Alexander Stupin (1776–1861) was a Russian painter and art teacher, the founder and the Head of the first in the Russian Empire provincial art school. He was a member of the Imperial Academy of Arts.
In early 1800, he entered the Imperial Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg as an extern, where he studied under I. Akimov’s guidance. Having graduated in 1802 with the title of first-degree artist, he returned to Arzamas and established a drawing school there - the first and, for a long time, the only one private institution of its kind in Russia. Since the tuition fees were trifling, the main source of funding for the school was commissions for painting churches and iconostases. In 1822, A. Stupin was involved in decorating the Savior Cathedral under construction on the territory of the Nizhny Novgorod Fair.
In 1834, A. Stupin was awarded the Order of St. Anne, third grade, “for outstanding services in establishing an art school in Arzamas in 1802 at his own expense”; and in 1845, he was awarded the Order of St. Vladimir, fourth grade, “for promotion of painting in his homeland and for the 40-year existence of his school.”
The postage stamp provides a fragment of the painting View of the City of Arzamas by A. Stupin (1826, State Russian Museum); the margins of the souvenir sheet feature a fragment of N. Alekseev's painting Portrait of the Paintert and Founder of the School of Painting in Arzamas, Alexander Vasilyevich Stupin, with His Students (1838, State Russian Museum).
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Printing method |
Format of the envelope |
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110 × 220 mm |