Aleksey Antropov

Alexei Petrovich Antropov ( _ru. Алексей Петрович Антропов; OldStyleDate|25 March|1716|14 March - OldStyleDate|23 June|1795|12 June) was a Russian barocco painter active primarily in St. Petersburg, where he was born and died. He also worked in Moscow and frescoed churches in Kiev. His preferred medium was oil, but he also painted miniatures and icons.

Alexei was born to a family of government official working in Armory and in the "Department of Building" (kantselyatiya stroeniy). Since 1732 Alexei also working at the same department under his relative A. Matveyev, since 1739 he is a member of the "painting team" (zhivopisnaja komanda) of the Department under Ivan Vishnyakov. As the member of the team Alexei took part in fresoeing of Summer Palace, Winter Palace, Anichkov Palace and other buildings of Saint Petersburg. He also studied portrait art from the court painter Louis Caravaque of France. In 1749 Alexei received the rank of the Painter's apprentice (zhivopisniy podmasterye) and in the end of 1750ies the rank of the Master Painter (zhivopisniy master).

In 1752-1755 he worked on the interiors of the St Andrew's Church of Kiev. He supervised the installation of the iconostasis, frescoed cupolas and walls. The most prominent of his frescoes in the church is the Last Supper in the altar.

He started to paint portraits before his Kiev period. The earliest known portraits of his are portraits of Elizabeth of Russia. He did not met his model but based the paintings on the works of his teacher, Louis Caravaque.

In 1755-1757 he worked in Moscow frescoeing the Golovkin palace. Here he met prince Ivan Shuvalov who supported Antropov's works for the rest of his life.

In 1757 - 1759 Antropov returned to Saint-Petersburg and learned art from court painter Pietro Rotari of Italy. Historians consider his , who actually lived in the house of his teacher.

In 1762 Peter III of Russia became the new Emperor. Antropov soon became his favorite painter. For the six month of Peter III rule Antropov painted at least four of his portraits. After the palace revolt the new Emperess, Catherine II was of much lower opinion of the talents of Antropov. At that time the artists appreciated the soft combinations of colors and some sort of a fine flattering on the parade portraits. Antropov at that time somehow evolutioned back to the traditions of icon and parsuna portraits based on the sharp contrast of colors and dark background.

In 1789 Antropov made a personal sacrifice transferring his only house to the Department of Education for organization a Free School (narnoe uchilische) there. In 1795 Antropov died of fever and was buried on the Tikhvin Cemetery at the Alexander Nevsky Monastery, in Saint Petersburg.

Works

References

* [http://www.russianpaintings.net/doc.vphp?id=448 Antropov Alexey (1716-1795) - brief biography]
*"Russian Portrait [sic] of the 18th and 19th century" (exhibition catalog). Moscow, 1976.
* [http://artclassic.edu.ru/catalog.asp?ob_no=%2015299 Pelevin Yu A. "Alexei Petrovich Antropov"] ru icon
* [http://nearyou.ru/antropov/0antropov.html Biography] ru icon