Fyodor Mikhailovich Slavyansky was a Russian artist who came from a family of serfs.
Many of those artists who enriched the national artistic tradition came from serf families, and many of the most famous Russian painters played an important part in their fate. For instance, this was the case with the little boy Fedya, who had a talent for drawing. Thanks to the efforts of Alexey Gavrilovich Venetsianov, who paid the boy’s master, Fyodor became free and studied at a school established by the great artist for gifted children. When he entered the Academy of Fine Arts as a non-matriculated student, Fyodor received the surname Slavyansky. He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts under the guidance of professors Alexander Varnek and Alexey Markov.
After graduating from the Academy, Fyodor Slavyansky worked as a teacher of drawing at St. Petersburg educational institutions and painted interiors of offices, workshops, halls and rooms of houses and palaces of famous people.
Portraits by Slavyansky were also highly appreciated; he worked on them a lot. It was for the “Portrait of Vasily Shebuev” that the artist was awarded the title of academician.
The “Portrait of a Woman” by Slavyansky is distinguished by the accuracy and thoroughness in conveying the features of the sitter, the perceptive and somewhat dry painting manner characteristic of the artist. The museum received the portrait from the Moscow Procurement Commission in 1945. Statements from the artist’s descendant, who extensively researched the pedigree of the family, and some provided supporting documents relating to this period reliably indicate that the portrait depicts the mother-in-law of Fyodor Mikhailovich — Anna-Amalia Beckman (Heinz), the former wife of a titular councilor Gottlieb (Bogdan Fyodorovich) Beckman.
Many of those artists who enriched the national artistic tradition came from serf families, and many of the most famous Russian painters played an important part in their fate. For instance, this was the case with the little boy Fedya, who had a talent for drawing. Thanks to the efforts of Alexey Gavrilovich Venetsianov, who paid the boy’s master, Fyodor became free and studied at a school established by the great artist for gifted children. When he entered the Academy of Fine Arts as a non-matriculated student, Fyodor received the surname Slavyansky. He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts under the guidance of professors Alexander Varnek and Alexey Markov.
After graduating from the Academy, Fyodor Slavyansky worked as a teacher of drawing at St. Petersburg educational institutions and painted interiors of offices, workshops, halls and rooms of houses and palaces of famous people.
Portraits by Slavyansky were also highly appreciated; he worked on them a lot. It was for the “Portrait of Vasily Shebuev” that the artist was awarded the title of academician.
The “Portrait of a Woman” by Slavyansky is distinguished by the accuracy and thoroughness in conveying the features of the sitter, the perceptive and somewhat dry painting manner characteristic of the artist. The museum received the portrait from the Moscow Procurement Commission in 1945. Statements from the artist’s descendant, who extensively researched the pedigree of the family, and some provided supporting documents relating to this period reliably indicate that the portrait depicts the mother-in-law of Fyodor Mikhailovich — Anna-Amalia Beckman (Heinz), the former wife of a titular councilor Gottlieb (Bogdan Fyodorovich) Beckman.
