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Alexei Petrovich Antropov
1716 - 1795
Alexei Petrovich Antropov was a Russian baroque painter active primarily in St. Petersburg, where he was born in 1716 into the family of a soldier. His inclination for art was revealed early. He studied painting under Andrey Matveev and Ivan Vishnyakov. Beside St. Petersburg, he also worked in Moscow and fresco-ed churches in Kiev. His preferred medium was oil, but he also painted miniatures and icons.
Alexei Antropov was a member of the painting team of Department of Building (kantselyatiya stroeniy) under Ivan Vishnyakov. Since the 1740s he took part in the decoration of the numerous palaces of St. Petersburg: Summer Palace, Winter Palace, Anichkov Palace and other buildings of St. Petersburg.
In 1752-1755, he was commissioned to paint The Kiev Cathedral of St. Andrew, supervised the installation of the iconostasis, frescoed cupolas and walls. The most prominent of his frescoes in the church is the Last Supper in the altar.
Alexei studied also portrait art from the court painter Louis Caravaque of France. He started to paint portraits before his Kiev period. The earliest known portraits of his are portraits of Elizabeth of Russia. While he worked in Moscow, frescoing the Golovkin palace, he met Prince Ivan Shuvalov. He supported Antropov's works for the rest of his life.
The 1760s were probably the most productive period of the artist. He painted many good portraits among the Portrait of Ataman Krasnoschekov, Portrait of Rumyantseva. Prince Ivan Shuvalov planed to move him to Moscow, so Antropov could teach art at the Moscow University. For some reason this plan was canceled and Antropov instead got the job at the Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church. There he supervised icon painting, decorating of the churches, drew the portraits of church hierarchs and supervised art students.
When Peter III became the new Emperor of Russia in 1762, Antropov became his favorite painter. For the six month of Peter III rule Antropov painted at least four of his portraits. After the palace revolt the new Empress, Catherine II was of much lower opinion of the talents of Antropov. At that time the artists appreciated the soft combinations of colors and some sort of a fine flattering on the parade portraits. At that time, Antropov reversed back to the traditions of icon and personal portraits based on the sharp contrast of colors and dark background.
In 1789 Antropov made a personal sacrifice transferring his only house to the Department of Education for organization a Free School (nardnoe uchilische) there. In 1795 Antropov died of fever and was buried on the Tikhvin Cemetery at the Alexander Nevsky Monastery, in Saint Petersburg.
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