Nikolai Ivanovich Utkin (russian: Николай Иванович Уткин; 19 May 1780 – 17 March 1863) was a Russian graphic artist, engraver and illustrator. He also served as curator of prints at the
Hermitage
Hermitage, The Hermitage or L'Hermitage may refer to:
* Hermitage (religious retreat), a place of religious seclusion
Places
* The Hermitage Museum (est. 1754), in Saint Petersburg, Russia
* The Hermitage (Nashville, Tennessee), the estate ...
and superintendent of the museum at the
Imperial Academy of Arts
The Russian Academy of Arts, informally known as the Saint Petersburg Academy of Arts, was an art academy in Saint Petersburg, founded in 1757 by the founder of the Imperial Moscow University Ivan Shuvalov under the name ''Academy of the T ...
.
[Brief biography](_blank)
from the ''Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary
The ''Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopaedic Dictionary'' ( Russian: Энциклопедический словарь Брокгауза и Ефрона, abbr. ЭСБЕ, tr. ; 35 volumes, small; 86 volumes, large) is a comprehensive multi-volume ...
'' @ Russian WikiSource.
Biography
His mother was a serf on the estate of the poet
Mikhail Nikitich Muravyov, who is generally assumed to have been his father. She was later given in marriage to Muravyov's
chamberlain, Ivan Utkin.
[Brief biography](_blank)
@ RusArtNet. Shortly after Nikolai's birth, they moved to Saint Petersburg. In 1785, he was
manumitted
Manumission, or enfranchisement, is the act of freeing enslaved people by their enslavers. Different approaches to manumission were developed, each specific to the time and place of a particular society. Historian Verene Shepherd states that t ...
and began his education at the Imperial Academy which, at that time, had a primary school.
At the age of fourteen, having shown a talent for drawing, he was transferred to the engraving school, where he studied with
Antoine Radigues
Antoine-Christophe Radigues (Russian:Антон Яковлевич Радиг; 7 November 1721, Reims - 20 July 1809, Saint Petersburg) was a French engraver and medallist who spent much of his career in Russia.
Biography
His father, Jacques ...
and the German engraver,
Ignaz Sebastian Klauber
Ignaz Sebastian Klauber (Russian: Игнац Себастьян Клаубер; 2 January 1753, Augsburg — 25 May 1817, Saint Petersburg) was a German copper engraver, who spent an important part of his career in Russia.
Biography
He was ...
.
Four years later, he created eighteen engravings of antique statues, which earned him a gold medal and the right to continue at the Academy for three more years. However, in 1802, he was awarded another gold medal that also conferred the right to travel abroad and he took advantage of that right as soon as possible; leaving for Paris in 1803.
Once there, he was engaged at the workshop of
Charles Clément Balvay
Charles Clément Balvay (23 May 1756, Paris – 23 March 1822, Paris), known as Bervic, was a French engraver mainly working in intaglio and exclusively in burin. Due to an error in transcribing the baptismal register, he is also now known as J ...
(known as "Bervic"), where he helped fulfill orders as well as study.
In 1810, he exhibited at the
Salon
Salon may refer to:
Common meanings
* Beauty salon, a venue for cosmetic treatments
* French term for a drawing room, an architectural space in a home
* Salon (gathering), a meeting for learning or enjoyment
Arts and entertainment
* Salon ...
, receiving a gold medal from the
Académie des Beaux-Arts
An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary education, secondary or tertiary education, tertiary higher education, higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membershi ...
and the title of "Academician" from the Imperial Academy. During the
French invasion of Russia
The French invasion of Russia, also known as the Russian campaign, the Second Polish War, the Army of Twenty nations, and the Patriotic War of 1812 was launched by Napoleon Bonaparte to force the Russian Empire back into the continental block ...
, he was under house arrest and police surveillance for two years, until Napoleon's defeat.
He returned to Saint Petersburg upon his release and, after Klauber's death, took his positions at the Academy and the Hermitage. In 1819, he was appointed official engraver to the Tsar, at a salary of 3,000 rubles per year.
His best-known students at the Academy included
Antoni Oleszczyński,
Fyodor Iordan
Fyodor Ivanovich Iordan, or Jordan (russian: Фёдор Иванович Иордан; 13 August 1800 - 19 September 1883) was a Russian engraver and art professor. He was best known for portraits and reproductions of the Old Masters.
Biogra ...
and . In addition to his regular engravings, he provided illustrations for works by
Vasily Zhukovsky
Vasily Andreyevich Zhukovsky (russian: Василий Андреевич Жуковский, Vasiliy Andreyevich Zhukovskiy; – ) was the foremost Russian poet of the 1810s and a leading figure in Russian literature in the first half of the 19t ...
and
Gavrila Derzhavin
Gavriil (Gavrila) Romanovich Derzhavin ( rus, Гаврии́л (Гаври́ла) Рома́нович Держа́вин, p=ɡɐˈvrilə rɐˈmanəvʲɪtɕ dʲɪrˈʐavʲɪn, a=Gavrila Romanovich Dyerzhavin.ru.vorb.oga; 14 July 1743 – 20 ...
, as well as a translation of the ''
Iliad
The ''Iliad'' (; grc, Ἰλιάς, Iliás, ; "a poem about Ilium") is one of two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest extant works of literature still widely read by modern audiences. As with the '' Odys ...
'' by
Nikolai Gnedich
Nikolay Ivanovich Gnedich ( rus, Никола́й Ива́нович Гне́дич, p=nʲɪkɐˈlaj ɪˈvanəvʲɪtɕ ˈɡnʲedʲɪtɕ, a=Nikolay Ivanovich Gnyedich.ru.vorb.oga; – ) was a Ukrainian-born Russian poet and translator best kn ...
.
He became a Professor in 1831 and was named Professor Emeritus in 1840 but, at that point, he was already past the height of his creative powers. In 1850, he handed over his engraving class to Iordan. In 1860, the Academy honored him with an embossed gold medallion. His last known work, a depiction of the
Holy Family
The Holy Family consists of the Child Jesus, the Virgin Mary and Saint Joseph. The subject became popular in art from the 1490s on, but veneration of the Holy Family was formally begun in the 17th century by Saint François de Laval, the first ...
, was completed just before his death in 1863.
Selected works
File:LzheDmitriy by Utkin.JPG, The False Dmitriy The generic name False Dmitry (also Pseudo-Demetrius, russian: Лжедмитрий, ''Lžedmitrij'') refers to various impostors who passed themselves off as the deceased Tsarevich Dmitry Ivanovich of Russia, the youngest son of Ivan the Terrible, ...
File:A S Pushkin by Utkin.jpg, Alexander Pushkin
Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin (; rus, links=no, Александр Сергеевич ПушкинIn pre-Revolutionary script, his name was written ., r=Aleksandr Sergeyevich Pushkin, p=ɐlʲɪkˈsandr sʲɪrˈɡʲe(j)ɪvʲɪtɕ ˈpuʂkʲɪn, ...
(after Kiprensky)
File:Sergey Uvarov by Utkin.jpg, Sergey Uvarov
Count Sergey Semionovich Uvarov (russian: Граф Серге́й Семёнович Ува́ров; 5 September O.S. 25 August">Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates.html" ;"title="nowiki/>Old Style and New Style dates">O.S. 25 August1786, Moscow &ndash ...
File:Heroes of iliad by Tischbein.JPG, The Heroes of the Iliad
(after Tischbein)
References
Further reading
*
Dmitry Rovinsky
Dmitry Aleksandrovich Rovinsky (russian: Дми́трий Алекса́ндрович Рови́нский; - 23 June 1895) was an art historian and compiler of reference albums on Russian portraits and engravings of the 18th to 19th centuries. ...
, ''Николай Иванович Уткин, его жизнь и произведения''. (Life and Works), Imperial Academy of Sciences, 188
Complete text online@ Google Books
* Galina Printseva, ''Николай Иванович Уткин. 1780—1863'', Искусство, 1983
External links
{{DEFAULTSORT:Utkin, Nikolai
1780 births
1863 deaths
Engravers from the Russian Empire
Graphic designers from the Russian Empire
People from Tver
Curators from Saint Petersburg
Burials at Tikhvin Cemetery