Vasily Tropinin

Painter, draughtsman, teacher. Born as a serf of Count Anton von Münnich in the village of Karpovka in Novgorod Province (1776). Belonged to Count Irakly Morkov after he married Count von Münnich’s youngest daughter Natalia (1790). Sent to train as a confectioner in St Petersburg (1793), where he secretly took drawing lessons and studied under Stepan Schukin at the Imperial Academy of Arts (1798–1804). Recalled by Count Morkov to his new estate of Kukavka in Podolia Province (1804), where he copied famous pictures, painted portraits and decorated the local church (1804–12, 1818–21). Married a local woman called Anna Katina (1807). Lived and worked in Moscow (1812–18, 1821–23), where he restored the house of Count Morkov after the Fire of Moscow (1812). Granted his freedom and elected a free fellow of the Imperial Academy of Arts (1823). Academician (1824). Refused the offer of a professorship at the Imperial Academy of Arts and returned to Moscow (1824), where he contributed to the development of the Moscow school of painting (1824–56). Painted over three thousand portraits of contemporaries, including Nikolai Karamzin (1818), Alexander Pushkin (1827), Karl Brullov (1836) and Vasily Karatygin (1842). Taught at the Moscow Public Art Classes (from 1833). Honorary member of the Moscow Art Society (1843). Died in Moscow and buried at the Vagankovo Cemetery (1857). Contributed to exhibitions in Moscow and St Petersburg, including the Imperial Academy of Arts (from 1804) and retrospectives in Moscow (1951, 1980, 1986, 2005) and Ryazan (1986).