Nikolai Dmitriyev-Orenburgsky

Born: 1838, Nizhny Novgorod
Died: 1898, St Petersburg

Painter, draughtsman, engraver, illustrator, teacher. Added the epithet “Orenburgsky” (“of Orenburg”) to his surname to distinguish himself from other artists called Dmitriyev. Studied under Fidelio Bruni and Alexei Markov at the Imperial Academy of Arts (1856–63). Awarded minor silver medals (1856, 1857), major silver medals (1856, 1858) and a minor gold medal (1860). One of the rebellious fourteen students who refused to paint the set topic in the competition for a major gold medal and resigned from the Imperial Academy of Arts with the title of second-class artist (1863). Founding member of the St Petersburg Artel of Artists (1863) and the St Petersburg Society of Artists (1891). Academician (1868), professor of battle-painting (1883). Accompanied Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich the Elder to the Caucasus, Crimea and Ukraine, where he compiled an album of drawings (1869). Fellow of the Imperial Academy of Arts in Düsseldorf (1871–73), where he was instructed by Ludwig Knaus and Benjamin Vautier. Lived and worked in Munich (1874), Vienna (1875) and Paris (1877–84), where he studied in a ceramics workshop and helped to found the Association d’entraide et de bienfaisance des artistes russes à Paris (1877). Visited Belgium and Bulgaria, where he joined the Russian army and sketched battle scenes from the Russo-Turkish War (1877–78). Returned to St Petersburg (1884), where he taught art and illustrated the works of Alexander Pushkin, Leo Tolstoy, Nikolai Nekrasov and Ivan Turgenev (1890s). Contributed to exhibitions (from 1860). Contributed to the exhibitions of the Imperial Academy of Arts (from 1860), Moscow Society of Lovers of the Arts (1881–82, 1887–90), Fellowship of South Russian Artists (1893), Society of Russian Watercolourists (1893–1897), Pan-Russian Exhibition of Industry and Agriculture in Nizhny Novgorod (1896), Exposition Universelle in Paris (1878), Jubiläums-Ausstellung der Königlichen Akademie der Künste in Berlin (1886) and a one-man memorial show in St Petersburg (1899).

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