He was a son of the
merchant and
industrialist Ivan Feodorovich Mamontov and Maria Tikhonovna (Lakhitina). In 1841 the family moved to
Moscow. From 1852 he studied in
St. Petersburg, and later in the
Moscow University.
In
1864 Savva visited
Italy, where he began to take lessons in
singing. There he was introduced to the daughter of Moscow merchant Grigory Sapozhnikov, 17-year-old Elizabeth, who subsequently became his wife. The wedding took place in
1865 at Kireevo estate, near
Khimki, just northwest of
Moscow.
In
1869 he became a
director of the
Moscow-Yaroslavl railway. He was also involved into the building of
Donetsk railway from 1876 to 1882.
In
1870, Mamontov purchased the
Abramtsevo estate, located north of
Moscow, and founded there an artistic union which included most of the best Russian
artists of the beginning of
20th century, such as
Konstantin Korovin, Mikhail Nesterov, Ilya Repin, Vasily Polenov, Valentin Serov, Mikhail Vrubel, the brothers
Vasnetsov, sculptors
Viktor Hartmann and
Mark Antokolsky, as well as various others. The colony of artists who hosted there during the 1870s and 1880s sought to recapture the quality and spirit of medieval Russian art. Several workshops were set up there to produce handmade furniture, ceramic tiles, and silks imbued with traditional Russian imagery and themes.
Mamontov also patronized the
Russian Private Opera which discovered the great Russian bass
Chaliapin, and supported the
Russian opera composers Pyotr Tchaikovsky, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Alexander Borodin, Modest Musorgsky, and many others. Drama and opera on Russian folklore themes (e.g.,
Rimsky-Korsakov's The Snow Maiden) were produced in
Abramtsevo by the likes of
Konstantin Stanislavsky, with sets contributed by the brothers
Vasnetsov, Mikhail Vrubel, and other distinguished artists. "The Russian Private Opera" was Mamontov's main contribution to the arts. Mamontov acted as a
stage director, a
conductor and a teacher of singing.
The success of the "Private Opera" in the
province was followed by a triumph in
Moscow. However, everything ended in a
collapse. In 1899-1900 Mamontov was unjustly accused of
embezzlement with building of the
Yaroslavl railway, arrested and put on
trial.
