Alexei Yegorov

Painter, draughtsman, teacher. Found by Cossacks in the Kalmyk steppe and taken to the Foundling Hospital in Moscow (1781). Studied under Ivan Akimov and Grigory Ugryumov at the Imperial Academy of Arts (1782–97). Awarded the title of artist and a foreign fellowship (1797). Lived and worked in Italy (1803–07), where he caught the attention of Antonio Canova and Vincenzo Camuccini and was offered the post of court painter to Pope Pius VII. Returned to St Petersburg (1807) and taught drawing to Empress Elizabeth Alexeyevna. Married Vera Martos, daughter of Ivan Martos, and had three daughters (Nadezhda, Eudokia, Sofia) and one son (Yedokim). Adopted Michele Scotti after the death of his father (1831) and gave his daughter Eudokia in marriage to Alexander Terebenyov (1836). Taught at the Imperial Academy of Arts (1798–1800, 1803–40). Academician (1807), adjunct professor (1807), professor of history painting (1812), first-degree professor (1831), professor emeritus (1832). Painted icons and religious pictures for the Kazan Cathedral, Trinity Cathedral, Tauride Palace and regimental chapels in St Petersburg, the palace chapels at Tsarskoe Selo and the Zion Cathedral in Tiflis. Expelled from the Imperial Academy of Arts by personal order of Tsar Nicholas I, who disapproved of his icons for the palace chapel at Tsarskoe Selo (1840). Died in St Petersburg and buried at the Smolensk Cemetery (1851).