A Russian-born portrait painter, Savely Sorine studied with Ilya Repin at the Academy of Beaux Arts in Petrograd, where he won the Prix de Rome*. After the Russian Revolution, he went into exile and exhibited widely including at the Salon d'Automne* in Paris in 1922 and 1923, and at the 1923-24 International Exposition in Pittsburgh. In 1948, he painted a watercolor on paper portrait of Princess Elizabeth, the future Queen of England, which hangs in Clarence House in London.

Other portrait subjects were Pavlova, the Russian ballerina; John Ringling, circus master; and actress Lillian Gish.

In the later part of his life, he lived in New York City.