Boris Mikhailovich Kostodiev ( February 7, 1878 - March 28, 1927 ) ( in Russian : Бори́с Миха́йлович Кусто́диев) is a Russian theater painter and designer

Boris Kostodiyev was born in Astrakhan .  His father died as a young man, and all financial and material burdens fell on his mother's shoulders.  The Kostudiyev family rented a junior suite in the home of a wealthy merchant.

From 1896 until 1903, he attended a workshop of painter Ilya Repin at the Imperial Academy of Arts in Saint Petersburg .