Lazar Konstantinovich Popoff (1851-1917) was a Russian writer, journalist and interpreter of science. He played an important role in the intellectual and social life of Russia and was the first to have clearly articulated and demonstrated the idea of the magical nature of Paleolithic drawings, having applied ethnographic data to archaeological materials. Popoff was born on February 22, 1851 in the city of Mariupol in the family of a trader. He wrote a number of books, as well as hundreds of articles, in journals and newspapers. His name and pen name (El'pe) are mentioned in the letters and diaries of Tolstoj, Chekhov, Uspensky and Rozanov. In his works, Popov touched upon different subjects related to botany, zoology, anthropology, physics, chemistry, healthy lifestyle and gardening. Moreover, he edited numerous translations, such as The Life of Animals by A. Brehm, and was member of the Russian Physico-chemical Society and the Imperial Society of Devotees of Natural Science, Anthropology and Ethnography. Today we offer our readers two fundamental articles by Popoff, The Origin of Art and The Origin of Painting, published in 1891 and 1894 in the magazine Popular Science Monthly.