On July 6, a postal block dedicated to the 175th Birth Anniversary of V. Vasnetsov, a painter, an architect, was put into postal circulation

Viktor Vasnetsov (1848-1926) was a Russian painter and architect, a master of historical and folkloric painting, the founder of the Russian Revival style, a member of the Abramtsevo Artistic Circle, a Full Member of the Academy of Arts (1893).

The Vasnetsov's creative works belong to different genres from the Genre painting to the fairy tale painting, from easel to monumental painting, from the earthiness of the Itinerants to the prototype of the Art Nouveau style.

At an early stage, the works of the master were based predominantly on everyday life subjects, for example, Moving House (1876), Military Telegram (1878), At a Bookseller’s (1876), Balagans in Paris Suburbs (1876). In later years, the epic and historical direction prevailed in his work: Alyonushka (1881), A Knight at the Crossroads (1882) and A Gamayun Bird (1898). These works can be qualified as picturesque poetic tales about Russian people, glorious national old times and their immortal heroes.

In the late 1890s, a religious theme began to occupy an increasingly prominent place. V. Vasnetsov worked in the St. Vladimir Cathedral in Kiev and the Church of the Savior on the Spilled Blood in St. Petersburg; he made watercolor drawings and preparatory originals of murals for the Vladimir Cathedral and the painting of the Church of St. John the Baptist on Presnya in Moscow; he worked in a team of artists who decorated the interior of the Temple-Monument of Alexander Nevsky in Sofia, Bulgaria. After 1917, Vasnetsov continued to work on national fairytale themes and created such paintings as Baba-Yaga (1917), Dobrynya Nikitich Fighting with Dragon Gorynych (1918) and Kashchei the Immortal (1917-1919).

The postage stamp provides a fragment of picture A Gamayun Bird (1898, P. Gamzatova Dagestan Museum of Fine Arts); the margins of the block feature a portrait of the artist by S. Malyutin (1915, Vyatka Art Museum) against a fragment of the interior of Artists V. and A. Vasnetsovs’ House Museum Ryabovo.

In addition to the issue of the postal block, JSC Marka produced First Day Covers and special cancels for Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kaliningrad and Kirov, as well as illustrated covers for the postal block with a label and a First Day Cover with a cancel for Moscow inside; and for the second emission type: an imperforated postal block made on canvas-type design paper.


Design Artist: O. Savina.
Face value: 175 rubles.
Block size: 97×84 mm, stamp size in the block: 35.5×49 mm.
Quantity: 20 thousand blocks (the first emission type); 4 thousand blocks (the second emission type*).
* To be on sale as part of an illustrated cover.

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