Ivan Vishnyakov

Painter, restorer, teacher. Father of Alexander Vishnyakov. Born in Moscow in the family of a craftsman called Yakov Vishnyakov (1699). Sent to live with relatives in St Petersburg (1714), where he studied varnishing (1721) and painting under Vasily Gruzinets at the Admiralty College (1722–27). Transferred to the Chancellery of Construction (1727), where he served as an apprentice under Louis Caravaque (from 1727) and Andrei Matveyev (1727–39). Qualified as a painting master (1739) and took over from Andrei Matveyev as head of the team of painters at the Chancellery of Construction (1739). Promoted to the ranks of ensign (1741), captain (1742), collegiate assessor (1743), nobleman (1745) and court councillor (1752). Married twice and had a total of six sons and one daughter. Decorated palaces in St Petersburg, Tsarskoe Selo and Peterhof (1739–61) and the coronation festivities of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna in Moscow (1742). Painted portraits of Princess Anna Leopoldovna (1740–46), Empress Elizabeth Petrovna (1742, 1743, 1757), Sarah Eleanor Fairmore (1749–50) and William George Fairmore (second half of 1750s), Nikolai Tishinin and his wife Xenia Tarbeyeva (1755), Mikhail Yakovlev and his wife Stepanida Zimina (1756), artillery engineer Matvei Begichev (1757) and Prince Fyodor Golitsyn (1760). Painted icons for St Andrew’s Church in Kiev (1750–53), Church of the Trinity in St Petersburg (1755–56) and the Major Chapel of the Winter Palace (1761). Died in St Petersburg (1761).