National Gallery of Armenia

 An exhibition dedicated to the celebrated artist Stepan Aghajanian’s 150^th anniversary will be open on 27 September at the National Gallery of Armenia.

The year 2013 marks the 150^th anniversary of the renowned artist, the great master of portraiture and painter Stepan Aghajanian. He has made a great contribution to the history of Armenian Art and especially to the formation of the Realistic Painting.

S. Aghajanian was born in Shushi, Karabakh. He got his professional education at Marseille Art Studio, after which he studied at the Académie Julian in Paris, one of Europe’s most famous academies. Armenian famous artists P. Terlemezian, E. Chahine, A. Chabanian, S. Yerkanian, R. Chichmanian, T. Karapetian, T. Polat and others also got their education there.

S. Aghajanian was the successor of Hakob Hovnatanian’s and Stepanos Nersisian’s traditions in portraiture thus developing the genre and getting new achievements.

Portraits made by him stand out by witty psychological characterizations and by realistic expression of individual images.

The artist created portraits of people of all strata of society: workmen, craftsmen, intellectuals and even children. He also developed child portraiture in Armenian Painting.

This exhibition includes works of different periods of the artist’s creative life: works of student period, portraits and some landscapes