Лев Чистовский [1902-1969] was born in Pskov, Russia. Laureate in 1924 of the Fine Arts Academy of Leningrad with Savinsky and Eberling as professors, he left the Soviet Union in 1925.
He studied two years at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Rome where he met Irene Klestova🎨 who was also studying there. She became his companion until his death. They came both to Paris in 1926, settled there and worked together. Tchistovsky kept out of all the pictorial trends appearing in the twenties between Montparnasse and Montmartre.
The art historian Lukomsky called him an authentic resistant of the classical painting. His work and especially his figures and his large size watercolors attained a remarkable technical perfection. They include portraits of celebrities, figures, still-lives, mythological scenes, flowers and icons, these last ones being his passion.