The collection of the Nevyansk State Historical and Architectural Museum includes a copy of a little-known portrait of industrialist Prokofiy Demidov. The original was painted by an unknown artist in the last third of the 18th century. Now it is kept in the Lipetsk Regional Museum of History and Local Lore and is recorded in the State Catalog of the Museum Fund of the Russian Federation under No. 9731580.

The artist painted Demidov in the style of the old Dutch masters. The owner of the Ural mining plants is depicted at a rather old age. He is sitting in a chair in a dressing gown, his face is turned three-quarters to the right. A shelf with books is visible at the top, on the right. On the spines of the brown tomes, you can see the inscription ‘Herbari…’ in gold letters. On the left you can see a part of a round table with a flowerpot with a blossoming blue hyacinth. AkInfiy Demidov was interested in botany all his life and considered it worthy of respect, so plants and objects related to this science were usually depicted in his portraits. The industrialist’s left hand lies on a white sheet with a drawing, on which a compass is located. The right hand is raised in a didactic gesture and points to a bookshelf.

Prokofiy Demidov was the eldest son of Ural mine owner Akinfiy Demidov, the third and last owner of the Nevyansk plant from this dynasty. He was born on July 8, 1710 in the Nevyansk plant, where he spent his childhood and youth. “My upbringing is Siberian”, Demidov liked to repeat. He was home schooled, learned to read, write and studied arithmetic. The father tried to teach his eldest son the technical and organizational skills that would be useful to the heir in managing the factory.

In his youth, Prokofiy Demidov traveled often, visited England, Saxony, and in his later years he also visited Holland. He was well versed in the factory business, but he did not have the aspiration to “constantly supervise the factories” like his father. During the first ten years after receiving the inheritance, he ran the Nevyansk plant from Moscow. Demidov sent orders to trusted clerks, then received detailed reports on production from them. Later he tried to involve his children in the management of the factory. In 1763, the industrialist sent his sons Akakiy and Lev to the Urals to learn the how to manage the factory in practice. But they never managed to master the mining business and after some time they returned to Moscow.

In 1738, Prokofiy Demidov left the Nevyansk plant, and after spending a year in Solikamsk with his middle brother Grigoriy, he moved to Tula, and in 1750 he moved to Moscow. In his estate, Neskuchnoye, he founded a large botanical garden, also called Neskuchny, with rows of annual and perennial plants (in soil and in pots), shrubs, greenhouses for thermophyte plants, a fowlery and a large pond. In addition to living plants, there were herbaria as well.

By 1769, Prokofiy Demidov had completely lost interest in the factory and preferred to get rid of the troublesome and very burdensome business, selling the enterprise to the industrialist Savva Yakovlev.