Fyodor Rokotov

Painter, teacher. Born in the village of Vorontsovo to a family of serfs belonging to Prince Pyotr Repnin (mid-1730s). Believed to have trained under icon-painters in Moscow. Moved to St Petersburg (1750s), where he studied under Ivan Argunov, Louis-Joseph Le Lorrain and Pietro Antonio de Rotari (1758–59). Painted portraits of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna (1757), Peter III (1758), Catherine the Great (1763, 1765) and Paul I as a child (1761). Taught at the Imperial Academy of Arts (1760–65). Adjunct (1762), academician (1765). Resigned from the Academy and returned to Moscow (1765), where he worked as a free portraitist until his eyesight began to fail (1790s). Died in Moscow and buried at the New Monastery of the Saviour (1808).