Pyotr Timofeevich Fomin was born October 18, 1919, in the village Lediakha in the Pskov Region of the north-western part of Russia. He moved to Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) in 1931, and from 1931-1938 he received grammar and secondary artistic education in Leningrad and then taught drawing in secondary and high schools there. His teaching was interrupted by World War II, when he served his mandatory military service from 1941 to 1945. After the war he studied at the Russian Academy of Arts (now called the Repin Academy) and in 1952 he graduated with an honors diploma from the painting department. That same year he began teaching at the Repin and he continued to teach there as head of a personal studio until his death in 1996. He was rector of the Institute from 1983 until 1991. Fomin became a member of the Artists’ Union of Russia in 1952, serving as the organization’s chairman from 1972-1975. He became a full member of the Russian Academy of Arts in 1973. This gave him the title of “acadmician” - one of the highest honors and most prestigious titles a Russian artist can receive. Other awards and titles include: 1977: Titled “People’s Artist of the USSR” 1983: Winner of the “State Prize of Russia for Artistic Achievment” 1984: Winner of the Gold medal of the Russian Academy of Fine Arts From 1952, Fomin exhibited his works regularly in Moscow, Leningrad and other cities in the former Soviet Union as well as internationally: Finland, Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Japan, Korea, the United States and many others. Big personal exhibits of Fomin’s paintings were held at the State Russian Museum in Leningrad in 1984, the Central Exhibition Hall in Moscow in 1986, in the Russian Academy of Fine Arts in St. Petersburg in 1994, and also in many other cities in Russia and throughout Europe. Pyotr Fomin’s paintings are now kept in many museums in Russia and other countries: The Tretyakov Art Gallery, Moscow: 21 paintings The State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg: 26 paintings The Museum Conservation Area of History, Architecture and Art, Pskov. More than 50 museums of the former Soviet Union and Russia. The Dresdan Art Gallery, Germany. The Palace of Arts, Peking, China. Collections in France, Italy, Belgium, Switzerland, Finland, China, Korea, Japan, and the United States. Pyotr Fomin successfully worked in various genres of painting. He created large historical works, scenes from the Russian countryside, and episodes of the Great Patriotic War, many of which hang in numerous museums worldwide. However, Fomin’s favorite genre was landscape painting. He continued the traditions of the Russian school of landscape painting and created deeply national and poetic images of Russian nature. These images always bear some lyrical feeling based on the artist’s love and admiration he felt for his Motherland. Fomin had a good knowledge of the history and life-style of small Russian towns, and in portraying the nature of the northern lands and the middle part of Russia he became a poet of the Russian landscape. In his many trips across the countries of Europe like Finland, France, Italy, Spain and others, Fomin created impressive painting cycles that reflect the most interesting natural and historical features of these countries. Pyotr Fomin died in January of 1996.