Nikolai Ippolitovich Obrynba was born on March 2, 1913 in the city of Epifan, Tula Region. From 1919 to 1928 he lived in Kobelyaki, Ukraine and received his first drawing instruction. In 1928 he entered an Art-Industrial College in Kiev from which he graduated in 1931. His diploma work, "My Grandfather Ivan Lavrentjevich," is now in the collection of the State Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow. In 1931 Obrynba participated in his first exhibition in Kiev. He attended the Leningrad Academy of Arts from 1932 to 1933, the Kiev Art Institute, a battle studio of Academician N.S. Samokish from 1936 to 1940, and the Surikov Institute, Moscow from 1940 to 1941. Several of the paintings Obrynba created during these years are now in the Tretyakov. As many of his colleagues, the young artist was part of his country's war effort. Obrynba served as an infantryman and medic. He was captured and held as a POW. His major themes are people affected by the war and the epic-lyricism of Russia's landscape. Nikolai Obrynba died in 1996.