Pimen Sofronov

Pimen Sofronov (4th of September 1898, Governorate of Livonia, Russian Empire – 13th (?) of May 1973, Millville, New Jersey, USA) – a world famous Old Believier icon-painter and restorator.

Pimen Sofronov was born on the territory of modern Estonia. His parents were local peasants. He also had five sisters. At the age of 12 Sofronov started studying icon painting from Gavriil Frolov (1854-1930).  

Together with icon painting, Sofronov was especially interested in the basics of the Old Faith. He also mastered the art of church singing. 

In 1927 Frolov and Sofronov worked together at the Cemetery chapel in Rezekne, where they were restoring icons. At that church Sofronov painted an icon "Annunciation".

He had been living in Riga from the late 1920ies to the early 1930ies (he moved to the capital of Latvia in 1928) and was the head of the icon painting studio of the "Group of Enthusiasts of Russian Antiquity". Famous artists such as Yuri Rykovsky, Yevgeny Klimov and Tatiana Kosinsky also studied the art of icon-painting at his studio. The first big exhibition of the studio took place already in 1929.

P. Sofronov moved to Paris in 1931, where he ran the school of old Russian painting techniques and icon painting, as well as affiliated with the Russian Students Christian movement. In the same year, he published a book on ancient icon painting and dedicated it to his teacher G. Frolov. He taught monks at the Amay (Belgium) monastery to draw icons. Later, Sofronov worked at the Kondakov Russian Institute in Prague. After the invitation from the czar Alexander I, Sofronov painted churches in Yugoslavia, and organized an icon painting school, which he had been in charge of for 3 years. At that time he also married a Serbian. 

In 1934 Sofronov was invited to Paris by a society "Ikona" to open a school at the capital of France. During the winter of 1935 he was in charge of icon painting courses in Prague. 

In 1939 P. Sofronov was invited to Italy and Vatican, where he received a big order for 56 icons. Due to the war, he was not able to finish this project, however, Vatican purchased some of the finished icons. When living in Italy, Sofronov continued teaching.  

In 1941 his first personal exhibition of icons took place in Rome and had an exceptional success, which made him one of the greatest icon painters of the 20th century. 

Duing the war years, Sofronov resided in Italy and, as a Russian, was subjected to the police surveilance, however, due to the protection from Vatican he was never persecuted. It is known, that Sofronov was helping Soviet prisoners of war, who were escaping from POW camps.

After the end of the war, he did not return to the USSR. In 1947 he moved to the USA, being invited by the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia. There he resided at Milville (New-Jersey) at a local Old Believer community and continued his active and very fruitful work. His biggest personal exhibitions took place in San-Francisco (1966) and Los-Angeles (1967). During this time, an album of his works was published, while he himself continued teaching and collecting books and items. In 1950 he became a citizen of the USA. 

For all his merits he was awarded with Greek and confessional orders. 

In the August of 1969 Sofronov visited the USSR.  

Pimen Sofronov died on 13th or 14th of May 1973 under mysterious circumstances. He was burried in Milville on a local Old Believer cemetery.         

Illarion Ivanov

Sources of information:

Заволоко И.Н., Мурников А.Л. Памяти иконописца П.М. Софронова (1898-1973). – Старообрядческий Церковный календарь на 1974 год. – Рига, 1973, с. 79.

Маркелов Г.В. Изограф из Причудья. Памяти Заволоко Ивана Никифоровича. – Рига: Издание РГСО, 1999, с. 98-113.

Шор Т. Софронов Пимен Максимович.  – Барановский В., Поташенко Г. Староверие Балтии и Польши. - Вильнюс: Aidai, 2005, с. 353-355.

Пономарева Г.М. П.М. Софронов и И.Н. Заволоко (1927-1940). – Международные Заволокинские чтения. Сб. I . – Рига, 206, с. 171-181.

Александрова В. Иконописец Семен Терентьевич Быкадоров. – «Поморский Вестник», № 1 (13), 2004, с. 38-39.

Т.В. Косинская. Балтийско-русский сборник. Кн. II. Материалы по истории русской жизни в Риге и Каунасе. Из архива Гуверовского института. Stanford, 2007, с. 39.

Александрова В. Иконы старообрядческого иконописца Пимена Софронова из католического монастыря Шевтонь в Бельгии. – «Поморский Вестник», №  22-23, 2010, с. 100-102.

Иконописец Пимен Софронов и Резекненская Кладбищенская община староверов. – «Поморский Вестник», № 2 (11), 2003, с. 10-11.