Yegor Solntsev

Painter, mosaicist. Younger brother of artist and archaeologist Fyodor Solntsev (1801–1892). Born in the family of a former serf called Grigory Solntsev and his wife Elizaveta in the village of Verkhne-Nikulskoe in Yaroslavl Province (1818). Worked as a cowherd (mid-1820s). Studied landscape painting under Maxim Vorobyov at the Imperial Academy of Arts (1827–39). Awarded a minor silver medal (1837), major silver medal (1838), minor gold medal and the title of fourteenth-class artist (1839). Travelled to Italy (1840), where he painted landscapes in Rome and Venice (1840s). Studied mosaic art at Michelangelo Barberi’s studio in Rome (1847–51), where he worked on a copy of the ancient mosaic floor in the Sala Rotonda of the Vatican Museum for the Pavilion Hall in the Little Hermitage. Returned to St Petersburg (1851), where he was employed at the Imperial Glass Factory to create mosaics after designs by Timoleon Carl von Neff for the main iconostasis of St Isaac’s Cathedral (1851–62). Awarded an imperial diamond ring and major gold medal (1858), promoted to the ranks of senior mosaic artist (1861) and principal smalt inspector (1862). Suffered from failing eyesight (1862–64) and died at the age of forty-six in St Petersburg (1865). Contributed to exhibitions (from 1830s). Contributed to the exhibitions of the Imperial Academy of Arts (1830s), exhibition of Russian artists in Rome (1845), Play and Passion in Russian Fine Art at the Russian Museum in St Petersburg (1999–2000) and O Dolce Napoli at Yaroslavl Museum of Art in Yaroslavl (2012).