Graphics by Danilo Krainev

Danilo Karpovich Krainev (13 (25).12.1872, Bosarevo village, Kaluga province, now Orel region, Russia – 02.06.1949, Odessa) was a painter, teacher, and Honored Artist of the USSR (1941).

He was an active member of art associations that emerged in Southern Ukraine in the late XIX and early XX century: the Association of South Russian Artists (1916) and the Kostandi Society of Artists (1925–1929). D. Krainev was also a member of the Association of Artists of Ukraine (1938) during the Soviet era.

He received his primary education at the Odessa Art School (1890), later graduated from the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts (1898). At the Academy of Arts, his teachers were V. Vereshchagin, B. Willewalde, A. Kivshenko, P. Chistyakov.

D. Krainev worked in the Odessa Cadet Corps from 1902 till 1919 and in the Odessa Art School from 1901 till 1948 (intermittently), from 1935 he worked there as a professor.

For three years (1931–1934) he taught at Mykolaiv Art College.

Since 1899, Danilo Krainev has participated in many art exhibitions.

His works are stored in The Taras Shevchenko National Museum (Kyiv), The Odessa Fine Arts Museum and The Odessa Museum of Regional History, as well as The V.V. Vereshchagin Mykolaiv Art Museum

The V.V. Vereshchagin Mykolaiv Art Museum owns 3 oil paintings (portraits), 29 graphic works, and 39 sketches in albums (№1, 2, 3). All these objects of art were purchased from the artist’s son Anton Danylovych Krainev in 1988.

The work “The swordsman. Portrait of a son” (1918) stands out among all portraits. Krainev’s son did not become an artist and had a difficult fate.

Anton Krainev was born in 1903 in Odessa.

After graduating from high school he joined the Odessa Cadet Corps, where he studied military science for seven years.

In 1923, Anton graduated from cadet school and received the rank of lieutenant of the artillery. He went to Bulgaria to the city of Plovdiv, where he worked for three years as a portrait retoucher.

As soon as he had enough money he moved to Czechoslovakia. In 1926 Anton Krainev entered the architectural faculty of the Brno University of Technology. He was a capable and talented student. After graduating from the university, Anton Krainev became a professor. At the same time, he made an official request to the Czech government to grant him Czech citizenship. The request was granted. Subsequently, Anton Danylovych defended his thesis and received the degree of Candidate of Sciences in Architecture and Urban Planning. He worked as the chief engineer of an engineering company in Brno during the years of occupation of Czechoslovakia by German troops.

In 1945, Anton Krainev was arrested by officers of the court of the Soviet Union. Although no charges have been filed. Anton Krainev was brought to Lviv by train through Prague and the territory of Hungary. In Lviv, UNKVD authorities formally charged a Czechoslovak citizen, Anton Krainev, with espionage in favor of Czechoslovakia, betraying the interests of the Soviet state and government. The sentence was passed very quickly. And on July 26, 1945, the military tribunal of the 7th Guards Army sentenced Anton Krainev under Articles 58-2 and 58-1 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR to 10 years in labor camps. The punishment had to be served in the Komi Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. Prisoners worked in logging, giving the forest to the state even during severe, crackling frosts.

The son of the artist had no art education, but he inherited the talent from his father. When the camp authorities discovered that the new prisoner was able to draw very well, they let Anton Krainev work at the camp art workshop. He was forced to paint portraits of Vozhd, party leaders and the USSR government.

In 1955, 9 months before the scheduled date, Krainev was released from a labor camp for good behavior and hard work. He was sent for permanent residence to the city of Bilyayivka, Odessa region. Anton Krainev worked for more than a year on the construction of the Bilyayiv Executive Committee. At the end of 1955 he got official permission to live in Odessa.

In 1960, Anton Krainev officially accepted Soviet citizenship. After retirement, he lived in Odessa. In 1986 Anton Danylovych Krainev moved to Pervomaisk, where his son lived permanently.

Krainev’s case was terminated on the basis of the Decree of the President of the USSR of August 13, 1990. He was rehabilitated and received material compensation for the years spent in the labor camps and the damage caused. Anton Krainev was glad that he was officially rehabilitated 36 years after his release. The stigma of public enemy was finally removed (according to the scientific research of M.M. Shytiuk, “The Fate of Man”).

Among graphic works there are portraits, genre compositions and animal drawings (wild animals and birds). They all are made in a mixed technique with the help of pencil, sanguine, watercolor. In these works, the author demonstrates a virtuoso mastery of graphic techniques, an ability to notice and convey the characteristics of nature, to achieve harmony in the balance of colors and shades.