Anatoli Efimoff

Who is Anatoli Efimoff?

The artist Anatole Alexandrovich Efimoff, Anatolii Aleksandrovich Efimov 1897 - 1981, was born November 21, 1897 to well-to-do parents in the Russian city of Ufa in the Urals. Anatole’s artistic and musical talents were recognized at a young age, and in 1906 he entered the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. Anatole spoke of his training under the guidance of Klavdy Lebedev as being intense and full-time, except for short holidays spent visiting his family. His first two years of study focused solely on drawing, forming a solid basis for the paintings of historical buildings he completed later in life. His study was in the style of traditional, realistic art. Upon his graduation in 1914, Anatole was deemed to have mastered all media and was awarded the title “master artist”.

Immediately after graduation, Anatole joined his father and older brother serving in the Czar's Imperial Cavalry. The Bolshevik uprising and the assassination of the Czar in 1918 brought an abrupt end to his privileged life in Russia. His father and brother were killed in battle and his mother died in a Bolshevik prison.