Nikolai Dubovskoi

Painter, draughtsman, illustrator, teacher. Born in the family of a Don Cossack in Novocherkassk (1859). Studied at the Vladimir Military Academy in Kiev (1870–77) and under Baron Mikhail Konstantinovich Clodt von Jürgensburg at the Imperial Academy of Arts (1877–81). Awarded a minor silver medal (1879) and two major silver medals (1880), but resigned after refusing to paint the set topic in the competition for a major gold medal (1881). Lived and worked in St Petersburg, where he painted landscapes and portraits. Member of the Society of Travelling Art Exhibitions (from 1886, board member from 1889), Circle of Don Artists in Novocherkassk (from 1893), Munich Sezession (from 1894), Northern Circle of Lovers of the Fine Arts (from 1905), Arkhip Kuinji Society (from 1909) and the Archangel Circle of Lovers of the Fine Arts (from 1913). Worked from life alongside Ilya Repin at Siverskaya near Gatchina (1887) and rode on horseback with Nikolai Jaroshenko along the Military Georgian Highway (1888). Pioneered the mood landscape with Isaac Levitan (1890s). Travelled widely across the Russian Empire, visiting the White Sea, River Volga, River Don, Sea of Azov, Caucasus and Estonia (1890s–1900s). Contributed illustrations to the collected works of Mikhail Lermontov published on the fiftieth anniversary of the poet’s death (1891). Visited Greece (1892, 1894), Italy (1892, 1895, 1897, 1898), Turkey (1893), Switzerland (1895, 1897, 1903, 1908), France (1898) and Germany (1912). Married the artist Faina Tverskaya (1895). Academician of landscape painting (1898), full member of the Imperial Academy of Arts (1900), board member (1908), professor (1911). Taught landscape painting at the Imperial Academy of Arts (1909–18). Donated his private collection of 129 works by Russian artists and 77 of his own works to his hometown of Novocherkassk (1913). Died of heart failure in Petrograd and buried at the Smolensk Cemetery (1918). Contributed to exhibitions (from 1882). Contributed to the exhibitions of the Society for the Encouragement of the Arts (from 1882), Society of Travelling Art Exhibitions (1884–1918), Circle of Don Artists in Novocherkassk (1893–1914), Munich Sezession (1894–1914), Northern Circle of Lovers of the Fine Arts (1909, 1913, 1914), Moscow Society of Lovers of the Arts (1911), Arkhangelsk Circle of Lovers of the Fine Arts (1914), Pan-Russian Exhibition of Art and Industry in Nizhny Novgorod (1896), Exposition Universelle in Paris (1900, silver medal), international exhibitions in Munich (1897, 1909, 1913, gold medal), Düsseldorf (1910) and Rome (1911) and posthumous one-man shows in Leningrad (1938), Novocherkassk (1946, 1947), Rostov-on-Don (1948, 1955) and Moscow (2006).