Leon Benois
Russian architect (1856-1928)
Leon or Leonty Nikolayevich Benois (Russian: Лео́нтий Никола́евич Бенуа́, romanized: Leonty Nikolayevich Benua; 23 August [O.S. 11 August] 1856 – 8 February 1928) was a Russian architect from the Benois family.
Biography
He was the son of architect Nicholas Benois, the brother of artists Alexandre Benois and Albert Benois. He built the Roman Catholic cathedral of Notre-Dame in St Petersburg, the mausoleum of the Grand Dukes of Russia in the Peter and Paul Fortress, the Russian Chapel in Darmstadt, and the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, Warsaw, among many other works. Benois served as Dean of the Imperial Academy of Arts (1903–06, 1911–17) and edited the architecture magazine Zodchii. He gave his name to Leonardo da Vinci's painting Benois Madonna which he inherited from his father-in-law and presented to the Hermitage Museum. The painter Nadia Benois was his daughter, and the actor Sir Peter Ustinov was his grandson.
He died on 8 February 1928.
See also
Benois family
References
Sources
"Бенуа, художники" . Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary (in Russian). 1906.
“Leon Benois” enters the record as russian architect (1856-1928). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Leon, Benois and Russian can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 16, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q520461. VIAF identifies the subject as 33179920. The Library of Congress control number is n2007066535. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1856, 1928, 1903 and 1911.
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