Olga's Gallery

Niko Pirosmani (1862? - 1918) was a Georgian Primitivist painter of the turn of the 20th Century. Without any formal education in art or, in fact, much of an education in anything, he made up for this with innate talent and the fecundity of his brush. Over the course of his brief life (he died at the age of 56), much of which passed in poverty and vagrancy, and working with only the cheapest materials, Pirosmani produced an immense number of paintings, a large chunk of which are lost. The artist's work came to public attention only towards the end of his life, almost by accident, and he had only a handful of exhibitions.

Niko Pirosmani was born in the small village of Mirzaani, Kakheti, Eastern Georgia, probably in 1862, though the exact date is uncertain. His surname in the original Georgian was Pirosmanshvili (alternately spelled Pirosmanshvilli, Pirosmanshwili and Pirosmanshwilli), though he became better known abroad by the dimunitive Pirosmani. The painter had three siblings: his sister Miriam, his elder brother Georgiy and his sister Peputsa, the youngest in the family. Read Niko Pirosmani (Nikolai Aslanovich Pirosmanashvili)'s Full Biography