Artists · 9

Nikolai Bogdanov-Belsky was born into a peasant family and attended Sergei Rachinsky’s village school.

Grigory Myasoedov painted peasant life and participated in the Wanderers’ exhibitions.

Vasily Perov painted everyday scenes and portraits. In the 1860s he addressed poverty, work and a person’s place in society.

Vladimir Makovsky grew up in the family of the collector Yegor Makovsky. Much of his work is associated with Moscow and everyday-life painting.

Nikolai Kasatkin painted scenes from the lives of people with limited means. In Orphaned he restricts the narrative to two children in a cemetery. The painting is held by the Russian Museum.

Abram Arkhipov depicted village life. In In the Evening he combines figures beside the water with a landscape made of broad coloured strokes. This work is in the National Museum in Warsaw.

Nikolai Dubovskoy painted landscapes in which sky and changing weather had a prominent place. This version of Calm Before the Storm is held by the Zimmerli Art Museum at Rutgers University.

Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin was born in Khvalynsk on the Volga. His education took him through Samara, Saint Petersburg, the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, and studios in…

Boris Kustodiev was born in Astrakhan and began drawing lessons with Pavel Vlasov. At the Academy of Arts, his teachers included Vasily Savinsky and Ilya Repin.

Mikhail Nesterov was born in Ufa and studied at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture and the Saint Petersburg Academy of Arts.

Jan Steen was born in Leiden to a brewer and grain merchant. He enrolled at Leiden University in 1646 and became a founding member of the local Saint Luke’s Guild two years later.

Francisco de Zurbarán was born in Fuente de Cantos and trained in Seville. After working in his native province, he returned to the city and by 1629 became its official painter.

Valentin Serov was born in Saint Petersburg to composer Alexander Serov. He studied with Ilya Repin and then under Pavel Chistyakov at the Academy of Arts, leaving before completing the…

Mikhail Vrubel was born in Omsk, completed a law degree at Saint Petersburg University and then studied under Pavel Chistyakov at the Academy of Arts.

Repin was born in Chuguev and studied in St Petersburg with Kramskoy and at the Academy of Arts. Travel in Italy and France broadened his knowledge of European painting.

Surikov was born into a Cossack family in Krasnoyarsk. Support from industrialist Pyotr Kuznetsov enabled his journey to St Petersburg and studies at the Academy of Arts.

Born near Ostrogozhsk, Kramskoy worked as a photographic retoucher in his youth.

Vasnetsov grew up in a rural priest’s family in Vyatka province. After theological schooling he studied drawing with Kramskoy and at the Academy of Arts.

Alexei Savrasov belonged to a generation that established the ordinary rural landscape as a major subject in Russian painting.

Ivan Shishkin made the forest a central subject of his art. Roots, bark, branches and forest ground matter alongside the overall view and its lighting.

Isaac Levitan studied at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, including with Alexei Savrasov.

Ivan Aivazovsky was born into an Armenian family in Feodosia and studied at the Academy of Arts in Saint Petersburg.

Vereshchagin was born in Cherepovets and received a naval education. He studied painting in St Petersburg and Paris, including with Jean-Léon Gérôme.

Pieter de Hooch was born in Rotterdam, the son of a bricklayer. He joined Delft’s painters’ guild in 1655 and developed his celebrated courtyards and domestic interiors there.

Gerard ter Borch trained with his father, a painter in Zwolle, and later traveled widely. He attended the negotiations leading to the Peace of Münster in 1648 and painted its ratification.

Thomas Gainsborough was born in Suffolk, trained in London, and worked in Ipswich and fashionable Bath.

Joshua Reynolds trained with the portraitist Thomas Hudson and traveled abroad, chiefly in Italy, from 1749 to 1752.

Jean-Honoré Fragonard studied with François Boucher, won the Prix de Rome in 1752, and continued his training in Italy.

Matthias Grünewald is the traditional name of a German painter generally identified with the documented Master Mathis. Little is known of his training.

Orazio Gentileschi was born in Pisa into a family of painters and goldsmiths. In Rome he became close to Caravaggio and adopted his interest in observed figures and directed light.

Alexei Bogolyubov graduated from the Naval Cadet Corps and served at sea before concentrating on painting.

Fyodor Vasilyev lived only twenty-three years but became a significant Russian landscape painter. He closely studied changing weather, clouds and open space.

Sergei Vinogradov moved from genre scenes towards landscapes centred on sunlight and estate life. After meeting the Mamontovs, owners of Golovinka, in the 1890s, he painted there frequently.

Lev Lagorio was born in Feodosia to a Neapolitan vice-consul and received early lessons from Aivazovsky.

Karl Bryullov trained at the St Petersburg Academy and worked extensively in Italy.

Filipp Malyavin grew up in a peasant family, studied icon painting on Mount Athos and later entered the Academy of Arts under Repin. Relatives and villagers became his early subjects.