Daily LIFT #619

Soviet artist Pyotr Vasilyev at work in his Moscow studio, 1947 -- Daily LIFT #619

Vasilyev (1899 – 1975) was a famed Soviet artist known for his Lenin portraits. His father was a blacksmith who died of typhus during the Civil War and Vasilyev, after the revolution, became an artist.

He was a member of the Association of Artists of Red Ukraine, and was designated a People’s Artist of the RSFSR in 1970. In the year this photo was taken he was a Stalin Prize winner.