Gavriil Kozlov

Painter, draughtsman, decorator, teacher. Serf of Prince Pyotr Toufiakin whose freedom was secured by the Imperial Academy of Arts (1763). Worked under Antonio Giambattista Peresinotti, Pietro Gradizzi and Giuseppe Valeriani at the Catherine Palace in Tsarskoe Selo (1753–56) and as a painting apprentice (from 1760). Adjunct (1762), academician (1765), adjunct professor (1766), professor of history painting (1771), senior professor (1776) and adjunct rector (1779). Designed stage sets for the court theatre and plafonds for the Kremlin Palace in Moscow (1770s). Director of the Imperial Tapestry Factory in St Petersburg (from 1779). Decorated the charter and diplomas of the Imperial Academy of Arts and order services for imperial banquets (1780s). Painted icons for the Archangel Cathedral in the Moscow Kremlin and the Church of Our Lady of Smolensk at the Smolensk Cemetery in St Petersburg (1786–90). Taught at the Imperial Academy of Arts and his own school of art.