Artist Leonid Mikhailovich Brailovsky. An unapproved design for the series “300 Years of the House of Romanov”.
He was born in Kharkov in 1871 into an Orthodox noble family. His father, Mikhail Brailovsky, was the city mayor; his mother came from the Sedlyarevsky family of Little Russian nobles. After studying at a classical gymnasium, he entered the Imperial Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg. He studied painting and architecture, specializing in landscape painting. His mentor during these and subsequent years of study was the then still young A. N. Beketov, later a professor, academician, and a leading teacher of an entire generation of Soviet architects.
During his studies he was repeatedly awarded for academic success: in 1890, a small silver medal; in 1892, a large silver medal; in 1893, a small gold medal. For a project of the Imperial stables he was awarded a gold medal.
In 1894 he successfully graduated from the Imperial Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg in the architecture class. Because of his outstanding performance, he became an Academy pensioner, and was granted the honorary right to travel at state expense in 1895–1897 on a foreign tour—to Italy, Greece, Egypt, and Spain—highly exotic countries where he found new subjects. These, in a sense, made him famous.
Brailovsky also visited France, Germany, Austria, and England, where he again produced architectural sketches and measurements that became part of his creative report on the two-year voyage. Some of his architectural watercolors, sent as a report on the trip abroad, were acquired by the Museum of the Academy of Arts, the Institute of Civil Engineers, and the Russian Museum. Some of his works even ended up in the Byzantine Museum at the Sorbonne, testifying to the maturity of his painting as well as undeniable commercial success.
Abroad, Brailovsky attended the studios of R. Bompiani in Rome and the R. Julian Academy in Paris. This gave him certain acquaintances and knowledge of some methods of Western European art.
After returning home, L. M. Brailovsky received a professorial post at the Moscow School of Painting and Architecture and at the same time began teaching at the Stroganov School. He also did stage work for the Imperial Bolshoi Theatre.
In Crimea, the Brailovskys became close acquaintances with the sister of A. P. Chekhov, Maria Pavlovna Chekhova, who nearby, also in Miskhor, bought herself a small dacha in order to be closer to the writer’s White Dacha, which was in Yalta.
After the writer’s death in Moscow, an original memorial “golbets” designed by Brailovsky—with three small domes and a cast cross with enamel and a crucifix—was made and installed on the classic’s grave. In Soviet times, the monument and the fence, also made according to Brailovsky’s designs, were restored by decision of the Ministry of Culture and brought into proper condition. It should be noted that the grave itself had to be moved from one place to another.
At this time, the Academy of Arts commissioned Brailovsky to copy the frescoes of the Novgorod Church of the Savior on Nereditsa. His work was used by the well-known Byzantinist Millet in his book published at the Sorbonne.
In 1916 Leonid Mikhailovich Brailovsky was awarded the title of академик of the Academy of Arts. He became the last person to receive this title during the imperial period of Russian history.
As a first step toward establishing a creative career no longer tied to apprenticeship, the Academy’s top leadership proposed that he move to Moscow to carry out a major commission: creating watercolor images of the interiors of the Yusupov Palace. Over several months, L. M. Brailovsky produced 12 watercolors of high artistic quality, depicting in the finest detail all the luxury of the recently restored rooms of the ancient Russian residence. These watercolor albums, striking in their refined precision of detail, could already then, without any exaggeration, stand alongside similar works by his predecessors depicting the interiors of Russian palaces and mansions.
After the October Revolution, in 1919, together with his wife, the artist Rimma Nikitichna Brailovskaya (nee Schmidt), he emigrated first to Latvia, and later lived in Constantinople. Via Constantinople he ended up in Serbia, where for three years Brailovsky held the position of chief artist of the Royal Theatres in Belgrade.
In 1925 he moved to Rome. Under the influence of the priests A. Sipyagin and M. Nedotochin, Brailovsky was received back into communion with the Catholic Church. In 1932 an exhibition was organized of 40 paintings by the Brailovskys depicting monuments of Russian religious art. This collection was presented to Pius XI. It became the basis of a collection of 100 paintings and 20 plans depicting monuments of church painting and architecture of Kiev, Novgorod, Moscow, Rostov, Suzdal, and so on. The Brailovskys’ apartment in Rome became a kind of center of Russian life. The home regularly hosted gatherings for compatriots, tea parties were arranged, and endless интеллигент conversations took place.
He exhibited in many cities and, together with his spouse, held two solo exhibitions in Paris and the Vatican. With the participation of Princess M. Radziwill, an illustrated catalog of the exhibited paintings was published and three small albums of corresponding postcards were produced.
He died in 1937 in Rome.