Aleksandr Drevin
Aleksandr Davydovich Drevin (Latvian: Aleksandrs Rūdolfs Drēviņš; Russian: Александр Давыдович Древин; 15 July 1889 – 26 February 1938) was a Latvian and Soviet painter. Drevin was executed during the Great Purge as part of the Latvian Operation.
Also recorded as Aleksandr Davidovič Drevin · Aleksandr. Drevin · Aleksandrs Drévins̄ · Alexander Davidovich Drewin
Aleksandr Drevin
Aleksandr Drevin · Tretyakov Gallery · Public domain
- Born
- 1889. · Cēsis.
- Died
- 1938. · Moscow.
- Nationality
- Russian Empire, Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic and Soviet Union.
- Occupation
- painter and university teacher.
- Languages
- Russian and Latvian.
VALÉORINE Encyclopedia
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Documentary summary
Aleksandr Davydovich Drevin (Latvian: Aleksandrs Rūdolfs Drēviņš; Russian: Александр Давыдович Древин; 15 July 1889 – 26 February 1938) was a Latvian and Soviet painter. Drevin was executed during the Great Purge as part of the Latvian Operation.
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Note VALÉORINE
Aleksandr Drevin (1889–1938) was a painter and university teacher and a national of the Russian Empire and the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic. Born in Cēsis, the painter died in Moscow. Aleksandr Drevin worked for Vkhutemas.
Languages used include Latvian and Russian. Works by the painter are held at Latvian National Museum of Art, MOMus–Museum of Modern Art–Costakis Collection and Museum Ludwig, among others.
Composed from admitted, traceable facts · 27 September 2026
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wikidata · Q2632125 · wikipedia · Aleksandr Drevin
In this article
Biography
Biography
Hieorhij Niski is recorded as having studied under Aleksandr Drevin. The recorded working language is Russian and Latvian. Employment is recorded with Vkhutemas. Work by Aleksandr Drevin is recorded in the collections of Latvian National Museum of Art, Yale University Art Gallery, MOMus–Museum of Modern Art–Costakis Collection, Tretyakov Gallery and Museum Ludwig.
Drevin was born 15 July 1889 was born in Cēsis, Governorate of Livonia (present-day Latvia). Drevin attended art school in Riga under Vilhelms Purvītis, thus initially adapting the style of impressionist painting, and first came to Moscow in 1914. He studied under Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin. Since 1917 he worked in the Fine Arts Department of the People's Commissariat of Education. Drevin was part of the "Green Flower" association of avant-garde artists, notably with Konrāds Ubāns, Valdemārs Tone and Kārlis Johansons. Between 1920 and 1921 he was a member of the Inkhuk but later left, together with Wassily Kandinsky, Kliunkov, and Nadezhda Udaltsova, because of the Constructivist-Productivist stylistic manifesto urging the rejection of easel painting. Drevin became a professor of painting at Vkhutemas. In 1922, he was sent to work the First Russian Art Exhibition at the Van Diemen Gallery in Berlin. He travelled across Russia, to Kazakhstan Ural, Altai and Armenia creating a series of artworks of the Soviet landscape. These trips where organised and supervised by Soviet art officials. Drevin often painted a "brutal primitivism", lacking any political message or any purpose at all. His paintings have been compared to those of Maurice de Vlaminck. Drevin's paintings intentionally were empty of illusionism and decorativeness. After a period of constructivist abstract painting, his style became progressively more realistic during the 1920s.
Arrest and execution
Arrest and execution
On 17 January 1938, during the Great Purge, as a part of the so-called "Latvian Operation", Drevin was arrested by the NKVD and executed on 26 February at the Butovo firing range near Moscow. He was posthumously rehabilitated in 1957.
Personal life
Personal life
In 1919, Drevin married Nadezhda Udaltsova. Drevin and Udaltsova had one son, the sculptor Andrey Drevin.

en:Aleksandr Drevin. Refugee. 1916. Canvas, oil. 100x89. en:Russian
Aleksandr Drevin · Exhibition Catalog: Aleksandr Drevin. Nadezhda Udaltsova (1991). Moscow: Soviet painter. P. 16, 53.
Life and career
Dated record
Life and career
The full dated record · 2 entries
1889
Aleksandr Drevin was born in 1889 at Cēsis.
1938
Aleksandr Drevin died in 1938 at Moscow.
Places
Named by the record
Places
Only places the record itself states, plotted where the house gazetteer settles their coordinates. Nothing is inferred from a name or a nationality.
Cēsis.
Birth place
Moscow.
Death place
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.tretyakovgallery.ru. Drevin, Aleksandr (Rudolf) Davidovich.
- 2.Bibliothèque nationale de France. Notice de personne: Drēviņš, Aleksandrs (1889-1938) forme internationale. BnF Catalogue général. 11 February 2008.
- 3.Dombrovskis, Jānis. Latvju Māksla: Glezniecības, grafikas, tēlniecības un lietišķās mākslas attīstības vēsturisks apskats ( Latvian Art: Historical Review of Painting, Graphics, Sculpture and Applied Arts). Valters un Rapa. 154. 1925.
- 4.Sarabianov, Dmitri. Russian and Soviet Painting: An Exhibition from the Museums of the USSR . Metropolitan Museum of Art. 166. 1977. 978-0-8709-9162-2.
- 5.Kathleen Tahk. A Revolution Beyond Borders:The Soviet Art of the Latvian Riflemen. americancouncils.org. 28 August 2014.
- 6.Kirill Sokolov. Aleksandr Drevin, Nadezhda Udal'tsova: An Exhibition That Never Was. jhu.edu. 3 June 2002.
- 7.Rakitin, Vasilii. Amazons of the Avant-Garde. 271–297. 2000. 0-89207-225-3.
Bibliography printed in the source article · 1
- A History of Painting, Alan Bird
References
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
reference work
Wikidata, structured authority record Q2632125: Aleksandr DrevinWikimedia Foundation
Partially resolvedreference work
Partially resolved
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 14 August 2026.
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