Russian graphic artist, ceramicist, painter and designer.
In 1896 he studied at the School of Drawing at the Society for the Encouragement of the Arts and in 1897 at Maria Tenisheva’s art school in St Petersburg, where he worked under Il’ya Repin until 1900. In 1904 he worked in the pottery studio at the ABRAMTSEVO colony. At this period he employed Art Nouveau elements in his work, as in the majolica decorations for the Hotel Metropole, St Petersburg (early 1900s) and the majolica panel St George Triumphant for the Municipal Primary School on Bol’shaya Pirogovskaya Street in Moscow (1909). He took up book illustration in 1904 and his graphic talent flourished in the 1910s.
His work for Apollon was particularly successful, his illustrations first appearing in its pages in 1911. Chekhonin soon became an original and skilful artist, using a sharp and elastic line interspersed with dots. From 1912 he was a member of the WORLD OF ART group. He is linked to the other members of the group both by his careful attention to the specific requirements of book illustration and by his passion for older styles, particularly for the Russian ‘empire’ style, whose floral ornamentation is often combined with Cubist and Suprematist devices in his work. Chekhonin later attempted to unite his enthusiasm for the past with the artistic practices of the Left.
