Sergey Zaryanko

Sergey Konstantinovich Zaryanko was a Russian painter, specifically portraitist, and pedagogue. He started as a pupil of Venetzianov. Studying in the class of professor M. N. Vorobyov, Zaryanko continued to use Venetsianov’s advice: to try different genres, to paint from nature, to go from easier to more complicated things. Thus Zaryanko did not start with portraits, which made him famous, instead he painted interiors. His first work which attracted critics, was In the "Hall of the Law College" (1840-1841). In 1843, he added to an exhibition in the Academy his "The Inside View of the Petropavlovsk Church". The same year he finished View inside Nickolsky Cathedral, in which he very accurately painted all the details of decoration.

After finishing this project Zaryanko was almost blind. The work brought him the title of an Academician. In 1843, Zaryanko moved to Moscow, where he taught drawing in "Alexandrovsky Institute for Orphans" and "Moscow Architectural College". In 1846, he returned to St. Petersburg to teach drawing in a military college. He lived in St. Petersburg for 10 years and painted his best portraits there, such as "Portrait of the Artist Feodor Petrovich Tolstoy". In 1853, he was awarded the title of a professor, but the Academy refused to admit him in his staff, and in 1856 he became a professor in "Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture". Among his students were V.G. Perov, V.E. Makovsky and others. Being mostly engaged in teaching, Zaryanko did not paint much. Critics consider his last works lifeless and drab. Zaryanko died in 1870 in Moscow.