Mikhail Kaneev

Mikhail Alexandrovich Kaneev (Кане́ев Михаи́л Алекса́ндрович; April 5, 1923 in Kostroma Province, USSR – March 6, 1983 in Leningrad, USSR) was a Soviet Russian painter and art teacher, lived and worked in Leningrad, a member of the Leningrad Union of Artists, regarded as one of the major representatives of the Leningrad school of painting, most famous for his cityscapes of Leningrad and ancient Russian towns.

Biography
Mikhail Alexandrovich Kaneev was born April 5, 1923 in Kaneevo village, Kostroma Province of USSR. In 1927 his family moved to Leningrad. In 1937 Mikhail Kaneev entered in the Leningrad Secondary Art School (now known as the Art School named after Boris Ioganson) at the All-Russian Academy of Arts, which ends in 1941.

In the same year Mikhail Kaneev entered at the first course of Department of Painting at the Leningrad Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. Since the beginning of the Great Patriotic War he was drafted into the Red Army and returned to classes only after the Victory in 1945. He studied of Ivan Stepashkin, Leonid Ovsiannikov, Mikhail Avilov, and Yuri Neprintsev.

In 1951 Mikhail Kaneev graduated from Ilya Repin Institute in Rudolf Frentz workshop. His graduation work was historical painting "By Stalin's route" (the first ever nonstop flight by Valery Chkalov, Georgiy Baidukov, and Alexander Beliakov on the route Moscow – Vancouver in 1937).

Since 1953 Mikhail Kaneev has participated in Art Exhibitions. He painted landscapes, cityscapes, genre paintings, etudes done from nature. Mostly known as a master of the cityscapes of the Leningrad and ancient Russian towns. Decorative and graphic style of his paintings were distinguished by clarity of the silhouette, black and white contrasts. The artist often used a black stroke that makes it possible to paint the light places without the addition of white pigment, seeking the intensity of color.

Mikhail Kaneev was a member of the Leningrad Union of Artists since 1953. In 1961–1983 Kaneev taught at the Herzen Pedagogical University in Leningrad, where he was professor and a head of Drawing Department. In 1982 Mikhail Kaneev was awarded the Honorary title of the Honored Art Worker of the Russian Federation.

Mikhail Alexandrovich Kaneev died in Leningrad on March 6, 1983, at the sixtieth year of life. His paintings reside in State Russian Museum, in Art museums and private collections in Russia, USA, France, England, Japan, and throughout the world.