Vyacheslav Schwartz

Painter, graphic artist, illustrator. Born in Kursk in the family of Lieutenant General Grigory Schwartz and Natalia Yakovleva (1838). Served as a page at the imperial court (1847). Studied at the Imperial Alexander Lyceum in St Petersburg (1853–59), Faculty of History and Philology of St Petersburg University (1859–62, occasional student) and under Bogdan Gottfried Willewalde at the Imperial Academy of Arts (1859–63). Awarded minor silver medals (1859, 1860) and a major silver medal (1861). Took lessons from Wilhelm von Kaulbach in Berlin (1861) and visited Dresden, Cologne, Frankfurt-on-Main and Mainz. Awarded minor silver medals and the title of third-class artist (1863). Worked under Jules Lefevre in Paris (1863–64). Full member of the Russian Archaeology Society (1865). Academician of history painting (1865), honorary free member of the Imperial Academy of Arts (1868). Advised by Jean-Louis-Ernest Meissonier in Paris (1867), where he was the commissionar of the Russian section at the Exposition Universelle (1867). Died in Kursk and buried in the village of Bely Kolodez (White Well) in Kursk Province (1869). Contributed to exhibitions (from 1861). Contributed to the exhibitions of the Imperial Academy of Arts (1861, 1864, 1865, 1868), Exposition Universelle in Paris (1867, gold medal), World Exhibition in London (1872) and a one-man show at the Society for the Encouragement of Artists in St Petersburg (1888).