Vasily Petrovich Vereschagin

Painter, lithographer, teacher. Son of icon-painter Pyotr Prokopievich Vereschagin (1795–1843), younger brother of Pyotr Petrovich Vereschagin. Studied icon-painting under his father and grandfather in Perm and history painting under Alexei Markov at the Imperial Academy of Arts (1856–61). Awarded a minor gold medal (1860) and a major gold medal and the title of first-class artist (1861). Helped Karlis Huns and his younger brother Mitrophan Vereschagin (1842–1892) to decorate the Cathedral of the Intercession in Yelabuga in Vyatka Province (1862). Member of the Moscow Society of Lovers of the Arts (1862). Fellow of the Imperial Academy of Arts in Paris (1863–64) and Rome (1864–69), travelling via Berlin, Dresden, Vienna and Munich (1863). Returned to Russia (1869) and taught drawing and composition at the Imperial Academy of Arts (1869–94). Second-class professor of history painting and portraiture (1869), board member of the Imperial Academy of Arts (1869), first-class professor (1883). Visited Rome (1870). Decorated the palace of Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich in St Petersburg (1872–74). Painted icons for the Church of Christ the Saviour in Moscow (1875–79) and the Dormition Cathedral at the Kiev Monastery of the Caves (1883–84). Painted a series of pictures on the history of Christianity in Russia (1880s) and published An Album of Histories of the Russian State in the Images of its Sovereign Representatives (1891). Contributed to exhibitions (from 1860). Contributed to the exhibitions of the Imperial Academy of Arts (1860–1903), Society of Russian Watercolourists (from 1882), Exposition Universelle in Paris (1867, gold medal; 1878), Second Annual International Exhibition in London (1872), Weltausstellung in Vienna (1873), Exposition Universelle in Antwerp (1885) and posthumous one-man shows in St Petersburg (1910), Moscow (1912) and Perm (1935, 1984).