Alexander Stupin

Painter, draughtsman, teacher. Born in the town of Arzamas in Nizhny Novgorod Province as the illegitimate son of noblewoman Nadezhda Borisova and nobleman Pyotr Solovtsov (1776). Given to a local childless couple called Anisia and Vasily Stupin, who baptised him as Alexander at the Cathedral of the Resurrection in Arzamas (1776) and brought him up in their house on Streltsy Street (1776–82). Taught to read and write by a local woman and the sexton of the Church of the Annunciation in Arzamas (1782–83). Served under a priest (1783–86) and worked as an apprentice for a local trader (1786) and in his stepmother’s shop at the St Macarius Fair (1787–88). Studied icon-painting under Alexander Blakhin in Arzamas and decorated the iconostases of churches in the village of Vorontsovo in Nizhny Novgorod Province (1788–90) and the town of Temnikov in Mordovia (1790–92). Fled from compulsory army recruitment to the nearby village of Vyezdnoe (1792), where he spent nine months restoring icons and frescoes at the Church of Our Lady of Smolensk (1792). Returned to Arzamas (1792), where he studied icon-painting under Semyon Ivanov (1792–94) and married Ekaterina Selivanova (1795). Decorated a church in the village of Koshelyovka in Penza Province (1795). Worked as a junior office clerk at the local governor’s office in Nizhny Novgorod, where he also studied drawing under a former Prussian officer called Jacob Nicklaus (1795–97). Returned to Arzamas (1797), where he opened a workshop and painted icons for the chapel at the Tikhvin Cemetery in Arzamas (1797), a church in the village of Kensha in Penza Province (1797–98) and the Church of the Saviour in Arzamas (1799–1800). Studied under Ivan Akimov, Grigory Ugryumov, Vasily Shebuyev and Alexei Yegorov at the Imperial Academy of Arts (1800–02). Awarded a minor silver medal (1801) and a first-class certificate (1802). Returned to Arzamas with the gift of two hundred roubles from Empress Elizabeth Alexeyevna (1802) and opened the first private school of art in the Russian provinces, where people of all classes could study, including serfs (1802–62). Painted ninety works for a church in the village of Katunki in Nizhny Novgorod Province (1805–06) and moved into larger premises at the junction of Pogonnaya, Trinity and Streltsy Streets (1808). Academician (1809). Awarded the patronage of the Imperial Academy of Arts (1809) and commissioned former student Mikhail Korinfsky to design a new schoolhouse with larger classrooms, galleries and a library (1813–14). Decorated churches in Penza, Petino, Salma and Pochinki (1814–18), Cathedral of the Saviour at the St Macarius Fair in Nizhny Novgorod (1821–24) and the Cathedral of the Resurrection in Arzamas (1820s–30s). Awarded the Order of St Anne (1834) and elevated to the rank of the nobility (1835). After the marriage of his daughter Claudia to former student Nikolai Alexeyev-Syromyansky (1834), transferred ownership of the school to his son-in-law (1836). Suffered the loss of his wife Ekaterina (1838). Decorated the Cathedral of the Saviour in Penza and the Nizhny Lomov Monastery of Our Lady of Kazan in Penza Province (1838–39). Suffered a series of tragedies after the school caught fire and burnt down and his daughter Claudia was soaked by a fireman’s hose (1842), causing a fever and death from tuberculosis of the throat (1843). Awarded three thousand roubles by the Imperial Academy of Arts and two thousand roubles by Tsar Nicholas I to rebuild the school (1843–44). Visited St Petersburg, where he was awarded the Order of St Vladimir (1846). Wrote memoirs (1848–51). Visited St Petersburg, where he was received by Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna (1854). Died at the age of eighty-five in Arzamas and buried at All Saints Cemetery (1861). Posthumously awarded the title of honorary citizen of Arzamas (1996). Contributed to exhibitions (from 1800s). Contributed to the exhibitions of the Imperial Academy of Arts (from 1800s), Russian Monasteries: Art and Traditions at the Russian Museum in St Petersburg (1997) and Two Hundred Years of the Alexander Stupin School at the Nizhny Novgorod Museum of Art in Nizhny Novgorod (2002).