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Mikhail Ivanovich Belsky

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Mikhail Ivanovich Belsky (Russian: Михаил Иванович Бельский; 1753, St. Petersburg - 29 May 1794, St. Petersburg) was a Russian Classical painter, commonly known for his portraits made during Catherine the Great's reign.

Biography

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Portrait of the composer
Dmitry Bortniansky (1788)

His father, Ivan Ivanovich Belsky, was a history painter and Academician at the Imperial Academy of Arts.[1] In 1770, the Academy awarded him a silver medal for his outstanding classwork. His primary instructors there were Anton Losenko and Dmitry Levitzky.[2]

In 1773, together with the engraver, Gavriil Skorodumov, he was awarded a travel grant to study abroad, in London. They received 300 Rubles per year, and letters of recommendation.[2] When they arrived, they were placed under the patronage of Count Alexei Musin-Pushkin [ru], the Russian Envoy. Classes at the Royal Academy of Arts were open to them, they were able to copy the Old Masters, attend lectures and travel throughout the provinces.[2]

In 1776, they were scheduled to continue their travels, but Skorodumov chose to remain in London. Belsky went to Paris and became a student of Jean-Baptiste Greuze in 1780, at his father's expense.[2]

Very little is known of his life beyond that point, except that he returned to Russia and worked as a portrait painter in St. Petersburg. Few of his paintings have been identified with any certainty and most are believed to be in the possession of their subject's families.

References

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Further reading

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Primary sources
  • Petrov, P. N. (1864). Сборник материалов для истории Императорской Санкт-Петербургской академии художеств за сто лет ее существования (in Russian). Vol. 1. Saint Petersburg: Gogenfelden and Co. pp. 126, 132, 133, 296, 297. OCLC 676719786.
Scholarly notes
Reference books
  • Milner, John (1993). A Dictionary of Russian and Soviet Artists, 1420–1970. Woodbridge, Suffolk: Antique Collectors' Club. p. 70. ISBN 1-85149-182-1. OCLC 29787870.
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