Alexei Eremeyevich Karev

Alexei Eremeevich Karev (1879, Shilovka – 1942, Leningrad) was a Russian painter and graphic artist.

Karev studied icon-painting studio under Fyodor Korneyev in Saratov in 1896 and then until 1898 he attended the Alexei Bogolyubov School of Drawing there, before moving to Penza where he studied under Konstantin Savitsky at the Nikolai Seliverstov School of Art. In 1901 he moved to Kiev where he studied for two years at the Kiev Private School of Art. In 1903 he then moved to St Petersburg and attended the Free Studio of Art.

He was influenced by the French Symbolists and Post-Impressionists. He is noted for his cityscapes of Petrograd/Leningrad from the late 1910s to the 1930s.

He was responsible for transforming the existing schools of art into Svomas, state free art studios, in Penza (1919) and Saratov (1920–21) (where he also taught), and the Central School of Technical Drawing (1921–22).

From 1922 until 1941 he taught at Vkhutein (Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture of the All-Russian Academy of Arts), being appointed professor in 1940.

In 1942 he died of starvation during the Siege of Leningrad.

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