Draughtsman and art historian George Kreskentevich Loukomski (also known as George Lukomski) was born into a distinguished noble family in Kaluga, Russia on 14 March 1884. He trained in the architectural department of the Kazan Art School (1901–1903), then in the Imperial Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg. He became known as an art historian and critic and also practised as a painter. He was part of the Mir iskusstva [The World of Art] circle of Russian artists (1898–1904) and edited the famous magazine of the same title. After the Russian Revolution of 1917, he emigrated, living in Western Europe, working both as an art historian and as an artist specialising in architectural drawings of locations including Vienna, Paris, Italy (various locations including Venice and Rome), Portugal (including Lisbon and Tomar) and Moravia.
The date of his arrival in England is uncertain but the Ben Uri Minutes for 1933–1936 show that at a meeting on 4 October 1934 a Lukomski exhibition of synagogue drawings was proposed. The subsequent 'Exhibition of Water Colours, Drawings and Sketches of Old Synagogues in Poland and Eastern Europe XVth to XVIIth Centuries' took place at Ben Uri Jewish Art Gallery at Woburn House, Upper Woburn Place, London WC1 from January 13th to 28th 1935 and featured 41 works: 21 'General Aspects of Ghettoes' and the remainder of stone synagogues. The exhibition was one of a series of displays of Loukomski's drawings documenting the architecture and interiors of Eastern European synagogues, including an 'Exhibition of water-colours & drawings of old Synagogues and Ghettos of Italy by Georges Lukomski’ held at Wildenstein & Co. gallery in London in 1935 and, as 'Prince George Loukomski', an exhibition of coloured drawings at the Fine Art Society in New Bond Street in 1939; he also toured exhibitions to galleries in Paris and Lisbon.
In 1940 Loukomski published a ‘History of Modern Russian Painting, 1840-1940’ with the London firm of Hutchinson, followed by ‘The Face of Russia’ (Hutchinson, 1942), ‘Charles Cameron, 1740-1812’ (Nicholson & Watson, 1943) and ‘Jewish Art in European Synagogues’ (1947), before moving to France, where he spent his final years.
George Lukomski died in Nice, France on 5 March 1952. A synagogue drawing by Loukomski entered the Ben Uri Collection in 1958 as a donation from Ben Uri Chairwoman Ethel Solomon (née Cohen, 1888–1985). In the UK his works are held in the Ben Uri Collection and the V&A, as well as in major Russian museums.
