Vasily Helmersen

Wilhelm von Helmersen
Russian SFSR, Soviet Union
Nationality	Russian
Other names	Vassily Gelmersen
Known for	Silhouette art
Notable work	Illustrations to Eugene Onegin

Wilhelm Paul Christian Nikolai von Helmersen (

.

Biography

Wilhelm von Helmersen was born in 1873 into the

. In 1899 he graduated from the Saint Petersburg University and began his career in the Ministry of the Imperial Court. By 1908, he had risen to a Court Councilor and received the rank of Chamber Junker. However, in 1914, he quit the Ministry to work as an assistant director in the Palace Library of Nicholas II.

Since 1900, Helmersen was known for his silhouette artworks. He created illustrations to

.

After the

.

Eugene Onegin

Helmersen's most famous work was a series of 100 illustrations to Eugene Onegin. One of them was published in Vengerov's six-volume edition of Pushkin's works.

In 1910s Nikolay Lerner intended to publish an edition of Eugene Onegin illustrated by Helmersen, but this was not realized (most likely because of the World War and the Revolution).

In the Soviet period, another edition of Onegin with Helmersen's illustrations was prepared in the State Literary Museum to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Pushkin's death, but it was also canceled. The illustrations, however, were displayed in the State Historical Museum during the Pushkin Anniversary Exhibition in 1937.^[1]

Gallery

See also

• List of Baltic German artists

References