Ivan-Bolshoi Adolsky (Odolsky)

Painter, engraver, draughtsman, decorator, teacher. Son of painter Grigory Adolsky and elder brother of painter Ivan-Menshoi Adolsky. Commissioned to paint portraits of Peter the Great and Prince Alexander Menshikov in military uniform (1710). Transferred to the Armoury in St Petersburg (1711), where he taught drawing at the school of painting founded by Peter the Great and worked on prints and drawings (1711–21). Taught painting and engraving to Pskov icon-painters and the artists of the Chancellery of Construction at the St Petersburg Printing Works (1721–27). Painted icons for the St Peter and St Paul Cathedral and portraits of the All-Mad, All-Jesting, All-Drunken Assembly (1725) and members of the imperial family (1725–27), including Portrait of Catherine I with a Negro Boy (1725–26), engraved by Alexei Zubov (1726). Decorated the hall of mourning at the funeral of Peter the Great (1725) and interiors of the Winter Palace and Summer Palace in St Petersburg (1725–27). Returned to Moscow (1728), where he worked at the Holy Synod Printing Works and painted a portrait of Princess Elisabeth Christine of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, wife of Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI and aunt of Tsar Peter II (1728–30). Inspector of the Moscow Armoury (1735–36). Last mentioned in Armoury documents (1750).