Kazimir Malevich was a Russian artist and art theorist. His pioneering work had a major influence on the development of abstract art in the 20th century. An influential personality, Malevich's art and writing influenced several artists like Lyubov Popova, El Lissitzky, Alexander Rodchenko, and Ad Reinhardt. His works are showcased in many major art museums around the world.

Born amid poverty in Ukraine, Ilya Repin earned himself an art scholarship and later devoted his life to historical painting. A major figure of the realist movement in painting, he had also been the subject of controversies, such as the withdrawal of his painting of Ivan the Terrible murdering his own son.

One of the most iconic medieval painters from Russia, Andrei Rublev is best remembered for his work The Old Testament Trinity. Initially an assistant of Theophanes the Greek, he later became a monk. Andrei Tarkovsky’s film Andrei Rublev throws light on the life and times of the artist.

Russian artist and architect Viktor Vasnetsov is best remembered for his work on the façade of Moscow’s State Tretyakov Gallery. He also remains one of the most significant figures of the Peredvizhniki movement, with paintings such as Moving House and A Game of Preference. He later depicted folk tales and legends.

Ivan Shishkin was a Russian painter best remembered for his associaton with the Peredvizhniki movement. He achieved popularity for his forest landscapes, such as Morning in a Pine Forest and Rain in an Oak Forest. He was also an excellent printmaker and a draftsman. Shishkin also worked as a professor of painting in several prestigious institutions like the Imperial Academy.

One of the most iconic medieval painters from Russia, Andrei Rublev is best remembered for his work The Old Testament Trinity. Initially an assistant of Theophanes the Greek, he later became a monk. Andrei Tarkovsky’s film Andrei Rublev throws light on the life and times of the artist.

Isaac Levitan was a Russian landscape painter remembered for his work that popularized the mood landscape genre. One of the most important landscape painters of his generation, Levitan was elected to the Russian Academy of Arts in 1897. The following year, Levitan was chosen as the head of the Landscape Studio at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture.

Valentin Serov was a Russian painter best remembered as a master of portraiture. Apart from painting the portraits of prominent personalities, Serov also painted several self-portraits. From 1897 to 1909, he taught painting at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture where he taught future painters like Pavel Kuznetsov, Martiros Saryan, N. N. Sapunov, Konstantin Yuon, and Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin.

Mikhail Vrubel was a Russian painter best remembered for his expertise in all genres of art, such as painting, graphics, theatrical art, and decorative sculpture. At the start of the 20th century, his art became an integral part of Art Nouveau. In 1905, Mikhail Vrubel was honored with the title Academician of Painting.

Karl Bryullov was a Russian painter who played an important role in the transition from neoclassicism to romanticism. Nicknamed Karl the Great, Bryullov is best remembered for producing some of the most memorable works like A Dream of a Girl Before a Sunrise, Italian Midday, and The Last Day of Pompeii.

Nobody paints the sea like he did! Ivan Aivazovsky, the famous master of seascapes, is one of the most expensive Russian painters in the world. His View of Constantinople and the Bosphorus (1856) sold for almost $5 million at Sotheby's in 2012.

The semi-transparent waves with spindrift, typical of Aivazovsky's works, became an artistic  phenomenon world-wide.

Aivazovsky was extremely prolific; he created over 6,000 works. The Ninth Wave (1850), The Black Sea (1881), and Moonlit Night on the Bosphorus (1894), are among his finest.

Gzhel is a Russian style of blue and white ceramics which takes its name from the village of Gzhel and surrounding area, where it has been produced since 1802.

Khokhloma is the name of a Russian wood painting handicraft style and national ornament, known for its curved and vivid mostly flower, berry and leaf patterns. Often Firebird, the figure from the Russian fairytale, is also depicted.

A combination of red, black, and gold are typical colors for Khokhloma. When painted on wood, in most cases red, black, green, yellow and orange are used over a gold background. The effect it has when applied to wooden tableware or furniture, making it look heavier and metallic.

Zhostovo painting is an old Russian folk handicraft of painting on metal trays, which still exists in a village of Zhostovo in the Moscow Oblast. It appeared in the early 19th century mainly under the influence of the Ural handicraft of flower painting on metal. Subsequent development of the Zhostovo painting handicraft was stylistically related to porcelain and enamel painting techniques, used by factories near Moscow, flower motifs on printed cotton, produced by the Ivanovo factories, and Lukutin miniature (see Fedoskino miniature).