Nicholas Kalmakoff

Nikolai Konstantinovich Kalmakov, known as Nicholas Kalmakoff (Russian: Николай Константинович Калмаков; 23 January 1873, Nervi, Italy – 2 February 1955, Chelles, France), was a Russian symbolist painter, graphic artist, and set designer whose work is characterized by motifs dealing with spirituality, occultism and sexuality.

His interest in occultism may have been sparked when he was introduced to the tales of the Brothers Grimm and E. T. A. Hoffmann by his German governess.

Around 1890, his family moved back to Russia and he graduated from the Imperial School of Jurisprudence in 1895.

Although he preferred to work in isolation, he maintained loose contacts with some artists' associations and the St. Petersburg theater world, where he caused a sensation with elaborate and taboo-breaking costumes and stage designs.

[1] Seven years after his death, in 1962, the art collectors Bertrand Collin du Bocage and Georges Martin du Nord discovered samples of his abandoned work in a large flea market to the north of Paris.