Anton Legashov (Legashev)

Painter, draughtsman, engraver, restorer, teacher. Born in the family of a serf called Mikhail Legashov in the village of Lipovka in Penza Province (1798). Studied music (1800s) and joinery (1810s). Emancipated from serfdom (1818) and moved to St Petersburg (1818), where he studied drawing and portraiture under Alexander Warnek at the Imperial Academy of Arts (1818–24). Awarded a minor silver medal (1824), major silver medal (1824) and the title of fourteenth-class artist (1829, initially awarded in 1825, but overturned by personal decision of Tsar Nicholas I). Lived and worked at the Russian Orthodox Mission in Beijing (1830–41), where he painted landscapes, genre scenes and portraits of Chinese officials. Restored and painted icons for the Church of the Dormition in Beijing (1836–37). Awarded a diamond ring (1837), rank of titular councillor (1839) and the Order of St Stanislaus (1842). Returned to St Petersburg (1842), where he applied unsuccessfully for a teaching post at the Imperial Academy of Arts (1841) and taught drawing at the Technological Institute (1842–52). Died in St Petersburg (1865). Contributed to exhibitions (from 1820s). Contributed to the exhibitions of the Imperial Academy of Arts (1820s), The Four Seasons: Landscapes in Russia (19th–20th Centuries) at the Russian Museum in St Petersburg (2006–07), Around the World with an Easel at the Tsaritsyno Museum of History, Architecture, Art and Landscape in Moscow (2009) and Russian Museum in St Petersburg (2009–10) and Still-Life. Metamorphoses. Dialogue of Classic and Contemporary Art at the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow (2012–13).