Grigor Auer

Finnish artist, Karelian landscape painter Grigor Auer (Grigori Dimitrievich Prokopiev) born in Pitkäranta (Impilahti municipality) in 1882 in the family of Orthodox Karelian peasant Dmitry Prokopiev and his wife Maria Kanninen. At the age of 15 years he went to Saint Petersburg and began his education at preparatory class of Drawing School by the Imperial Society for the Encouragement of the Arts. Later he studied at Helsingfors Atheneum Drawing School by the Art Society of Finland and at the Saint Petersburg Imperial Academy of Arts.

Near Pitkäranta in the Lammisaari Island was build a large studio cottage. It became a home for Auer family during the period between Russian revolution of 1917 and the Second World War.

Grigor Auer died in Helsinki in 1967.