Pyotr Basin

Pyotr Vasilievich Basin (; 1793, Saint Petersburg – 1877, Saint Petersburg) was a Russian religious, history and portrait painter during the Romantic period. He also served as a Professor at the Imperial Academy of Arts.

Biography

Beginning in 1811, he audited classes at the Imperial Academy of Arts. In 1813, he was admitted as a student of Vasily Shebuyev. After graduating, he spent the next eleven years in Rome on a fellowship, which he was given for his painting of Christ driving the money changers from the Temple. While there, he copied the works of Raphael and created almost 100 paintings of his own, many on mythological subjects. He also created genre scenes, from the countryside, and portraits, including one of the painter, Sylvester Shchedrin.

Upon his return to Saint Petersburg in 1830, having been recalled by Tsar Nicholas I to work on a project, he was made an Academician for his portrayal of Socrates saving Alcibiades (1828). but his religious works are the most familiar. They include forty paintings and icons for Saint Isaac's Cathedral, many created from sketches by Karl Bryullov, including a "Sermon on the Mount".

He also worked at Kazan Cathedral and the church of the Imperial Academy, where he produced an altarpiece and several iconostases. He occasionally painted outside Saint Petersburg, visiting cathedrals as near as Petergof and as far as Tiflis. After losing his sight, some of his earlier sketches were used as models for paintings at the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, executed by Nikolay Koshelev. Prince Mikhail Kutuzov, after , 1834; Winter Palace, St. Petersburg Curators of art collections often consulted him as an expert. This included the purchase of a collection belonging to Princess Anastasiya Trubetskaya, and selected works from the collection of King William II of the Netherlands, both for the Winter Palace, and the sculpture collection of Vasily Demut-Malinovsky, for the Imperial Academy.

He is mentioned in a story ("The Artist") by Taras Shevchenko. His best-known student was Nikolai Ge. Many of his works may be seen at the Russian Museum, as well as at several in Moscow.