Alexander Agin

Draughtsman, illustrator, painter, teacher. Illegitimate son of officer and landowner Alexei Yelagin and a serf woman who took the last four letters of his father’s surname. Born in the village of Ivankovo in Pskov Province (1817). Studied history painting under Karl Brullov at the Imperial Academy of Arts (1834–39), graduating with the title of teacher of drawing (1839). Fellow of the Society for the Encouragement of Artists (early 1840s). Illustrated the Old Testament (1844–45) and the works of Alexander Pushkin (1845) and Ivan Turgenev (1846), created 104 drawings for Nikolai Gogol’s Dead Souls (1846–47). Designed the reliefs on the pedestal of Baron Peter Clodt von Jürgensburg’s statue of Ivan Krylov in the Summer Garden (1849). Volunteered for the Russian navy and moved to Kiev after encountering problems with the censor (1853). Taught drawing at the Kiev Military Academy and worked as a theatrical painter and make-up artist (1850s–60s). Died at Grigory Tarnovsky’s estate of Kachanovka in Chernihiv Province (1875).