Alexei Chernyshev

Painter, draughtsman, illustrator. Son of a soldier in Orenburg (1824). Studied drawing under an icon-painter and moved to St Petersburg (1841), where he studied landscape painting under Maxim Vorobyov at the Imperial Academy of Arts (from 1842). Awarded a minor silver medal (1848), major silver medal (1849), minor gold medal (1850) and a major gold medal and the title of class artist (1851). Took lessons from Alexei Venetsianov and became a fellow of the Society for the Encouragement of Artists. Court painter to Tsar Nicholas I (1849–52). Fellow of the Imperial Academy of Arts in Rome (1853–60), where he suffered eye and brain problems. Visited Vienna, France and Switzerland in search of a cure. Academician (1860). Returned to St Petersburg (1860), where he died in the Stein Lunatic Asylum (1863).