About the book: 2003 / Memoirs of the painter, theater decorator, art critic and art historian Alexander Nikolaevich Benois (1870–1960) are a reference book for the intelligent reader. According to Academician D.S. Likhachev, the author teaches love for one’s country, one’s city, one’s family and its traditions. You can turn to the “Memoirs” of A. N. Benois for information, and for knowledge, and simply for the sake of mental relaxation... For the first time, the memoirs of A. N. Benois, entitled “The Life of an Artist,” were published in 1955 in Russian in two volumes in Chekhov Publishing House in New York. In 1960 and 1964, a two-volume English translation of the memoirs was published in London, which included new chapters. The third edition of Benoit’s memoirs, even more complete and with notes, appeared in 1980 in Moscow in the Academic publishing house "Science". And finally, in 1990, Nauka reissued this two-volume book, restoring the notes made in 1980. The full text is printed here, slightly edited for ease of reading (in particular, foreign words are translated directly in the text) and in compliance with all modern standards punctuation and spelling.