Alexander Beideman

Painter, graphic artist, teacher. Born in the family of Georgy Beideman in St Petersburg (1826). Studied under Karl Brullov and Alexei Markov at the Imperial Academy of Arts (1840s–50s). Awarded a major silver medal (1851), minor gold medal (1853) and the titles of class artist (1855) and sixteenth-class artist (1857). Collaborated with Jumble and Spark (1840s–50s). Friend of Pavel Fedotov and Lev Zhemchuzhnikov. Resigned from the Imperial Academy of Arts (1855). Lived and worked in Germany, France and Italy (1857–60), painted works for the chapel at the Russian Embassy in Paris. Academician of history painting (1860). Taught at the School of Drawing of the Society for the Encouragement of Artists (1860–66), adjunct professor of the Imperial Academy of Arts (from 1861). Studied Byzantine, early Italian and Old Russian art and attempted to create a Russian national style with Prince Grigory Gagarin, Fyodor Solntsev and Konstantin Ton (1860s). Painted icons and murals for St Isaac’s Cathedral in St Petersburg and the private chapels in the Novo-Mikhailovsky Palace in St Petersburg, Mikhailovka Dacha near Strelna and the Livadia Palace in the Crimea (1860s). Died in St Petersburg (1869).