№ 1179-1180. 250th birth anniversary of V.L. Borovikovsky (1757-1825), the painter

Vladimir Lukich Borovikovsky (1757-1825) – a painter, a miniature-painter, an icon-painter. Initially he studied from his father – an icon painter Luka Borovik. Having come through military service he was engaged in church painting. He came to Saint-Petersburg in 1788, there he studied the church painting at D.G.Levitsky's and at I.B. Lampy the older's. He was an academician of the Emperor's Academy of Arts from 1795. He also took part in the work on the iconostasis of Kazan cathedral since 1804. He worked actively as a teacher during last years of his life, having made a private school at his own house (A.G. Venetsianov was among one of his pupils). A portrait of V.L.Borovikovsky made by I.V.Bugaevsky-Blagodatny (1824, the State Tretiakov Gallery) is depicted on the stamp.

Borovikovsky was at the height of his fame at the end of 1790 ? beginning of 1800. This was the time of flourishing of his creative work. Borovikovsky painted mainly family group portraits in 1800?1810. He painted a portrait of the the Gagarins sisters (the State Tretiakov Gallery) – a princess Anna Gavrilovna Gagarina, Golovina in marriage (1782-1852), and a princess Varvara Gavrilovna Gagarina, Sigunova in marriage (1784-1808) in 1802, which finishes the period of "sentimental" Borovikovsky and starts the "empire period" in the creative activity of the painter, according to a number of researches.