Alexis Arapoff

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Alexis Paul Arapoff (né Alexei Alexeyevich Arapov (Russian: Алексей Алексеевич Арапов;[citation needed]; born 6 December 1905 – died 1948) was a White émigré Russian-born painter, first based in France, where he belonged to the École de Paris, and later in Boston, Massachusetts, where he relocated in 1930.


Born the only son of a noble family (Arapov) in Saint Peterburg, Russia, Alexis flew to Germany in 1917 to escape the revolution. When he came back to Russia in 1921, he was admitted to the Saratov Art Institute. In 1923, he went to Moscow, where he became a furniture designer in a workers' palace. Following this, he created suits and scenes for the "avant-garde" theater of Nikolaï Foregger.[who?] Later he worked for the "False Mirror Theatre" of Nikolai Evreinov, and followed the theater trip to Paris in 1925.[1]

He remained in Paris where he met Catherine Green, an American studying at the Sorbonne. [2] They married and moved to the United States in 1930. Arapoff, a Roman Catholic convert since 1934, painted religious paintings and icons.[3]


Cross station[edit]

The Boston Public Library possessed 6 paintings of a "Cross station". These paintings were considered lost in the 1980s.[3]


His daughter, Mary, also from the Tolstoy family, is a soprano living in the United States. She sang with the Boston Operatic Ensemble. In 2000, she created the "Russian Lyric Trio", featuring Mary Arapoff (soprano), Tanya Rose (soprano) and Ranko Stevanovic (baritone).

See also[edit]


  1. ^ Profile of Alexis Arapoff
  2. ^ René Gimpel, "Journal d'un collectionneur", 18 September 1929, p. 572, édition Hermann de 2011
  3. ^ a b Boston College University Libraries website