Andrei Matveyev

Born: 1702, St Petersburg
Died: 1739, St Petersburg

Painter, decorator. Born in St Petersburg to a court scribe from Käkisalmi district in Karelia (1702). Awarded a fellowship by Peter the Great to train in Holland and Flanders (1716). Studied under Arnold Boonen in Amsterdam and Carel de Moor in The Hague (1717–23) and Pieter Sperwer at the Koninklijke Academie voor Schone Kunsten in Antwerp (1723–27). Returned to St Petersburg (1727) and employed by the Chancellery of Construction (1727). Painted battle scenes for the Hall of Glorious Celebrations in the Summer Palace (1727–30) and designed triumphal arches for the arrival of Empress Anna Ioannovna in St Petersburg (1731). Married Irina Antropova (1729), cousin of his student Alexei Antropov. Awarded the title of painting master and appointed head of the team of painters at the Chancellery of Construction (1731). Painted oil pictures for the St Peter and St Paul Cathedral (1728–33), icons for the Church of St Simeon and St Anne (1733–39) and panels and a plafond for the Senate Room of the Twelve Colleges (mid-1730s). Decorated the Winter Palace and the imperial residences at Tsarskoe Selo and Peterhof. Died from overwork at the age of thirty-seven in St Petersburg (1739).

Random articles