Vasily Petrov

Painter, draughtsman, teacher. Studied painting under Fyodor Alexeyev at the theatrical school of the Imperial Theatres (until 1787). Taught drawing at the School of Mining (1787–1801). Nominated to the Imperial Academy of Arts (1794), academician of landscape painting (1806). Employed at the Imperial Hermitage (1801) and dispatched to Siberia to draw views of mineral factories (1801). Lived in Barnaul (1801–03) and worked in Irkutsk (1803) and Nerchinsk (1803–04). Returned to Barnaul (1804), where he sketched panoramic mountain views and national types and costumes (1804–10). Committed suicide by throwing himself down a well (1810). Buried at the St John the Baptist Cemetery on the territory of the Nagorny Park in Barnaul (1810).