Moses Nappelbaum (1869 – 1958): Portraits of Soviet Intellectuals

Moissej Nappelbaum (1869-1958)

Galerie Berinson presents Moses Nappelbaum, the most important portrait photographer of Soviet Russia. The exhibition comprises more than 50 rare original prints – including portraits of Vladimir Tatlin, Anna Akhmatova, Sergei Eisenstein, Maxim Gorki, Dmitri Shostakovich and Lion Feuchtwanger. Nappelbaum’s career began with a craft apprenticeship in Minsk, after which he travelled in Russia and the United States. In 1910 he moved with his family to St. Petersburg, where he opened his studio on Nevsky Prospect. The first official portrait of Lenin in 1918 – an image distributed in millions of copies – cemented his reputation. His St. Petersburg studio was visited by politicians, scientists, artists, composers and actors, all avid to be immortalised. Nappelbaum created the definitive portraits of the new Soviet elite. Like Hugo Erfurth’s portraits of artists and scholars in Germany, Moses Nappelbaum’s portraits captured the image of an era in Soviet Russia. They attest to his standing as the unrivalled chronicler of his time.