People's Artist of the Armenian SSR (a state title from the former Soviet Union) HAKOP KOJOYAN (1883-1959) was one of the founders of Armenian Soviet drawing who also worked in the genres of painting and applied art.

Born into the family of an Armenian jeweller in Akhaltsikhe (now in Georgia), Kojoyan was trained in the engraving, goldsmith's arts while yet a boy. In 1903-1905 he studied at the school of Anton Azbe in Munich-Germany, then for two years at the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts in Russia. In subsequent years he visited Paris, lived in Moscow and from 1918 in Armenia.

The contents of the artist's works is closely connected with his native Armenia. The inexhaustable source of his inspiration were Armeni...