Piotr Alberti

Piotr Filipovich Alberti (Russian: Пéтр Фили́ппович Альбе́рти; November 25, 1913, Astrakhan, Russian Empire – October 7, 1994, Saint Petersburg, Russia) was a Soviet, Russian painter, lived and worked in Leningrad, regarded as one of representatives of the Leningrad school of painting.

Piotr Filipovich Alberti was born November 25, 1913 in Astrakhan city, Russian Empire, on the Volga River. In 1927 he enrolled in Astrakhan Art School, where he studied with renowned artist and art educator Pavel Vlasov, students who were Boris Kustodiev and Ivan Goryushkin-Sorokopudov. In 1932 Alberti graduated from Astrakhan Art School and left to Leningrad where he entered the preparatory course at the Russian Academy for Fine Arts.

In 1935 Alberti was admitted to the Painting Department of the Leningrad Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, where he studied until 1936, then left the studies and joined the LenIZO Association of Artists. In 1938 he married the artist Valentina Belova (d. 1955).

A Portrait of a Man. 1960

In 1941, Alberti volunteered for the Red Army. From October 30, 1941 to May 9, 1945, as a private soldier in Reserve Infantry Regiment 267 of the Leningrad Front, he participated in Battles at Leningrad, in the liberation of the Baltic republics. In 1944, he was seriously injured, was treated in the Leningrad military evacuation hospital № 991. He was awarded the medals "For Courage", "For Defense of Leningrad", and "For Victory over Germany".

In 1945, after demobilization, Alberti returned to work in LenIZO. For the first time he took part in Art exhibition in 1938. Since 1951 Alberti was a permanent exhibitor of the Leningrad Art exhibitions, where he showed his work among with works by the leading masters of fine arts of Leningrad. He painted portraits, landscapes, genre scenes, still lifes. Among his works of 1950 - early 1960s were "Chess Players" (1951), "Flowers" (1956), "The Anichkov Bridge", "Asphalt laying workers", "A Young woman in a Boat" (all 1959), "Still Life with Palette", "A Portrait of a Man", "A Portrait of wife" (all 1960).

In 1957, Alberti was admitted to the Union of Leningrad artists. In 1958 he married a second time on A. Sharanovich (died 1966). In 1960–1970, Alberti some times worked in House of creativity «Staraya Ladoga», visited North Caucasus and House of creativity on the Senezh Lake. In the years of 1970–1980 he participated in exhibitions of contemporary Soviet Art in Japan in the Gikosso gallery. In 1989–1992 his works were exhibited at the exhibitions and auctions of Russian paintings L'École de Leningrad and others in France, Belgium, United Kingdom.

His painting style was distinguished by a broad painting, vivid colors, energetic separate swab. Alberti often uses impasto style of blending paints and intricate texture of canvas. This is especially true of his later still lifes with fruits and flowers. Alberti attached great importance to the painting from the life. While working on the genre composition, he painted numerous nature studies, many of which have independent artistic value.

In the 1950s – early 1960s his leading genre was the portrait. Later Alberti often turned to genre composition and landscape painting. Among the best known works created in this period were genre paintings "Pioneers", "Girlfriends", "Veranda" (all 1961), "The Lesson of Labor", "Children" (1964), as well as landscapes "Young Aspen" (1968), "The Lake" (1974), and still lifes "Autumn. Still Life" (1972), "Joinery workshop" (1976).

Since the late 1970s, Alberti was particularly keen on working in the genre of still life. He made a varied sets, but most often it was his favorite peonies, juicy watermelon, an easel with brushes and paints. Among the works of this period were "Still Life" (1977), "Still Life with Melon", "Peonies and Cherries on a tray" (both 1980), "Peonies" (1991), "Still Life with Watermelon" (1992).

Piotr Filipovich Alberti died on October 7, 1994 in Saint Petersburg in the eighty-first year of life. His paintings reside in art museums and private collections in Russia, Finland, in the U.S., Japan, Germane, England, Belgium, France, and other countries.