Matvei Chizhov

Sculptor. Born in the family of a stonemason called Afanasy Chizhov in the village of Pudovo in Moscow Province (1838). Studied at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture (1857–59). Contributed to Mikhail Mikeshin’s Thousand Years of Russia monument in Novgorod (1860–62). Studied under Nikolai Pimenov and Baron Pyotr Clodt von Jürgensburg at the Imperial Academy of Arts. Awarded a minor gold medal for expression (1865) and a major gold medal and the title of first-class artist (1867). Fellow of the Imperial Academy of Arts in Italy (1868–74). Academician (1873). Awarded a gold medal for expression for Peasant in Trouble. Designed a bronze statue of Tsar Nicholas I in Kiev (1896, unsurviving). Died in Petrograd (1916). Contributed to the International Exhibitions in Vienna (1873, gold medal) and Paris (1878, gold medal).