A:   There is much confusion regarding the spelling of his name which leads to difficulty in researching additional paintings. This can be attributed to a number of factors including the translation between the Cyrillic and English alphabets, the possibility of misinterpreting the flourish at the end of Victor's signature, the way Stember is pronounced in English (Shtember), the way Stember is pronounced in German (Shtemberg), or because after the Communist Revolution some letters were slightly changed in the alphabet. The main factor in deciding the correct spelling of the last name is that Stember's daughter Natasha (who moved to America in 1916) spelled her last name as Stember. Other family relatives currently living in Russia also agree that it should be spelled as Stember.

A:  Several members of the Stember family have contributed photos, however the majority of the photos come from Victor Stember's daughter, Natasha, who moved to America in 1916 and brought along the photos of her father and family. She created her own album (or Exhibition as she referred to it) of the photos along with the descriptions or titles that you may see underneath the image in some of the photos. Her album has been passed down from generation to generation and remains in the family.

A:  It is not known to the family how many pieces of artwork he actually created as we continue our search. We have documented over 225 pieces of artwork, but from his writings and immediate family it is known that he produced many, many more that have yet to be recorded by the family. We remain optimistic that one day all of them will be found and photographed.

A:  The paper drawings and water colors that he did are now well over 100 years old so it is unlikely that we will find more of those. We discovered that some of the life size oil paintings that were done at that time were for Estate homes that had very tall ceilings and therefore needed a lot of wall space for display. During the 1917 Revolution, the inhabitants of the Estate homes were forced to smaller quarters. They wanted to retain the portraits of their ancestors but needed to cut down the size of the paintings to fit their diminished wall size. The signature of the artist was typically at the bottom of the painting and therefore was cut off with the bottom portion, thus losing the validity of the true artist of the painting. The family experienced this firsthand at the Yusupov Palace in St. Petersburg where they were able to confirm the authenticy of a Stember painting titled 'Vostriakova' by providing a photo from the family album!

The biggest obstacle to finding art work of Victor Stember however has been lack of a website to inform the public of his work. With the development of this site, hopefully this largest of obstacles will have been removed and anyone in the world who has more information to share can now find and contact us.

A:  The family is anxious to provide the world with the ability to admire and appreciate the work he did. It is our hope that any visitors will enjoy them as much as we do and visit this site often to see any new information or paintings discovered.

A:  Below is a photo that Stember's daughter Natasha took and included it in her album. It is the first two initials of his Russian First and Middle names followed by his complete Last name. The flourish at the end of his signature is what has lead many to believe his last name should be translated as Stemberg. On smaller artwork, he sometimes signed using just his First and Last name initials:

A:  Many of the photo scans come from the personal album of Stember's daughter, Natasha, that she put together herself to preserve her father's memory and legacy. She had hoped to recreate the feeling of viewing the photos of the artwork as if you were viewing an exhibition inside a museum gallery complete with a nice frame. She either drew some of the frames around the photos herself with an ink pen, or she cut out pictures of frames to arrange them around her photos (see the examples below). Here is an excerpt from Natasha's written dedication of her album to the family:

"I succeeded in collecting enough material to present his art and arrange the album to look like a “Miniature Exhibition of Paintings”. With every turn of the page you will feel as if you are entering the next hall of a large picture gallery. All at once you will feel the atmosphere of nobleness which was the prevailing style of my father. Every picture will charm you with its beauty and it will be hard to tear away from it."

We hope to honor Natasha as well by attempting to recreate her "exhibition" of her father's artwork in this website.