Cyril Arapoff (1898–1976)
With information below about the Narishkin family
Cyril Arapoff was born Kyrill Semeonovitch Arapov in the section of Poland then in Russia on 21 October 1898, the son of Simon Pavolovich Arapov, the Russian consul in Florence, and his wife Daria.
Cyril's father died in Rome on 9 October 1909 at the age of 35 (see his grave).
Cyril and his widowed mother Daria fled to England in 1919 because of his family's Tsarist connections. In November 1922 he attended the marriage in London of the Russian Princess Catherine Galitzine.
He spent time in Paris and Germany in the early 1930s and learnt photography at the studio of Annelise Kretschmer in Dortmund. He returned to England in 1933, and had a photographic studio in Headington, Oxford from that year to 1938.
Arapoff’s mother had taken the post of governess to the Russian emigré family of Captain Vadim Alexandrovich Narishkin at 3 St Andrew’s Road in Headington (left), and Cyril also came to live here when he returned to England.
From 1933 he had a photographic studio at this the house, whose address was then 3 Church Street.
All 4,279 photographs by Arapoff
held in the Oxfordshire History Centre
55 portraits by Arapoff in the
National Portrait Gallery
Mike Seaborne in his book Cyril Arapoff: London in the Thirties (1988) says that Arapoff was so successful in his Headington studio that by 1935 he was considered by many to be the leading portrait photographer in Oxford.
In 9 June 1935 he exhibited a series of photographs at the Ward Gallery in Baker Street, London, and the Observer reported on Arapoff's “art of true perception”.
In about 1938 the Narishkins moved to 90 Windmill Road, and Arapoff is listed as living there in the 1939 register, described as a photographer working on his own account. This was a smaller house, and Arapoff moved his studio to 41 Osler Road (right), whose address was then 19 Manor Road. (A Miss Chidlow was listed at this address in Kelly's Directory.)
Right An Arapoff portrait of an American student boarding with the Narishkins in Headington. The caption on the reverse reads:“Raymond A. Sprague—Taken Oxford, England 1934 while living with a Russian family by a Russian émigré professional photographer.” (Shared courtesy of the Sprague family)
Some of the photographs taken in Headington by Arapoff:
- The former Black Boy pub,
and an image of it taken at night - The present Black Boy pub
- St Andrew's Church
- Cottages to the west of the church
and a boy with barrow outside them - Marriage of Charlie Morris and the bride & groom outside St Andrew's Church
In 1941 only the following studio was listed at 119 High Street, Oxford:
By 1944 Arapoff had left Oxford and was working in the film industry, including the Crown Film Unit. He continued to have nine photographic studios in England.
On 24 August 1948 the Daily Telegraph reported that Cyril Arapoff of 54 British Grove, Hammersmith, London had applied for naturalisation, and this was duly granted on 11 June 1949.
He spent time in Brazil in the 1950s and a photograph of a horse carrying dried coconut leaves at Rio Doce was published in the Observer on 9 October 1955.
He then returned to England, and from 1961 until his death he worked for the National Coal Board Film Unit, but continued to take still photographs, which were exhibited into the 1960s.
Cyril Arapoff's last address was 10 Strathrey Gardens, London NW3. He died on 14 October 1976, and his death notice in The Times read:
ARAPOFF — On 14th October 1976, suddenly, in London, Cyril.
Service at Russian Orthodox Church in Exile, Emperors Gate, S.W.7,
on Friday, 22 October, at 12 noon. Flowers to Kenyons, 9 Pond St., N.W.3.
He was buried in Hampstead Cemetery (Plot 2, section GL28), but has no grave memorial or headstone (photograph). His obituary was published in The Times on 27 October 1976:
MR CYRIL ARAPOFF
A correspondent writes:
One laments the passing, albeit at a ripe age, of a photographer and film cameraman who left his imprint on the age he reflected. Arapoff's earlier years were spent on the Continent, and in particular in Paris, where he attached himself to Cocteau's coterie.
In the 1930s, his studio in Oxford established a secure connexion in theatrical photography. Arapoff then moved his interests towards cinematography. He joined the Crown Film Unit during the Second World War, and was responsible for photographing several of their historically important films.
He worked with Rotha (in particular on A City Speaks) and then, in the 1950s, travelled to Brazil in order to assist Cavalcanti in his effort to stimulate a new force in Brazilian film-making. His work during that period reflected his feeling for atmosphere and for people.
Returned once more to Britain, Arapoff joined the film unit of the National Coal Board, where he served as senior cameraman for two decades. Apart from lending his talents to the recording of the changing scene in the mining industry, he still found time to record as a still photographer the times in which he lived and from which he drew enjoyment. He will be remembered by a wider public for his exhibitions of photographs.
The value of his estate was about £450.
Oxford Mail article by Malcolm Graham on Cyril Arapoff
The Narishkin family
Vadim Alexandrovich Narishkin was born in St Petersburg on 26 December 1891 and served as an army captain in Russia. His first wife was Elizabeth Alexandrovna Timacheff, and they had six children, including David Vadim Vadimovich Narishkin (1918), Maria Vadimovna Narishkin (1920), Theodore Vadimovich Narishkin (1922), and Vera Vadimovna Narishkin.
The Narishkins lived in London in the early 1920s, and their son Theodore was born in the St Pancras district in 1922. They moved to Oxford when Captain Narishkin was appointed a lecturer in French at Brasenose College in 1925.
In 1933 he moved with his family up to Headington where he leased 3 St Andrew's Road from Salvador de Madariaga. Cyril Arapoff's mother moved in with them as the children's governess, and Cyril took many photographs of the Narishkin family, including this one in 1933 showing four of the children climbing up the huge slide in the newly opened Bury Knowle Park.
Photographs of members of the Narishkin family taken by Cyril Arapoff
(click on the POX link to see them)
In 1938 Professor de Madariaga returned to live in his house again so they had to move on. Kelly's Directory for 1938 has the following curious listing for 11A Old High Street (which appears to have been on the site of the present 45A):
San Marco (Capt. V. Narishkin, propr.), fancy goods
The Narishkins remained in Headington, and in about 1938 moved to 90 Windmill Road in All Saints' parish. (This was the former house of the rose-grower John Mattock, now replaced by student accommodation.) Vadim Narishkin M.A. is listed there in Kelly's Directory for 1939, 1941, 1943, and 1945. He was recruited by the British intelligence Corps during the Second World War which may explain why he does not appear in the 1939 Register.
On 31 January 1941 in Oxford their eldest son Second Lieutenant David Vadim Vadimovich Narishkin (with his name registered simply as Vadim Narishkin) married his first wife Dawn Evans Thomas, the daughter of W. H. Evans Thomas, CBE of the Chartered Bank in China. (In early 1946 he changed his name to David Vadim Nicholson, and in 1961 he married his second wife Clare Birkby. He died on 20 June 1966 and is buried in East Preston, West Sussex: more information.)
Another of the children probably taught by Cyril Arapoff's mother was Theodore Vadimovich Narishkin (born 1922). He was a pilot in the Second World War and was killed on active service at the age of 20 on 7 March 1943 when he crashed at Weston Turville when was flying back to RAF Cranford. He has a war grave in Headington Cemetery (Sec. L, Grave 16) and a memorial at Weston Turville.
Mrs Elizabeth Narishkin died at 90 Windmill Road at the age of 59 and was buried in Headington Cemetery with her son on 7 February 1945:
In 1946 Captain Vadim Narishkin married a second Ariadna Nikolevna Muraviova, the daughter of Count Nikolai Leonidovich Muravyov, and had three more children.
His eldest daughter by hi first wife, Maria Vadimovna Narishkin, married Alfons J. Dembicki in the Kensington district in 1947.
Captain Vadim Narishkin died in Geneva at the age of 60 on 30 April 1952.
