Kirby Tenhulzen's "B. Major" Website Home

Boris (Mesherowsky) Major (1876-1951) was born in Elisabethgrad, Russia, and studied art in Russia and at the Academy of Art in Munich, Germany. In 1906 he immigrated to the United States. He and his wife, Anna, lived in Montclair and Lakewood, New Jersey. Reproductions of his oil paintings and watercolors and original works were distributed nationwide from around 1910 through at least 1959 by Edward Gross & Co., a New York publishing house. The drawing at left has been created from a circa 1914 photograph.

I live in Iowa City, Iowa, home of the University of Iowa's world renowned Iowa Writer's Workshop. I became interested in learning about Boris Major when I received a painting by him as a gift in 2001. My search for biographical data on Mr. Major has led me to the Smithsonian Institution, the Montclair Art Museum and Public Library, Internet genealogical research and living family members. I have created this website as a tool to gather and distribute information about the artist.