Baron Nikolai Clodt von Jürgensburg

Painter, theatrical designer, teacher. Grandson of Baron Peter Clodt von Jürgensburg, son of Major Alexander Clodt von Jürgensburg, nephew of Baron Mikhail Petrovich Clodt von Jürgensburg, nephew once removed of Baron Mikhail Konstantinovich Clodt von Jürgensburg. Born in the village of Azarovo in Oryol Province (1865). Studied under Vladimir Makovsky, Illarion Pryanishnikov, Yevgraf Sorokin and Vasily Polenov at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture (1880–86). Married Mary Varley, daughter of a Welsh jockey in Moscow (late 1880s). Travelled widely across Russia, visiting the Far North and River Volga (1880s–90s), Caucasus and Crimea (1900s). Collaborated with Konstantin Korovin on panels for the Russian pavilion at the Exposition Universelle in Paris (1900). Painted sets for theatres in Moscow and St Petersburg (from 1901), working on productions of Cesare Pugni’s ballet The Humpbacked Horse at the Bolshoi Theatre (1901), Richard Wagner’s opera Götterdämmerung at the Mariinsky Theatre (1903) and Peter Tchaikovsky’s ballet The Sleeping Beauty at the Mariinsky Theatre (1914). Founding member of the Union of Russian Artists (1903). Visited Brittany, Geneva, Biarritz, Nervi and Genoa (1906, 1908). Taught at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture (1901–18). Died in Moscow and buried at the Vagankovo Cemetery (1918). Contributed to exhibitions (from 1885). Contributed to the exhibitions of the Moscow Society of Lovers of the Arts (1885, 1889–98), Moscow Fellowship of Artists (1893–96, 1899, 1901), Society of Travelling Art Exhibitions (1894), 36 Artists (1901, 1902), Union of Russian Artists (1903–18) and the Second State Exhibition of Works of Art (1919).