Сирень

c. 1901

Assists Repin on “The State Council”

“I have great hopes for Kustodiev,” Repin wrote, and when commissioned to paint a huge canvas for the centenary of the State Council, he invited his pupil to assist him: together they made portrait studies, and Kustodiev then executed the right-hand side of the final work (other accounts say about a third of the portraits).

8 January 1903

Marries Yulia Proshinskaya

Kustodiev and Yulia Proshinskaya were married in a small church on the Catherine Canal in St Petersburg; she took her husband's name, and he later painted several portraits of her.

30 October 1903

Graduates with a gold medal for “At the Market”

Kustodiev completed the course with a gold medal: for his competition picture “At the Market” (now lost) he received the title of artist and the right to a year's travel abroad and around Russia on an Academy grant.

1907

Grand gold medal in Venice

Kustodiev won the grand gold medal at the International Art Exhibition in Venice.

1916

Surgery and paralysis: confined to a wheelchair

When the pain in his arm returned, Kustodiev underwent surgery in Petrograd: the arm was saved, but his legs began to fail. In his last years he was confined to a wheelchair and painted lying down — and it was then that he created his brightest, most joyful works.

28. maj 1927

Died