Born in Tiflis in 1888 in the Caucasus, Boris Novicoff attended painting classes at the Leningrad Fine Arts Academy while at the same time pursuing his career as an engineer and naval officer. After fleeing the Russian Revolution, he sought refuge in Lebanon where he became naturalized and was appointed municipal engineer for Beirut, and all this without abandoning his artistic activities. In 1916, his drawings were published in "L'illustration". Later, he organized various exhibitions in Lebanon and abroad. In 1963, he was decorated by the Lebanese Government with the Ordre National du Cèdre for services rendered to the arts.
A neo-realistic painter, Novicoff derives his inspiration from nature - "infinitely rich," he says, for nature is his "only master". Impressed by the picturesque charms of the Lebanon of yesteryear, he gives a nostalgic recreation of the narrow winding alleys of old Beirut enhanced by their stone vaults and arcades that enclose the ancient souks of Bezerkane or Zokak Fayoum. He also pays tribute to the spotless dazzling whiteness of the mountain slope crowned with their ageless cedars, majestic and monumental; there are, too, the mountain villages lost amidst grove and thicket where stone-built cottages with their red roofs emerge here and there from the brilliant greenery of the underbrush; then there is the sea, the symbol of infinity, which also impressed him deeply - calm, clear and peaceful or raging with foamy breakers.