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Painter, graphic artist, illustrator, teacher. Born in the family of a retired cavalry captain in Kursk (1826) and grew up on his father’s estate in the village of Popovka in Kharkiv Province. Studied at the Nicholas School of Engineering in St Petersburg (1839–45) and under Fidelio Bruni at the Imperial Academy of Arts (1845–49). Painted the first portrait of Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1847). Dissatisfied with the conservative teaching methods, left the Academy and returned to Popovka (1849), where he painted genre pictures from the life of the Ukrainian peasantry and compiled Album of Scenes of Little Russian Life (early 1850s). Married Sofia Samburskaya (niece of the writer Sergei Aksakov) and settled in the village of Yakovlevka. Awarded the title of non-class artist (1856). Visited Berlin, Dresden, Leipzig, Cologne and Düsseldorf (1857) and elected a member of the Société Royale Belge des Aquarellistes (1857). Moved to St Petersburg after the death of his second wife (1858) and married Olga Lisitsyna (great-niece of the playwright Alexander Griboyedov). Illustrated the works of Marko Vovchok (1860), Ivan Krylov (1864), Nikolai Gogol (1874–76) and Taras Shevchenko (1886–87). Academician (1861). Inspector of the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture (1871–81). Resigned and returned to Yakovlevka (1881), where he spent the last twelve years of his life. Died in Moscow and buried at the Oboyan Monastery of the Holy Sign in Kursk Province (1893). Contributed to the exhibitions of the Imperial Academy of Arts (1860–88), Society of Exhibitions of Works of Art (1877, 1880), Moscow Society of Lovers of the Arts (1880–92), Pan-Russian Exhibition of Art and Industry in Moscow (1882), Exposition Universelle in Paris (1867, 1878), Second Annual International Exhibition in London (1872), Exposition Universelle in Antwerp (1885) and a posthumous one-man show in Moscow (1893).