Nikolai Alexeyev-Syromyansky (Syromyatnikov)

Painter, draughtsman, applied artist, teacher. Son-in-law of Alexander Stupin. Born in the family of a merchant called Mikhail Alexeyev in the village of Nikolskoe in Penza Province (1813 or 1814). Studied under Alexander Stupin at the Arzamas School of Art (1820–28) and at the Imperial Academy of Arts (1829–31). Awarded the title of non-class artist (1831) and returned to Arzamas (1834), where he married Alexander Stupin’s daughter Claudia (1834) and was awarded ownership of the Arzamas School of Art (1836). Painted icons for churches in Nizhny Novgorod, Penza, Uralsk, Arzamas and Pskov and compositions based on the works of Alexander Pushkin, Ivan Krylov and Prince Alexander Shakhovskoi (1830s). Nominated to the Imperial Academy of Arts (1836), academician of history and portrait painting (1839). Suffered the loss of his wife Claudia from tuberculosis of the throat (1843). Moved to St Petersburg (1843), where he created mosaics for St Isaac’s Cathedral (1843–73) and worked at the mosaic department of the Imperial Academy of Arts (1853–73, senior mosaicist from 1860). Closed the Arzamas School of Art after the Imperial Academy of Arts ceased financing (1862). Moved to Krasny Kholm in Tver Province (1873) and lived in poverty (from late 1870s). Died in Yaroslavl (1880). Contributed to exhibitions. Contributed to the exhibitions of the Imperial Academy of Arts (1830, 1836, 1838, 1839, 1846, 1851, 1861, 1862), Romanticism in Russia at the Russian Museum in St Petersburg (1995) and St Petersburg: A Portrait of the City and its Citizens at the Russian Museum in St Petersburg (2003).