Evgeni Evgen'Evich Lansere

Evgeni Evgen'Evich Lansere was born on 23 August (4 September, New Style) 1875 in Pavlovsk, in the Russian Empire, the son of sculptor Evgeni Aleksandrovich Lansere (1848 to 1886) and brother of the painter Zinaida Serebriakova. After finishing the First St. Petersburg Gymnasium, he trained at the Drawing School of the Society for the Encouragement of Arts in St. Petersburg from 1892 to 1895 under Yan Tsionglinsky, Nikolai Samokish, and Ernst Lipgart, then continued his studies in Paris from about 1895 to 1898 at the Academie Colarossi and the Academie Julian, in the private studios of Jean-Paul Laurens and Jean-Joseph Benjamin-Constant, and in anatomy and art history at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. No university or academy degree is documented for this period.

He became associated with the Mir Iskusstva (World of Art) group in the early years of the twentieth century, working across painting, book illustration, and stage design, and was elected an academician of the Imperial Academy of Arts in 1912, becoming a full member in 1915. His career continued through the Soviet period: he was named an Honored Art Worker of the Georgian SSR in 1933, received the Order of the Red Banner of Labour in 1943 and again in 1945, was awarded the Stalin Prize, Second Class, in 1943, and was named People's Artist of the RSFSR in 1945.

He died on 13 September 1946 in Moscow and was buried at Novodevichy Cemetery. In 2025 and 2026, museums marked the 150th anniversary of his birth with major exhibitions, including a joint show on the artist and his father at the House of Russian Abroad in Moscow and two exhibitions of his graphic work at the State Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, drawn substantially from private collections and the family archive held by his descendants.

Evgeni Evgen'Evich Lansere is treated in Russian museum and encyclopedic sources as a leading Mir Iskusstva figure whose graphic and illustrative work carried into the Soviet period, culminating in official recognition as People's Artist of the RSFSR and a Stalin Prize for public decorative work. His graphic legacy has drawn renewed scholarly attention through the 2025 to 2026 jubilee exhibitions at the State Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, built substantially around the private collection and research of bibliophile Mikhail Seslavinsky and materials from the RGALI archive. No verbatim critical assessment from a named critic in a major outlet, specific to Evgeni Evgen'Evich Lansere as distinct from his sculptor father, could be confirmed in the available sources.

The best documented auction result specifically indexed under Evgeni Evgen'Evich Lansere's name is an internal Heritage Auctions artist-index record of USD 3,750, sold 22 June 2014; the work's title is not specified in the public listing, and this figure is not confirmed to be his all-time high across every auction house. Higher Russian-market results circulating under the similar name Evgeny Alexandrovich Lansere, including RUB 5,015,000 at AI Auction (ArtInvestment) in Moscow on 19 December 2025 and a bronze, Svyatoslav on the Way to Tsargrad, sold at Christie's in 2009 for about USD 92,500, belong to his father, the nineteenth century bronze sculptor Evgeni Aleksandrovich Lansere (1848 to 1886), and are excluded here. His own market activity, once correctly attributed, is concentrated in Russian auction houses and antiquarian dealers rather than major international houses, and public sale volume specific to him is very limited.

There is no published catalogue raisonne for Evgeni Evgen'Evich Lansere, and no gallery or dealer is documented as representing his estate; material instead circulates through family descendants, Russian museums such as the State Russian Museum and the Dagestan Museum of Fine Arts, the RGALI archive, and Russian antiquarian houses. Because his surname and patronymic are easily confused with those of his father, the 19th century bronze sculptor Evgeni Aleksandrovich Lansere, collectors should verify attribution carefully, particularly for sculpture, before relying on any auction listing. Given the small number of publicly documented sales and the unrecorded title of the current auction high, any single price point should be treated as provisional rather than as a stable benchmark.