Valerian (Shalva) Dzneladze was born in 1892 in the Chokhatauri region. He received his initial education at the Kutaisi Technical School, where he also pursued parallel interests in drawing. Afterwards, he continued his studies at the “Fine Arts Encouraging Society” art school in Tbilisi. From 1913 to 1918, Shalva Dzneladze studied with honors at the St. Petersburg Imperial Art Academy at the Kyiv Art School. Upon returning to his homeland in 1918, the artist became actively involved in the activities of the “Georgian Society of Artists” founded by Dimitri Shevardnadze. It was planned to send Shalva Dzneladze abroad as a scholar, but this was prevented by the annexation of Georgia by the Bolsheviks. He combined his pedagogic work with decoration of plays in the Chokhatauri Public Theater. As an artist-illustrator, Shalva Dzneladze actively cooperated with the editors of children’s magazines and illustrated more than one book of children’s stories.                           

As a participant of many exhibitions held in Tbilisi, Shalva Dzneladze, due to his poor health (tuberculosis), mainly lived in his native Chokhatauri, where he tirelessly worked on portraits, landscapes, still lifes, and sketches (he created about 2000 works). Shalva Dzneladze passed away in 1934. In 1935, after his death, the artist’s first personal exhibition was held in the National Gallery.