It was beneath the tall arches of the corridors of the former Imperial Academy of the Arts that the 25-year-old student Ilya Glazunov met the woman who was fated to become his wife – Nina Vinogradova-Benois. The artist writes of her “eyes, like the sky at dawn,” and of her remarkable spirit, tenderness, and strength. The image of the artist’s wife Nina is discernable in many of the artist’s works. Nina Aleksandrovna is a descendant of the Benois family which is familiar to all art lovers. Her uncle, N. A. Benois, was the artistic director of the “La Scala” Opera for 30 years, and another relative was the world renowned director and actor Peter Ustinov. His mother was the sister of Nina Aleksandrovna’s grandmother, who was the daughter of the architect and rector of the Imperial Academy of the Arts, Leontiya Benois, the brother of the world renowned Aleksandr Benois.
Nina Aleksandrovna Vinogradova-Benois was a subtle artist. Her costume designs and collaborations with Glazunov on stage sets brought her well deserved success in Berlin (the operas “Prince Igor’” and “Queen of Spades”) and Moscow (the opera “The Tale of the Invisible Town of Kitezh and the Maiden Fevroniya”).
One of Glazunov’s most intimate, revealing works is the painting “Our St. Petersburg. In memory of my wife, artist N.A. Vinogradova-Benois.” If not for such a palpable sense of the loneliness and yearning of the artist’s restless soul, one could claim that this work belonged to “The World of Art” movement that Glazunov so admired.

The painting depicts a Venetian doll in a Pierrot costume against the backdrop of a large St. Petersburg window. In the gloomy shadows one can discern the familiar silhouette of St. Isaac’s Cathedral while the winter wind sends gusts of snow swirling around a black ice-hole on the Neva and a lone figure, frequently encountered in the artist’s works. With its exquisite and refined use of color, this is one of the artist’s finest works! The butterfly, with its otherworldly beauty, evokes a myriad of associations in the same way as Vrubel’s “Self-portrait with a Shell,” in which the inside of the shell shows a vision of his mystical world view. Beside the butterfly on the mahogany Empire-style table lays a wedding band. On a miniature portrait of Alexander I one can read the words, written in French: “Notre ange est au ciel.” The painting resounds like a melody that one wants to listen to again and again, discovering ever new aspects of poetic symbolism emanating from the artist’s fragile and tender spirit. Our St. Petersburg. In Memory of my Wife, Artist N. A. Vinogradova-Benois. 1994

Portrait of the Artist’s Wife. 1969	Nina Wearing a Fur Coat. 1954	Nina. 1955	Vanya. Portrait of the Artist’s Son.	Vera. 1980	Nina. The Artist’s Wife. 1980

Glazunov’s children – Ivan and Vera – have both become artists. Glazunov has painted numerous portraits, graphic and vibrant, capturing with tenderness the various stages of their growth, from early childhood, to adolescence, and finally, maturity.

Verochka. 1979	Vanya. 1974	Vera. A Portrait of the Artist’s Daughter. 1994	Portrait of Vanya. 1994	Vera. Detail. 1983	Vanya. Detail. 1983