Mikhail Vrubel was the supreme Russian Symbolist painter, whose tragic life — he spent his last years in an asylum, blind — mirrored the dark beauty of his art. Obsessed with the figure of the Demon from Lermontov's poem, he painted the subject multiple times with a shattered, faceted technique that anticipates both Cubism and Art Nouveau. His mosaic-like surfaces and visionary imagery make him one of the most singular artists of the 19th century.
