150 th Anniversary of the Birth of V.M.Vasnetsov

Obverse

in the center — the Emblem of the Bank of Russia (the two-headed eagle designed by I. Bilibin, lower — the semicircular inscription — «БАНК РОССИИ» (BANK OF RUSSIA) framed by a circle of dots and inscriptions along the rim: at the top — «ДВА РУБЛЯ» (TWO RUBLES), at the bottom — «1998», the letters to the left indicate the metal sign and the fineness, to the right — the fine metal content and the mint trade mark.

Reverse

the portrait of V.M.Vasnetsov painted by the artist N.D.Kuznetsov, in the background — fragments of the Vasnetsov’s paintings: to the right — «Alyonushka», to the left — «Tsarevich Ivan On the Gray Wolf», at the bottom — a palette with paint-brushes, the inscription and dates in four lines: «ВИКТОР ВАСНЕЦОВ» (VICTOR VASNETSOV), «1848», «1926».

Authors

The artist: A.V. Baklanov
The sculptor: A.A. Dolgopolova
St. Petersburg Mint (СПМД)
The edge: 195 corrugations

Victor Mikhailovich Vasnetsov (03./15.05.1848–23.07.1926) — Russian painter, member of the democratic group of the Russian school of realist painters of the second half of the XIXth century named Peredvizhniki, and the graphic artist as well. His most well known paintings are devoted to Russian history, popular bylinas (legends) and tales («After the Bloody Battle», «Alyonushka», «Bogatyrs»). He also painted the frieze — panel «The Stone Age» in the Moscow Historical Museum in 1883–1885 and made the design of the main facade of the Tretyakov Gallery in 1902. Vasnetsov acted as well as stagy painter and monumental painter (wall-paintings in the Vladimirsky Cathedral in Kiev in 1885–1896). In 1953 the Vasnetsov Museum was founded in his house in Moscow which had been built according to his own design.