№ 1177-1178. 175th birth anniversary of P.P. Chistjakov (1832-1919), the painter

Pavel Petrovich Chistiakov (1832-1919) was a historical painter, a genre painter, a portrait painter and a wonderful teacher. He received higher education in Bezhetsk ujezd colledge. He entered Emperor's Academy of Arts in 1849 and his nearest teacher there was P.V.Basin. He received all established silver and golden medals in the college for top-level classroom pictures and sketches in the Academy and he also received a small golden medal for his picture "Patriarch Germogen in prison" in 1860. Pavel Chistiakov went abroad as a scholar of the Academy and visited some towns in Germany, he also worked in Paris and in Rome. On his returning to Saint Petersburg in 1870 he was awarded a title of an academician for his pictures made abroad "Roman beggar", "A head of a chucharka" and "A Frenchman, preparing for a ball". Chistiakov's portrait, painted by I.E.Repin (1878, The State Tretiakov Gallery), is depicted on the stamp.

Having become and academician, Pavel Petrovich Chistiakov dedicated his life to teaching mainly. "It seems to me that I was born with talent for teaching and with love to this activity", he wrote to P.M.Tretiakov once. The painter was invited to work as a professor in the Academy of Arts in 1872. He conducted classes in his workshop, was at the head of private studios, wrote letters to his pupils. Very different painters were among his pupils: V.M.Vasnetsov, M.A.Vrubel, B.D.Polenov, I.E.Repin, A.P. Riabushkin, V.A.Serov, V.I.Surikov and others. But after the reform in the Academy of Arts Chistiakov stopped teaching. He was in charge of mosaic department of the Academy of Arts in 1890-1912 and supervised the execution of the main mosaic works in Russia on the boundary of centuries: in the Christ the Savior cathedral in Moscow, in the Isaac Cathedral and in the Church of the Resurrection of Christ in Saint-Petersburg. Chistiakov's portrait made by V.A.Serov (1881, the State Tretiakov Gallery) is depicted on the stamp.