Isaak Brodsky was born on December 25, 1883 (on January 6, 1884) into a jewish family in Sofiyevka Village near Berdyansk town (which was in Tauria Province at that time, nowadays the Zaporozhye Region of Ukraine. His father was a trader and a land owner.

 

In 1896 Isaak finished the Berdyansk vocational school. He considered Berdyansk to be his hometown. From childhood Isaak revealed his talent for painting. From 1896 to 1902 he studied in the Odessa Art School under L. D. Iorini, K. K. Kostandi and G. A. Ladyzhensky. Afterwards the beginning arist moved to Petersburg and continued his training in the S. Petersburg Academy of Arts, where he studied under Ilya Repin for five years. In 1909 — 1911 he traveled in Germany, France, Spain and Italy as a pensioner of the Academy. In his journey he Maxim Gorky in the island of Capri.

 

Before the October revolution of 1917 and in the 1920s Isaak Brodsky participated in exhibitions of the Academy of Arts, and was an exhibitor of the South Russian Artists Associations, the Itinerants, A. I. Kuindzhi Association and the Communities of Artists.

In February 1917 he painted Kerensky's portrait, and after October of 1917 undertook painting portraits of Bolshevik leaders.

Isaak Brodsky worked a lot on creating images of Soviet leaders, first of all Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin. Besides he was engaged in reorganizing art education in the USSR. He was a professor of the All-Russian Academy of Arts from 1932, and its director from 1934. sculptures and architecture of Isaak Brodsky involved most prominent artists and teachers in working at the Leningrad Institute of Painting headed by him.

Isaak Brodsky died in Leningrad on August 14, 1939. He was buried at the Volkovsky cemetery.

 

Isaak Brodsky Apartment Museum was founded in the center of Leningrad (3, Ploschad Iskusstv Square) as part of the Research Museum of the Russian Academy of Arts. Lassal Street near Nevsky Avenue was renamed into Brodsky Street in September, 1940 but was given back its historical name of Mikhaylovskaya Street in 1991.

 

In addition to that, the Berdyansk Art Museum founded by the artist and keeping about 200 painings donated by him from his collection in 1930 is named after Isaak Brodsky.