(b Tiflis [now Tbilisi], 22 Nov 1862; d Tsikhisdziri, 28 Oct 1936). Georgian painter. He studied at the St Petersburg Academy of Arts, where he was influenced by Gotfrid Villeval’de (1818–1903), painter of battle-scenes, and he held his first exhibition in 1891. He was also well acquainted with the Wanderers, and his Three Townsmen (1893; Tbilisi, Mus. A. Georg.) displays his aspirations towards Critical Realism. Seeking new sources of inspiration Gabashvili travelled to Central Asia where studies and sketches similar to the work of Vasily Vereshchagin resulted in Bazaar in Samarkand (1896; Tbilisi, Mus. A. Georg.; another version, 1897), in which a mastery of drawing is combined with commonplace colouring and weak composition. He also travelled to Munich but was not impressed by the modernism of German painters. In 1895, IL’YA REPIN received a gold medal for his Zaporozhe Cossacks Write a Letter to the Turkish Sultan (main version 1880–91; St Petersburg, Rus. Mus.), a painting that greatly influenced Gabashvili, who from 1898 made trips around Georgia for his ‘khevsur’ cycle (e.g. Drunken Khevsur, 1899; Tbilisi, Mus. A. Georg.), which is reminiscent of the psychological portraits of Frans Hals. Under the influence of Repin, Gabashvili painted the multi-figured composition Alaverdoba (1898; Tbilisi, Mus. A. Georg.). He devoted the latter part of his life to his students, founding an art studio in 1897, and from 1900 teaching at the school of drawing at the Caucasian Society for the Promotion of the Arts, where he later became Director. From 1922 to 1930 he was the head of the art studio at the Academy of Art in Tbilisi. He remained a staunch realist and made known his opposition to left-wing art.

• Gabashvili, Georgy (Ivanovich)
  • Georgia, §IV, 2: Painting, mosaics and graphic arts, 19th century and after
  • Georgia, §V, 1(i): Gold and silver