Nikolai Ramazanov

Born: 1817, St Petersburg
Died: 1867, Moscow
Movements:
Academicism

Sculptor, draughtsman, teacher, writer on art. Born in St Petersburg in a family of actors of the Imperial Theatres (1817). Danced at the Bolshoi (Stone) Theatre (1824) and took drawing lessons from Fyodor Solntsev (mid-1820s). Studied sculpture under Boris Orlovsky and Samuel Friedrich Halberg at the Imperial Academy of Arts (1827–39). Awarded a minor silver medal (1836), major silver medal (1837), minor gold medal (1838) and a major gold medal and the title of first-class artist (1839). Sculpted statues of Spring and Summer for the Winter Palace (1839) and visited Moscow with Santino Campioni (1839). Helped Samuel Friedrich Halberg to sculpt monuments to Gavrila Derzhavin in Kazan and Nikolai Karamzin in Simbirsk (1840–42). Fellow of the Imperial Academy of Arts in Rome (1843–46), where he spent time with Alexander Ivanov and Nikolai Gogol. Decorated the naval officers’ library in Sebastopole (1846–47) and the estate of Count Vladimir Orlov-Davydov (1848). Taught sculpture at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture (1847–66, senior lecturer from 1861, forced to resign in 1866). Academician (1849), councillor (1849), second-class professor of sculpture (1858). Decorated St Alexander's Hall in the Grand Kremlin Palace (1850) and designed three reliefs for the pedestal of the monument to Tsar Nicholas I on St Isaac’s Square in St Petersburg (1856–57). Sculpted death masks of Nikolai Gogol (1852) and Count Sergei Uvarov (1855). Wrote articles on Russian artists and exhibitions for the Moscow press and partially published Materials for the History of the Arts in Russia (1863). Designed sculptures for the Church of Christ the Saviour in Moscow (mid-1860s). Died in Moscow and buried at the St Alexius Convent (1867).

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