Aleksei Ilyich Kravchenko

Aleksei Ilyich Kravchenko (1889, Pokrovskaya Sloboda [now Engels], Saratov region, Russia – 1940 Moscow, Russia) was a Soviet painter, illustrator, draughtsman and printmaker. Though Kravchenko first gained recognition as a romantic painter, he was best known during his lifetime as a book illustrator and graphic artist. His post-revolutionary paintings were only exhibited in 1974 at the State Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow. Works such as The Kiss (1929) and Indian Fairytale (c. 1926) confirmed him as one of the most dramatic romantic painters and boldest colorists of his generation.