Savva Mamontov

Savva Ivanovich Mamontov (1841-1918) - a prominent Russian industrialist, entrepreneur, and patron of the arts, heir to a thriving merchant dynasty. Even in his youth, Savva's passion for theater worried the father of the future patron of the arts, the major wine contractor Ivan Fyodorovich Mamontov: instead of studying the family business, Savva found much more pleasure in "making music, singing, and tumbling in a dramatic society." A century later, it is hard to even imagine the path Russian art would have taken if it were not for the creation of the famous Abramtsevo circle and other glorious initiatives undertaken by Mamontov.
The book by Mark Isaevich Kopshitser (1923-1982), who also created remarkable biographies of Vasily Polenov and Valentin Serov, is the result of many years of work researching and systematizing a vast documentary material that preserves the evidence of the life and activities of a man whose contribution to the history of Russian art is truly priceless - Savva Ivanovich Mamontov.