Saryan was born into an Armenian family in Nakhichevan-on-Don (now part of Rostov-on-Don, Russia), where Armenians from Crimea lived. He was the seventh child of Sargis Saryan and Ustian Chiligaryan. He received early education from his eldest brother, Hovhannes Saryan, who taught him Armenian and Russian writing and basic math. Saryan spent his childhood in his father’s khutor (a single-homestead rural settlement of Eastern Europe), 40 kilometers from the city. His years there greatly influenced his admiration of nature, which he mentions in his autobiography. Saryan was 11 years old when his father died. His brother Hovhannes, who was twenty years older, started caring for the younger siblings.
During one of his travels in Tbilisi, he met his future wife, Lusik Aghayan, the daughter of famous Armenian writer Ghazaros Aghayan. He immediately fell in love with her and married her a year later, on April 17, 1916. Together they had two sons, Sargis Saryan and Ghazaros Saryan. Lusik is said to have been Saryan’s one and only romantic partner.
Saryan died in Yerevan on 5 May 1972. His former home in Yerevan is now a museum dedicated to his work with hundreds of items on display. He was buried in Yerevan at the Pantheon next to Komitas Vardapet.
His son Ghazaros (Lazarus) Saryan was a composer and educator. His great-granddaughter Mariam Petrosyan is also a painter, as well as a cartoonist and award-winning novelist.
