Vasily Helmersen

Wilhelm Paul Christian Nikolai von Helmersen (Russian: Василий Васильевич Гельмерсен, tr. Vasiliy Vasil’evich Gel’mersen; August 23, 1873 – December 9, 1937) was a Baltic German artist and book illustrator. He is known mostly for his illustrations to Eugene Onegin.

Wilhelm von Helmersen
Wilhelm von Helmersen, a portrait by V.A. Svitalsky, Solovki prison camp, 1932
Born	(1873-08-23)August 23, 1873
Died	9 December 1937(1937-12-09) (aged 64) Sandarmokh, Karelia, Soviet Union
Nationality	Russian
Other names	Vassily Gelmersen
Known for	Silhouette art
Notable work	Illustrations to Eugene Onegin

Biography

Wilhelm von Helmersen was born in 1873 into the Baltic German noble Helmersen family, he was the grandson of the genealogist Gregor von Helmersen. In 1899 he graduated from the Saint Petersburg University and started his career in the Ministry of the Imperial Court. By 1908 he rose to a Court Councilor and received the rank of Chamber Junker. In 1914 he quit the Ministry to work as an assistant director in the Palace Library of Nicholas II.

Since 1900, Helmersen was known for his silhouette artworks. He created illustrations to Eugene Onegin, War and Peace, Dead Souls, A Hero of Our Time, The Shot. His works were included in the exhibitions at the Imperial Academy of Arts.

After the Revolution, Helmersen worked in the State Russian Museum and in the Russian Academy of Sciences. In 1930, he was arrested as a result of a purge in the state institutions and sent to one of the Gulag prison camps. In 1937, he was executed like many other victims of the Great Purge.

Eugene Onegin

The most famous work of Helmersen was a series of 100 illustrations to Eugene Onegin. One of them was published in Vengerov's six-volume edition of Pushkin's works.

In 1910s Nikolay Lerner intended to publish an edition of Eugene Onegin illustrated by Helmersen, but this was not realized (most likely because of the World War and the Revolution).

In the Soviet period, another edition of Onegin with Helmersen's illustrations was prepared in the State Literary Museum to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Pushkin's death, but it was also canceled. The illustrations, however, were displayed in the State Historical Museum during the Pushkin Anniversary Exhibition in 1937.[1]

Gallery

From the illustrations to Eugene Onegin

• 
  Eugene Onegin
• 
  Onegin and his uncle
• 
  Pushkin
• 
  Tatiana's dream

See also

• List of Baltic German artists

References

1. «Russian Silhouette» (in Russian)