ANDREI MATVEYEV (1702, (?) – 23.04.1739, St Petersburg)

Portrait artist, one of the founders of Russian secular painting, first Russian artist whose education aboard was funded by the state, first head of the Painting Brigade of the Chancellery of Construction (1731-1739). The artist, whose painting skills defined the distinctive character of the 18^th century Russian art, only lived for 38 years. Church records have allowed determining Matveyev’s birth year, but his birthplace and patronymic remain unknown.

One of artist’s contemporaries shared the story of Matveyev’s meeting with Peter the Great. The tsar met Andrei, who was 15 years old, in the Cathedral of St. Sophia in Novgorod and convinced him to go to St Petersburg to study painting. He was then sent to Arnold Schalcken’s studio in Amsterdam. As early as his fourth year of studies, he sent two portraits to St Petersburg: one of Catherine I, and the other of the agent Fandenburg. Two years later, Matveyev sent more paintings to Russia. The fate of these paintings is unknown.

On 6 December 1723, Andrei Matveyev entered the Antwerp Academy of Fine Arts. When he came back to Russia in 1727, he was already an experienced artist, working at the European level, and immediately managed to establish himself as an artist equal to the “first court painter” Louis Caravaque. In 1731, Matveyev attained the rank of Master and became head of the Painting Brigade of the Chancellery of Construction. He created easel paintings and icons and decorated the Triumphal Gate on the occasion of Empress Anna Ioannovna’s arrival to Petersburg; he also painted a full-length portrait of her. In the mid-1730s, he did sketches for wall paintings and designed a plafond for the Senate Hall of the Twelve Colleges (Petrine Hall of St Petersburg State University). Apart from the major projects he completed in Tsarskoye Selo, the New Winter Palace, and Peterhof, Matveyev was ordered to paint carriages from the tsar’s stables, or, even better, refresh paintings in the tsar’s pigeon house. This tremendous workload requiring his artistic and physical efforts sapped Matveyev’s health, which was already fragile, but the demand for his artwork was so high that he was allowed to work at home instead of at the state workshops. For in instance, the artist painted most of the icons for the Church of The Holy Righteous Simeon and Anna The Prophetess (1733-1739) at home.