Simov Viktor Andreevich

Russian and Soviet artist and stage designer. Honored Artist of the RSFSR (1932). He graduated from the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture in 1882. In the 1880s Simov worked as an illustrator for the Alarm Clock magazine. Exhibiting his paintings at traveling exhibitions, and later at exhibitions of the Moscow Association of Artists. In 1885-1886 he worked as a decorator in a private Russian opera, was engaged in easel painting and lithography. In 1896, a joint exhibition of paintings by Isaac Levitan, Viktor Simov and Alexander Popov took place in Odessa. In 1896, Simov met K.S. Stanislavsky, who invited him to design the play “The Drowned Bell” by G. Hauptmann at the Society of Arts and Literature. The artist was at the origins of the creation of the Moscow Art Theater (1898). During the first decade of the history of this theater was actually its only artist. In total, during his work at the Moscow Art Theater, Viktor Simov designed 51 productions. The artist's works are kept in the State Center for Contemporary Art, other museums and private collections.