Wilhelm Paul Christian Nikolai von Helmersen was a Baltic German artist and book illustrator. He is known mostly for his illustrations to Eugene Onegin.
Wilhelm Paul Christian Nikolai von Helmersen (, tr. ; August 23, 1873 – December 9, 1937) was a Baltic German artist and book illustrator. He is known mostly for his illustrations to Eugene Onegin.
Biography
Wilhelm von Helmersen was born in 1873 into the Baltic German noble Helmersen family, and was the grand nephew of the genealogist Gregor von Helmersen.
In 1899 he graduated from the Saint Petersburg University and began his career in the Ministry of the Imperial Court. By 1908, he had risen to a Court Councilor and received the rank of Chamber Junker. However, in 1914, he quit the Ministry to work as an assistant director in the Palace Library of Nicholas II.
Since 1900, Helmersen was known for his silhouette artworks.
He created illustrations to Eugene Onegin, War and Peace, Dead Souls, A Hero of Our Time, The Shot. His works were included in the exhibitions at the Imperial Academy of Arts.
After the Revolution, Helmersen worked in the State Russian Museum and in the Russian Academy of Sciences. In 1930, he was arrested as a result of a purge in the state institutions and sent to one of the Gulag prison camps. In 1937, he was executed like many other victims of the Great Purge.
