1768, St Petersburg – 1826, Rome

Painter, draughtsman, watercolourist, engraver, lithographer. Son of a soldier of the Preobrazhensky Life Guards Regiment. Studied at the Imperial Academy of Arts (1773–1788). Fellow of the Imperial Academy of Arts in Italy (1788). Worked under Jakob Philipp Hackert in Italy. Returned to Russia (1794). Academician (1795), councillor (1802). Accompanied Count Golovkin’s embassy to China (1805–1806). Published the Painterly Journey from Moscow to the Chinese Border album of etchings. Worked for the Imperial Theatres (1808–1819). Travelled along the Baltic coastline with the suite of Empress Elizabeth Alexeyevna, painted watercolour views of Plen (1810). Produced the Views of St Petersburg and Environs series of lithographed watercolours. Painted and engraved views of Siberia, Crimea, River Volga, Mongolia and Italy. Went to Italy to recuperate from illness (1824).