Lev Igorev

Painter, draughtsman, teacher, writer. Born in the family of Stefan Igorev, a rural sexton of the Church of St John the Baptist, in the village of Komarovka in Saratov Province (1822). Studied at the Petrovskoe Theological School (1832–38), Saratov Theological Seminary (1838–44) and the Imperial Academy of Arts (1848–50). Awarded the title of artist (1850). Academician (1854). Painted icons for churches and an image of the Virgin Mary on a bone medallion for Empress Maria Alexandrovna (1854–55). Taught icon-painting at the St Petersburg Theological Seminary (1855–57). Accompanied the Russian Orthodox mission to China (1857–64). Stripped of all awards and titles (1869). Worked as a craftsman in St Petersburg (from 1870). Retired to Saratov (1890), where he lived with his widowed sisters on Moscow Street and wrote his memoirs (1891). Died in Saratov and buried at the Monastery of the Transfiguration of the Saviour (1893). Contributed to exhibitions, including the exhibitions of the Imperial Academy of Arts (1865) and St Petersburg: A Portrait of the City and its Citizens at the Russian Museum in St Petersburg (2003).