Johann Georg Mayr (de Mayr, von Mayr, Mayer, Meyer)

German painter, draughtsman, engraver, illustrator, teacher. Elder brother of draughtsman and engraver Johann Christoph Mayr (1764–1812). Born in the family of a parson called Johann Michael Mayr in the Free Imperial City of Nuremberg (1760). Studied art in Nuremberg (1770s). Invited to St Petersburg (1778), where he worked at the Imperial Academy of Sciences, drawing inventions and texts, turning sketches into finished drawings for copper engravings, correcting new engravings and teaching drawing, engraving and watercolour painting (1778–83). Awarded more duties and students following the appointment of Princess Ekaterina Dashkova as director of the Imperial Academy of Sciences (1783). Coloured engravings by other artists (from 1788). Painted a series of views of St Petersburg (1796–1803) for the centenary of the city (1803). Died in St Petersburg (1816). Contributed to exhibitions, including St Petersburg: A Portrait of the City and its Citizens at the Russian Museum in St Petersburg (2003), I Love Petersburg... The Russian Museum in Moscow at the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow (2003) and Poésie de l’eau dans l’Art Russe at the Palais Lumière in Evian (2007).

Contributed to exhibitions, including St Petersburg: A Portrait of the City and its Citizens at the Russian Museum in St Petersburg (2003), I Love Petersburg… The Russian Museum in Moscow at the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow (2003) and Poésie de l’eau dans l’Art Russe at the Palais Lumière in Evian (2007).