Alexandre Benois and Eugene Lanсeray, uncle and nephew: friends and artistic associates

Abstract

The article is devoted to the history of friendship and cooperation between Alexandre Benois (1870–1960) and his elder nephew Eugene Lanceray (1875–1946). Being like-minded, they explored St Petersburg, its suburbs and France. Since 1898, they were participating at group exhibitions and at magazine and book projects. In the 1900s, they worked on the design of theatrical performances, created the interior of the dining room for the exhibition “Contemporary art” (1903). They were helping each other on commissioned artworks. In 1915–1916, they developed monumental panels for the Kazansky railway station in Moscow. Their last meeting took place in France in 1927, but the correspondence continued until 1946 (many fragments of their correspondence were never published before).