Born in St. Petersburg, Andre Petroff attended art school there before being drafted into the army at the beginning of the First World War. The October Revolution and the civil war that followed made it difficult for the young artist to return home, and by 1920 Petroff had settled in Paris and was studying at the prestigious l'Ecole des Beaux-Arts. Petroff traveled widely and spent a considerable amount of time in Corsica, Italy, Morocco, and Algeria. Due to his poor health, the artist permanently moved to the south of France and joined the Russian community in Nice. Primarily known as a painter of scenic seascapes and portraits,