About the artist:

Yevgeny Yevgenyevich Lanceray, also often spelled Eugene Lansere, was a Russian graphic artist, painter, sculptor, mosaicist, and illustrator, associated stylistically with Mir iskusstva ("World of Art").

Lanceray was born in Pavlovsk, Russia, a suburb of Saint Petersburg. He came from a prominent Russian artistic family of French origin. His father, Eugeny Alexandrovich Lanceray, was a sculptor. His grandfather Nicholas Benois, and his uncle Leon Benois, were celebrated architects. Another uncle, Alexandre Benois, was a respected artist, art critic, historian and preservationist. His great-grandfather was Venetian-born Russian composer Catterino Cavos. Lanceray's siblings were also heirs to this artistic tradition. His sister, Zinaida Serebriakova, was a painter, while his brother Nikolay was an architect. His cousin, Nadia Benois, was mother of Peter Ustinov.

His father Eugene Lanceray, who was also an artist, died early, aged forty; when the boy was eleven years old. However, his father's example, memories of everything that was connected with his life and work affected the formation of the personality of the future artist. Already a mature and experienced master, Eugene Lanceray noted that “his search for the right everyday gesture, interest in the ethnographic characterization of characters”, and, finally, “attraction to the Caucasus” were received from his father “as a heredity” characteristic of his work.

The artist spent his childhood in Ukraine, in a small estate of his father Neskuchnoe. After the death of Eugene Lanceray, the artist's father, mother moved with her children to St. Petersburg, to his father's house, known in art circles as “the house of Benois near Nikola Morskoy”.