Alexander Mikhailovich Gerasimov was born on July 31, 1881, in the city of Kozlov, now known as Michurinsk, Tambov region, in a merchant family.

He studied at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture from 1903 to 1915 under the guidance of K. A. Korovin, A. E. Arkhipov, and V. A. Serov. In 1915, he was drafted into the army and served as a non-combat soldier in a sanitary train on the Southern Galician front during World War I until 1917. After demobilization in 1918 and 1925, he lived and worked in Kozlov.

In 1925, Gerasimov moved to Moscow, where he joined the Association of Artists of Revolutionary Russia and taught at the School of Memory of 1905. In the summer of 1934, he went on a creative business trip for three months to Germany, France, Italy, and Turkey.

In 1939 and 1954, he headed the organizing committee of the Union of Artists of the USSR. In 1943, he donated 50,000 rubles from his personal savings to the Defense Fund.

Gerasimov was one of the first to receive the title of "People's Artist of the USSR," established on July 26, 1943, along with other outstanding figures in the arts. Since 1947, he became a full member and in 1947 and 1957, the first president of the Academy of Arts of the USSR.

In 1951, he received a doctorate in art history. Gerasimov was one of the leading Soviet artists of the 1930s and 1950s. In his youth, he was fascinated by Impressionism, but in the 1920s, he began to create works in the genre of socialist realism, using bright and saturated colors, often dedicating his works to Soviet and party history.

He was a favorite artist of I. V. Stalin, and his portraits of the leader were considered canonical. Gerasimov was friends with K. E. Voroshilov and often depicted him in his works.

Additionally, he was involved in book illustration.

In May 1949, the magazine "Ogonyok" published photo reproductions of paintings and sculptures by Western modernists, including Salvador Dali, with comments from Gerasimov, who criticized them for reflecting imperialist ideas and denying culture.

With the rise of N. S. Khrushchev, Gerasimov gradually lost all his positions, and his paintings were removed from museum exhibitions.

He was a member of the VKP(b) since 1950 and a deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR of the 2nd and 4th convocations.

Alexander Gerasimov passed away on July 23, 1963, in Moscow and was buried at Novodevichy Cemetery.