Artur Vladimirovich Fonvizin (Russian: Артур Влади́мирович Фонви́зин, from German: von Wiesen; 11 January 1883 – 19 August 1973) was a Soviet painter of watercolours.
Artur Fonvizin was born on 11 January 1883 in Riga, Governorate of Livonia, Russian Empire (now Latvia), the son of a German-born forester.
[3] There he met Mikhail Larionov, the leader of the Union of Youth, ready to "subvert the old art."
He participated in the salons of the Golden Fleece and Wreath-Stephanos, and joined the World of Art movement.
When the First World War started, Fonvizin moved to the province of Tambov, where he painted a great deal from nature.
[6] In 1937, during a Communist campaign against formalism in art, the Soviet press lumped him with The Gang of Formalists (which comprised The Three F's: Falk, Favorsky, and Fonvizin).
[2] From the beginning of the 1940s to his death, the main themes of the artist's works were portraits of theatre actresses in stage costume, sketches of the circus, pictures of pre-revolutionary life, images of flowers, and landscapes.