Painter. He was an Ukrainian-born painter, who dominated Russian portraiture at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries. His father was a Cossack and an amateur icon painter. On her way to newly conquered Crimea through Ukraine, Empress Catherine II was impressed by Borovikovsky's works and requested that the painter move to Saint Petersburg. For his first ten years in Saint Petersburg, he lived in the house of the poet, architect, musician and art theorist, Prince Nikolai Lvov, whose ideas strongly influenced Borovikovsky's art. Since he was a 30-year-old, he was too old to attend Imperial Academy of Arts, thus he had private lessons from Dmitry Levitzky and later from Austrian painter Johann Baptist Lampi. In 1795 he was appointed an academician. He never taught in the Imperial Academy of Art but pupils lived in his home. He became a popular portrait painter and created about 500 portraits during his lifetime, with 400 surviving to the 21st century. He had his own studio, and often relied on assistants to paint the less important parts of a portrait. The subject of his paintings included members of the imperial family, courtiers, generals, many aristocrats, and figures from the Russian artistic and literary worlds.
Painter. He was an Ukrainian-born painter, who dominated Russian portraiture at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries. His father was a Cossack and an amateur icon painter. On her way to newly conquered Crimea through Ukraine, Empress Catherine II was impressed by Borovikovsky's works and requested that the painter move to Saint Petersburg. For his first ten years in Saint Petersburg, he lived in the house of the poet, architect, musician and art theorist, Prince Nikolai Lvov, whose ideas strongly influenced Borovikovsky's art. Since he was a 30-year-old, he was too old to attend Imperial Academy of Arts, thus he had private lessons from Dmitry Levitzky and later from Austrian painter Johann Baptist Lampi. In 1795 he was appointed an academician. He never taught in the Imperial Academy of Art but pupils lived in his home. He became a popular portrait painter and created about 500 portraits during his lifetime, with 400 surviving to the 21st century. He had his own studio, and often relied on assistants to paint the less important parts of a portrait. The subject of his paintings included members of the imperial family, courtiers, generals, many aristocrats, and figures from the Russian artistic and literary worlds.
Bio by: julia&keld
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