Baron Ernst Friedrich von Liphart

Painter, draughtsman, engraver, interior decorator, illustrator, teacher. Son of the Estonian art historian and collector Baron Karl Eduard von Liphart (1807–1891), allegedly descended from St Liphardus of Orléans (died c. 550). Grew up at the family estate of Schloss Ratshof in Dorpat (1847–60). Travelled across Germany and northern Italy with his father (1860–62). Settled in Florence (1862), where he studied painting under Franz von Lenbach at the Accademia di Belle Arti (from 1863). Copied paintings by Giorgione, Diego Velázquez and Bartolomé Esteban Murillo in Spain (1866–68). Disinherited by his father for converting to Roman Catholicism to marry Luisa Juan from Florence (1873). Lived and worked in Paris (1873–86), where he illustrated La vie élégante and La vie moderne and studied under Gustave Boulanger and Jules-Joseph Lefebvre at the Académie Julian. Moved to St Petersburg (1886), where he painted portraits of Tsar Nicholas II and decorated the interiors of the Marble Palace, Yussupov Palace and the residence of Grand Duke Alexei Alexandrovich at 122 River Moika Embankment. Taught at the School of Drawing of the Society for the Encouragement of the Arts (1885–96). Academician (1893), full member of the Imperial Academy of Arts (1902). Designed the curtain for the Hermitage Theatre (1895). Principal curator of paintings at the Imperial Hermitage (1906–29), where he helped to acquire Leonardo da Vinci’s Madonna and Child with Flowers from Maria Sapozhnikova, wife of Léon Benois (1914). Evicted from his own tenement on Kamennoostrovsky Prospekt (1921), while his daughter Maria was executed for hiding a White officer in Omsk (1921). Wrote the novella Le gouffre (1929) and the five-act drama Bernardino Luini (1930). Contributed to the Paris Salon (1877–1929).