Ivan Kramskoi

Painter, draughtsman, engraver, art critic. Worked for a travelling photographer as a retoucher (1853–57). Studied under Alexei Markov at the Imperial Academy of Arts (1857–63) and initiated the “revolt of the fourteen” students, who refused to paint the set topic in the competition for the major gold medal and resigned from the Imperial Academy of Arts (1863). Head of the St Petersburg Artel of Artists (1863–70), founding member of the Society of Travelling Art Exhibitions (1870–87). Taught at the School of Drawing of the Society for the Encouragement of Artists (1863–69). Painted the cupola of the Church of Christ the Saviour in Moscow (1865). Academician (1869). Painted portraits of such famous Russian writers, scientists, artists and public figures as Leo Tolstoy (1873), Ivan Shishkin (1873, 1880), Pavel Tretyakov (1876), Mikhail Saltykov-Schedrin (1879) and Sergei Botkin (1880). Died after falling over while painting a portrait of Dr Karl Rauchfuss and buried at the St Alexander Nevsky Monastery in St Petersburg (1887). Contributed to exhibitions (from 1860). Contributed to the exhibitions of the Imperial Academy of Arts, Society of Travelling Art Exhibitions (from 1870), Exposition Universelle in Paris (1878) and the Pan-Russian Exhibition in Moscow (1882).