# Boris Grigor'ev artist context and auction value notes

Canonical page: https://appraisily.com/artist/boris-grigor-ev/
Profile generated: 2026-05-10T01:35:00.000Z
Quality: high confidence, strong sources

## Artist identity

- Birth date: 1886-07-23
- Death date: 1939-02-08
- Nationality: Russian
- Movements: Russian Modernism
- Common media: Oil painting, Watercolor, Gouache, Graphic works on paper, Drawing

## About Boris Grigor'ev

Boris Dmitrievich Grigor'ev (1886–1939) was a Russian painter, graphic artist, illustrator, and writer whose career spanned the final decades of the Russian Empire and the interwar emigre world. Born in Moscow and trained at schools in Moscow, St. Petersburg, and Paris, he became known for psychologically charged portraits, figure compositions, and depictions of Russian rural life. His celebrated Raseya series, portraying peasant subjects with expressive intensity, brought him wide recognition. After leaving Russia around 1919, Grigor'ev lived and worked in Western Europe and the United States, exhibiting internationally until his death in Cannes, France. His work is held by institutions including the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and his identity is well established in major library authority files.

## Common works and media

Grigor'ev worked across a broad range of media. Collectors are most likely to encounter oil on canvas paintings—especially portraits and figure compositions—as well as gouaches, watercolors, ink and pencil drawings, and graphic prints. Illustrations and set-design drawings also surface in the market. Subjects range from Russian peasant scenes and village life to portraits of cultural figures and urban compositions. Works from both his Russian period (c. 1906–1919) and his later emigre years (1921–1939) appear at auction.

## Market and appraisal context

Grigor'ev's work appears regularly in the international auction market, particularly in sales of Russian and European art. Oil paintings from his Russian period (before 1919) tend to attract the strongest interest, though his gouaches, watercolors, and graphic works also appear at auction. Collectors should consider medium, date, subject matter, provenance, and condition as key valuation factors. Works with documented exhibition history or authoritative catalogue references tend to carry more weight. Attribution can be complicated by the many transliterated forms of his name used across signatures, labels, and publications over the decades.

## Appraisily data basis

This artist page draws on identity research sourced from the Library of Congress, VIAF, the RKD Netherlands Institute for Art History, the Museum of Modern Art, and Wikidata. Market observations are supplemented by Appraisily's auction-record database, which includes sale dates, realized prices, and comparable lot data when available.

## Sources

- Library of Congress: https://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n85159241
- VIAF: https://viaf.org/viaf/22313085/
- RKD Netherlands Institute for Art History: https://rkd.nl/en/explore/artists/33839
- The Museum of Modern Art: https://www.moma.org/artists/14632
- Wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q432523
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boris_Grigoriev