Imperial Academy of Arts in the context of "Stepan Pimenov"

Prince Grigory Grigoryevich Orlov (Russian: Григорий Григорьевич Орлов; 17 October 1734 – 24 April 1783) was a favourite of the Empress Catherine the Great of Russia, Prince of the Holy Roman Empire (1772), state and military figure, collector, patron of arts, and General-in-Chief.

He patronised M. V. Lomonosov, D. I. Fonvisin, V. I. Bazhenov and gave them financial support. Honorary member of the Imperial Academy of Arts (since 1765). He collected paintings (including Rembrandt, P. P. Rubens, Titian), sculpture, Chinese, Japanese and Russian porcelain, hunting weapons, etc. (Orlov's collection has been preserved almost completely; it is now in the State Museum-Reserve "Gatchina" of the eponymous city). A large landowner, particularly of the Gatchina manor, where Orlov commissioned the construction of a palace and a landscape garden.

Pictures at an Exhibition is a piano suite in ten movements, plus a recurring and varied Promenade theme, written in 1874 by Russian composer Modest Mussorgsky. It is a musical depiction of a tour of an exhibition of works by architect and painter Viktor Hartmann put on at the Imperial Academy of Arts in Saint Petersburg, following his sudden death in the previous year. Each movement of the suite is based on an individual work, some of which are lost.

Abram or Avraam Melnikov (Авраам Иванович Мельников; 1784—1854) was a Russian Neoclassical architect associated with the late phase of the Empire style. His teachers at the Imperial Academy of Arts included Andreyan Zakharov. He graduated with a gold medal and went to further his studies in Italy. Melnikov became de facto Dean of the Academy in 1831 but was not officially appointed until 1843.

Melnikov collaborated with sculptor Ivan Martos on the pedestals for his statues of Minin and Pozharsky in Red Square and Duc de Richelieu at the top of the Potemkin Stairs in Odessa. Apart from the Imperial School of Jurisprudence and the Old Believer Church of St. Nicholas (later converted into the Arctic and Antarctic Museum), Melnikov's major buildings are in New Russia and the Volga provinces.

Ivan Konstantinovich Aivazovsky (Russian: Иван Константинович Айвазовский; 29 July [O.S. 17 July] 1817 – 2 May [O.S. 19 April] 1900) was a Russian Romantic painter who is considered one of the greatest masters of marine art. Baptized as Hovhannes Aivazian, he was born to Armenian parents in the Black Sea port of Feodosia in Crimea and was mostly based there.

Following his education at the Imperial Academy of Arts in Saint Petersburg, Aivazovsky traveled to Europe and lived briefly in Italy in the early 1840s. He then returned to Russia and was appointed the main painter of the Russian Navy. Aivazovsky had close ties with the military and political elite of the Russian Empire and often attended military maneuvers. He was sponsored by the state and was well-regarded during his lifetime. The saying "worthy of Aivazovsky's brush", popularized by Anton Chekhov, was used in Russia for describing something lovely. He remains highly popular in Russia in the 21st century.

The Rumyantsev Obelisk (Russian: Румянцевский обелиск) is a granite obelisk located in Saint Petersburg. It is at the centre of Rumyantsev Square (ru), on Vasilyevsky Island, between the Menshikov Palace and the Saint Petersburg Institute for Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. The obelisk commemorates the victories of Count Pyotr Rumyantsev during the Russo-Turkish War between 1768 and 1774, and his service in the Russo-Turkish War of 1787–1792.

The idea for a monument originated late in the reign of Empress Catherine the Great, and was realised by her son and successor, Emperor Paul I, in 1799. Paul had attempted to persuade Rumyantsev's heirs to accept the offer of a palace built at public expense in place of the monument, but was turned down. The monument was built to the design of Vincenzo Brenna and was initially sited on the Tsaritsyn Meadow, later the Field of Mars. It was moved twice over its existence, to a new site on the Tsaritsyn Meadow after the Suvorov Monument was unveiled there, and then to Vasilyevsky Island after 1818, where it remains. The square it sits on was landscaped with gardens after 1867, and after a period being renamed after Taras Shevchenko during the Soviet era, had its original name, Rumyantsev Square, restored in 2001.

Franz Gerhard von Kügelgen (6 February 1772 – 27 March 1820) was a German painter, noted for his portraits and history paintings. He was a professor at the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts and a member of both the Prussian and Russian Imperial Academies of Arts. His twin brother, Karl von Kügelgen, was also a painter of note.

Mikhail Aleksandrovich Vrubel (Russian: Михаи́л Алекса́ндрович Вру́бель; March 17, [O.S. March 5] 1856 – April 14, [O.S. April 1] 1910) was a Russian painter, draughtsman, and sculptor. A prolific and innovative master in various media such as painting, drawing, decorative sculpture, and theatrical art, Vrubel is generally characterized as one of the most important artists in Russian symbolist tradition and a pioneering figure of Modernist art.

In a 1990 biography of Vrubel, the Soviet art historian Nina Dmitrieva (ru) considered his life and art as a three-act drama with prologue and epilogue, while the transition between acts was rapid and unexpected. The "Prologue" refers to his earlier years of studying and choosing a career path. The "first act" peaked in the 1880s when Vrubel was studying at the Imperial Academy of Arts and then moved to Kiev to study Byzantine and Christian art. The "second act" corresponded to the so-called "Moscow period" that started in 1890 with The Demon Seated, followed by Vrubel's 1896 marriage to the opera singer Nadezhda Zabela-Vrubel, his longtime sitter, and ended in 1902 with The Demon Downcast and the subsequent hospitalization of the artist. The "third act" lasted from 1903 to 1906 when Vrubel was suffering from his mental illness that gradually undermined his physical and intellectual capabilities. For the last four years of his life, already being blind, Vrubel lived only physically.

Taras Hryhorovych Shevchenko (Ukrainian: Тарас Григорович Шевченко; Russian: Тарас Григорьевич Шевченко, romanized: Taras Grigoryevich Shevchenko; 9 March 1814 – 10 March 1861) was a Ukrainian poet, writer, artist, public and political figure, folklorist, and ethnographer. He wrote poetry in Ukrainian and prose (nine novellas, a diary, and his autobiography) in Russian.

Born to a poor family of serfs during the period of Russian rule over Ukraine, in his youth Shevchenko demonstrated a talent for art and become a fellow of the Imperial Academy in St. Petersburg. After his return to Ukraine, he joined the emerging national movement. Exiled to Central Asia due to his association with the Brotherhood of Saints Cyril and Methodius, Shevchenko continued to create art and poetry despite prohibitions, and his figure attained fame among the liberal-minded circles of the Russian Empire. Freed from exile after the onset of liberal reforms of Alexander II, Shevchenko was prohibited from settling in Ukraine and died in Saint Petersburg.

January Suchodolski (Polish: [januˈarɨ suxɔˈdɔlski]; 19 September 1797 – 20 March 1875) was a Polish painter and Army officer, and a member of the Imperial Academy of Arts.