Mikhail Tikhonovich Tikhanov (Михаил Тихонович Тиханов; 1789–1862) was a Russian artist who accompanied Captain

Vasily Golovnin Vasily Mikhailovich Golovnin (Russian: Василий Михайлович Головнин; , Gulyniki, Ryazan Oblast – , Saint Petersburg) was a Russian navigator, Vice Admiral, and corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences ( ...

's circumnavigation aboard the frigate ''

Kamchatka The Kamchatka Peninsula (, ) is a peninsula in the Russian Far East, with an area of about . The Pacific Ocean and the Sea of Okhotsk make up the peninsula's eastern and western coastlines, respectively. Immediately offshore along the Pacific ...

''.

Biography

Born a

serf Serfdom was the status of many peasants under feudalism, specifically relating to manorialism and similar systems. It was a condition of debt bondage and indentured servitude with similarities to and differences from slavery. It developed du ...

in 1789, Tikhanov showed artistic talent at the age of seventeen and was sent by his master Prince Nikolay Alexeevich Golitsyn to the

Imperial Academy of Arts The Imperial Academy of Arts, informally known as the Saint Petersburg Academy of Arts, was an art academy in Saint Petersburg, founded in 1757 by Ivan Shuvalov, the founder of the Imperial Moscow University, under the name ''Academy of th ...

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

. Freed in 1815, he worked at the Academy before being recommended by

Alexey Olenin Alexey Nikolayevich Olenin (Aleksey Nikolaevich Olenin, ; in Moscow – in Saint Petersburg) was a Russian Archaeology, archaeologist, most notable for being a director of the National Library of Russia, Imperial Public Library between 1811 a ...

for the post of an expeditionary artist for Captain

and the expedition of the ''

'' around the world. During the voyage from 1817 to 1819, Tikhanov painted at least 43 different pictures of important figures and scenes from Russian North America,

Alaska Alaska ( ) is a non-contiguous U.S. state on the northwest extremity of North America. Part of the Western United States region, it is one of the two non-contiguous U.S. states, alongside Hawaii. Alaska is also considered to be the north ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

and

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; ) is an island U.S. state, state of the United States, in the Pacific Ocean about southwest of the U.S. mainland. One of the two Non-contiguous United States, non-contiguous U.S. states (along with Alaska), it is the only sta ...

. He specialized in human portraits and painted figures including Hawaiian notables King

Kamehameha I Kamehameha I (; Kalani Paiʻea Wohi o Kaleikini Kealiʻikui Kamehameha o ʻIolani i Kaiwikapu kauʻi Ka Liholiho Kūnuiākea; to May 8 or 14, 1819), also known as Kamehameha the Great, was the conqueror and first ruler of the Kingdom of Hawaii ...

and High Chief Boki, as well as Russian colonial governor

Alexander Andreyevich Baranov Alexander Andreyevich Baranov (; 1747 – 1819), sometimes spelled Aleksandr or Alexandr and Baranof, was a Russian trader and merchant, who worked for some time in Siberia. He was recruited by the Shelikhov-Golikov Company for trading in Rus ...

. Hawaiian scholar David W. Forbes stated his works done in Hawaii were "among the most mysterious, haunting portrayals of Pacific Islanders ever created". His paintings done in

Northern California Northern California (commonly shortened to NorCal) is a geocultural region that comprises the northern portion of the U.S. state of California, spanning the northernmost 48 of the state's List of counties in California, 58 counties. Northern Ca ...

, including one of a man named Balthazar, are the only known depictions of

Bodega Bay Bodega Bay () is a shallow, rocky inlet of the Pacific Ocean on the coast of northern California in the United States. It is approximately across and is located approximately northwest of San Francisco and west of Santa Rosa, California, S ...

Coast Miwok The Coast Miwok are an Indigenous people of California that were the second-largest tribe of the Miwok people. Coast Miwok inhabited the general area of present-day Marin County and southern Sonoma County in Northern California, from the Golde ...

. Despite having the support of the Russian government, prints of Mikhail Tikhanov's work were delayed, lost, and forgotten shortly after his return. It was not until 1971 that an incomplete collection of his work, featuring 22 prints, was first published in Russia. Several later books about Tikhanov has unearthed further works from him, and a collection of his water colours are on display at the Moscow Museum of Art.

Illness and death

On the voyage home in 1818, Tikhanov became seriously ill while the ''Kamchatka'' was in

Manila Manila, officially the City of Manila, is the Capital of the Philippines, capital and second-most populous city of the Philippines after Quezon City, with a population of 1,846,513 people in 2020. Located on the eastern shore of Manila Bay on ...

in the

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

. Afterward, he started showing signs of mental illness and was placed in a hospital in Saint Petersburg. Despite a brief period where he showed signs of improvement, he relapsed and never recovered his sanity or worked again. He lived off a disability stipend for the rest of his life. From 1824 until his death in 1862, he spent the remainder of his life in the care of a widow of one of his colleagues. Although some of his works were later published by Captain Golovnin in his account of the expedition, most of his works were never published in his lifetime. His works are now in the Museum of the Russian Academy of Arts in Saint Petersburg.

Gallery

File:Tikhanov - Balthazar Inhabitant of Northern California (1818).png, ''Balthazar, Inhabitant of Northern California'', 1818 File:Tikhanov - Aleut in Festival Dress in Alaska (1818).png, ''Aleut in Festival Dress in Alaska'', 1818 File:Tikhanov - Alexandr Andreyevich Baranov (1818).png, ''Alexandr Andreyevich Baranov'', 1818 File:Tikhanov - Boki and Hekili on the Kamchatka (1818).jpg, ''Boki, Chief of Oahu, and Hekili, Minister of the Navy'', 1818 File:Sitka Island Chief Katlian With His Wife.jpg, ''Sitka Island Chief Katlian With His Wife'', 1818

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tikhanov, Mikhail 19th-century painters from the Russian Empire Male painters from the Russian Empire 1789 births 1862 deaths Russian serfs Russian explorers of the Pacific 19th-century male artists from the Russian Empire 19th-century explorers from the Russian Empire

Biography

Illness and death

Gallery

Further reading

References