Matiros Saryan
1880-1972

Matiros Saryan
1880-1972

Saryan is to all intents and purposes the founder of a modern Armenian national school of painting. Aged 15, he completed the Nakhichevan School and from 1897 to 1904 studied at the Moscow School of Arts, which included the workshops of Valentin Serov and Konstantin Korovin. He was heavily influenced by the work of Paul Gauguin and Henri Matisseand exhibited with the Blue Rose Group in Moscow.

Saryan first visited Armenia, then part of the Russian Empire, in 1901, and from 1910 to 1913 he travelled extensively in Turkey, Egypt and Iran. In 1915 he went to Echmiadzin to help refugees who had fled from the Armenian genocide; then in 1916 to Tiflis (now Tbilisi) where he married Lusik Agayan. It was here that he helped organise the Society of Armenian Artists.

After the Revolution in 1917 he went with his family to live in Russia and in 1921 they moved to Armenia. While most of his work reflected the Armenian landscape, he also designed the coat of arms for the Armenian Soviet Republic.

From 1926–1928 Saryan lived and worked in Paris, but most works from this period were destroyed in a fire on board the boat on which he returned to the Soviet Union. From 1928 until his death, Saryan lived in Soviet Armenia. He was chosen as a deputy to the USSR Supreme Soviet and was awarded the Order of Lenin three times. His former home in Yerevan is now a museum dedicated to his work.