The Premier Site for Russian Culture
Painter, draughtsman, engraver, teacher. Son of Georg Dietrich Warnik, a furniture and cabinet maker from Danzig, who later changed his surname to Warnek (1833). Studied under Stepan Schukin and Dmitry Levitsky at the Imperial Academy of Arts (1795–1803). Awarded a minor silver medal (1800), major silver medal (1801), major gold medal (1802) and a first-class certificate (1803). Foreign fellow of the Imperial Academy of Arts in Rome (1804–09). Academician of portraiture (1810), board member (1814), second-class professor (1831), first-class professor (1832), professor emeritus (1834). Painted icons for the iconostasis of the Kazan Cathedral (1810) and Romantic portraits, which earned him the nickname of the “Russian Van Dyck.” Taught portraiture (from 1810) and miniature painting (from 1815) at the Imperial Academy of Arts. Keeper of drawings and prints at the Imperial Hermitage (from 1824). Contributed to the exhibitions of the Imperial Academy of Arts (1814–24).