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Benois family

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Portrait of the Benois family, c.1816, showing parents Louis & Ekaterina Benois surrounded by their eight children Jeannette (b.1798), Mikhail (b.1799), Leonty (b.1801), Alexandrina (b.1803), Elizaveta (b.1806), Elena (b.1807), Nicholas (b.1813) and Francois (b.1814).

The Benois family (Russian: Бенуа, romanizedBenua) was a family of prominent 19th and 20th century Russian artists, musicians and architects, descended from French confectioner Louis Jules (Leonty Nikolaevich) Benois (1770/1772?–1822), cook-confectioner to the Duke of Montmorency, who moved to Russia in 1794 after the French Revolution and became a royal headwaiter.

Famous members of the Benois family include:

  • Mikhail Benois (1799–1861), colonel, tutor at the Corps of Pages.
  • Leonty Benois (1801–1883), "the first doctor" in St.Petersburg.
  • Nicholas Leontievich Benois (1813–1898), Russian architect. Designed several buildings for the Imperial Family at Peterhof.
    • Nicholas' son Albert Nikolayevich Benois (1852–1936), Russian water-colourist.
    • Nicholas' son Leon Nikolayevich "Leonty" Benois (1856–1928), Russian architect. He helped design the St. Petersburg Court Choir Chapel (now the Mikhail Glinka Academic Choir.
    • Nikolai's dtr. Camilla Nikolayevna Benois married a British immigrant, Matthew Edward Edwards. Their daughter Camilla Matveevna Edwards married Armenian architect Alexander Tamanian (1878–1936), whose sons Georgi Tamanian (1910–1993) and Julius (Yuliy) Tamanian (1922-1993) were also prominent Armenian architects.
    • Nicholas' dtr. Ekaterina Nikolayevna "Katherine" Benois (b. 1850) married sculptor Eugene Lanceray (aka. "Yevgeny Alexandrovich Lansere") (1848–1886).
      • Their son Yevgeny Yevgenievich Lanceray (1875–1946), Russian graphic artist, painter, illustrator.
      • Their son Nikolay Lanceray (1879–1942), Russian architect, illustrator and biographer.
      • Their dtr. Zinaida Serebriakova née Lanceray (1884–1967), Russian portrait painter, was mother of architect Yevgeny Borisovich Serebriakov (1906–1990) and artists Alexander Borisovich Serebriakov (1907–1994), Tatiana Borisovna Serebriakova (1912–1989), and Ekaterina Borisovna Serebriakova (1913–2014).
    • Nicholas' son Alexander Nikolayevich Benois (1870–1960), painter, theatrical designer, art
      • Alexander's dtr. Yelena Alexandrovna Benois-Clément (1898–1972) was a talented painter whose first husband was composer Ivan Wyschnegradsky (1893–1979).
      • Alexander's son Nicola Alexandrovich Benois (1901–1988) was a principal theatrical designer at La Scala in Milan.
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