Painter, theatre designer and architect. Portraitist, landscape painter and master of thematic painting. Took part in designing of mass celebrations. Between 1903 and 1910 studied at the painting department at the MSPSA under K.A.Korovin and A.Ye.Arkhipov, and at the department of architecture from 1903 to 1915. Member of the "Free Creativity" society (1912-1913, 1915-1918), AHRR (1925-1932). Took an active part in the organisation of the Union of Artists. From 1949 to 1960 headed the creative studio of easel painting at the Academy of Arts of the USSR. From 1947-1957 – the President of the Academy of Arts of the USSR. A People’s Artist of the USSR, full member of the Academy of Arts of the USSR, winner of state awards and medals of the USSR, awarded the Order of V.I. Lenin, Doctor of Arts. A.M.Gerasimov was particularly famous for numerous portraits of V.I. Lenin and I.V.Stalin. He held official positions in the main artists’ organisations of the USSR during the most reactionary years, following the hard-line policy of opposing any deviations from the method of Socialist Realism. In the 1950s A.M.Gerasimov wrote, "Why should I regard the tastes of the Formalist artists as something higher than my own? […] from the bottom of my stomach I realised that this was some death, it made me vomit, it has aroused a hatred which does not become weaker even now […]". At the same time the artist painted chamber lyrical works, preferring landscapes and still lifes. In these works he followed the painting system of his teacher K.A.Korovin.