Victor-Edouard Hartmann

Architect, draughtsman, designer, illustrator. Born in St Petersburg in the family of a physician of French descent called Alexander Hartmann (1834). Raised by the architect Alexander Gemilian after the death of his parents (1838). Studied at the Mining Institute (1846–52) and the Imperial Academy of Arts (1852–61). Awarded a major gold medal, title of first-class artist and a foreign fellowship (1861). Trained under Alexander Hemilian in St Petersburg and in France and Italy (1863–68). Visited Germany, Switzerland, Britain and Poland. Worked in St Petersburg (1869–71) and Moscow (1872–73). Academician (1870). Friend of Vladimir Stasov and Modest Mussorgsky. Employed the motifs of Russian folk architecture and traditional wooden carving. Designed pavilions at national and international exhibitions, furniture and the sets for performances of Marius Petipa’s Trilby (1870), Mikhail Glinka’s Ruslan and Lyudmila (1871) and Alexander Serov’s The Power of the Fiend (1871). Illustrated Jacob Polonsky’s The Grasshopper and the Musician (1863). Died of an aneurysm at the age of thirty-nine in the village of Kireyevo near Moscow (1873). Contributed to the World Exhibition in Vienna (1873, gold medal) and a posthumous one-man show at the Imperial Academy of Arts (1874), where several works inspired Modest Mussorgsky to write Pictures at an Exhibition.