Лебедев М.И.

Mikhail Ivanovich Lebedev (4 November 1811, Dorpat — 13 July 1837, Naples) was a Russian painter. Son of a serf. In 1826, his father and his family enrolled in the "petty-bourgeois salary", and the young man was able to study. From July 28, 1827 to March 1829 (one and a half years) he studied in the 5th and 4th grades of The Dorpat gymnasium named after al. I at the University of Dorpat. The brilliant abilities that were already revealed in him at this time were the reason for his transfer, on the recommendation of the University's Trustee count P. A. Palen and the Highest order of Nicholas I of February 7, 1829, from March 19, 1829, to St. Petersburg and to be placed as a student of the Imperial Academy of arts at the expense of His Majesty's office. His main mentor at the Academy was M. N. Vorobyov, and he is also considered a student of V. E. Raev. During the academic course, Lebedev was awarded two silver medals, in may 1832 small (second dignity) for landscape composition and in September 1832 large (First) for painted from nature view from Petrovsky island, and in 1833, received a large gold medal for "View in the vicinity of lake Ladoga" (acquired by Emperor Nicholas I, its further fate is unknown, the author was granted a diamond ring, sold in Dorpat on the way to Italy, the money was given to relatives) and the title of artist XIV in the middle of may, 1834, he was sent as a pensioner of the Academy together with Durnovo and Nikolai Nikitin to Italy, where he eagerly began to work on the study of southern nature and the assimilation of a simple and correct transmission of its Effects. The fruit of these works were several dozen paintings that put his name among the best landscape painters of the time. Unfortunately, death took him away from art early. He died in Naples, of cholera, in July 1837.