriev made perfect sketches (1928), was not placed, and sketches for the stage version of "Dead Souls" (1930-31) was even rejected because of their unusual courage in the interpretation poem by Nikolai Gogol.

Still, in 1930, was a success in its scenery of the play "Resurrection" by Leo Tolstoy, and it is in the design Dmitriev were made all the landmark Theater productions of the 1930s. "Enemies" by M. Gorky (1937 ), "Anna Karenina" by Leo Tolstoy (1937), "Three Sisters" by Anton Chekhov (1940). In them, as well as in the famous play "Yegor Bulychov and other" Maxim Gorky, staged in the Theater. Eug. Vakhtangov (1932), the artist used the techniques of realistic depiction of the scene, by the time the fully prevailed in the Soviet theater, but cleverly bypassed the danger of falling into naturalism and proposed solutions, distinguished by a strong figurative expression. Alliance with the Moscow Art Theatre has been so strong that Dmitriev moved to Moscow (1938) and became the chief artist of the theater - first, in fact, as from 1941, and formally.

The following works Dmitrieva in drama and musical theater in Moscow and Leningrad - the scenery for the "last victim" by A. Ostrovsky (1944), "The Great Tsar" by V. Soloviev (1945), "War and Peace" by S. Prokofiev (1946) and others - testified about the new features of his talent, but a serious illness interrupted the life of the artist.