Aleksey Yegorov

Alexei Yegorovich Yegorov (; c. 1776 - 22 September 1851, Saint Petersburg) was a Russian painter and draughtsman in the Neo-Classical style, active in St. Petersburg during Tsars Alexander I and Nicholas I's reigns, best known for history paintings.

Biography He was taken captive by Cossacks as a young child and later placed in the Moscow Orphanage. Little was ever learned of his origins although, based on some of his early memories, he was believed to be of Kalmyk descent.

In 1782, he was enrolled at the Imperial Academy of Arts, where he studied with Ivan Akimov and Grigory Ugryumov. Larger than the average Italian, he was nicknamed the "Russian Bear". It was rumored that people would buy his paintings for the number of gold coins that could be laid on the principal figure, and that Pope Pius VII had asked him to remain as a court painter, but he politely refused the offer. and Alexander I, who gave him a nickname, "The Renowned" (знаменитого), after he completed a fresco with over a hundred figures ("World Prosperity") at Tsarskoye Selo in only 28 days. As a man of deep faith, he always considered his religious paintings to be his most important work, although he reluctantly produced portraits of many people in the nobility. His wife's father was the sculptor Ivan Martos.

In 1840, he was summarily dismissed by Tsar Nicholas I, who was displeased with images of the Holy Trinity he had painted for Catherine's Cathedral.

Selected paintings