Dmitry Rovinsky

Leading Russian legal expert, collector, art historian who paved the way for the systematic study of Russian icons and engravings. Born in Moscow in the family of a policeman called Alexander Rovinsky (1824). Studied at the Imperial School of Jurisprudence (1838–44). Collected Russian and foreign etchings (from the mid-1840s). Wrote a series of research works on the basis of his own collection – Russian Folk Pictures, Detailed Dictionary of Russian Engraved Portraits and Detailed Dictionary of Russian Engravers – contributing to the study of the Russian school of engraving. Appointed a senator and moved to St Petersburg (1871). Rented Apartment 15 on 6 Shpalernaya Street (1871–86). Bought a mansion at 43 Fourth Line on Vasilyevsky Island (1886). Died in Bad Wildungen in Germany and bequeathed his collection of books and engravings to the Imperial Academy of Arts Museum, Imperial Public Library, Imperial Hermitage and the Imperial School of Jurisprudence Library (1895).