Johann Wilhelm Mathé

Engraver, draughtsman, illustrator, teacher. Born in the family of German civil engineer Wilhelm Mathé near the town of Eydtkuhnen (now Virbalis in Lithuania) on the Prussian-Russian border (1856). Grew up on his father’s estate and attended Reformed Church School (1860s). Studied engraving under Rudolf Zukowski and Lavrenty Seryakov at the School of Drawing of the Society for the Encouragement of Artists (1870–75) and under Fyodor Jordan at the Imperial Academy of Arts (1875–80). Awarded a silver medal and a fellowship to Paris (1880), where he studied under Claude-Ferdinand Gaillard and Adolphe-François Pannemaker (1880–84). Visited Germany, Holland and Great Britain (1881). Second-class artist (1884), full member of the Imperial Academy of Arts (1893), professor (1894), academician (1899). Taught at the Baron Stieglitz Central School of Technical Drawing (1884–1909), Imperial Academy of Arts (1894–1917) and the School of Drawing of the Society for the Encouragement of the Arts (from 1911). Engraved famous Russian paintings (late 1880s–early 1890s) and etched portraits of Modest Mussorgsky (1881), Leo Tolstoy (1887, 1892, 1910), Anton Rubinstein (1889), Pavel Tretyakov (1890), Vladimir Stasov (1894), Alexander Griboyedov (1897), Alexander Pushkin (1899), Tsar Nicholas II (1900) and Mikhail Vrubel (1902). Collaborated with such magazines as The Bee (1876–78), Painterly Review (1879–83) and World Illustration (from 1887), illustrated the works of Alexander Pushkin (1899) and Nikolai Gogol (1902). Died in Petrograd (1917). Contributed to exhibitions (from 1878). Contributed to the exhibitions of the Imperial Academy of Arts (1878, 1884), Pan-Russian Exhibition in Moscow (1882) and the Paris Salon (1882, 1883).