Anton Losenko
Encyclopedia
Ukrainians
Ukrainians are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Ukraine, which is the sixth-largest nation in Europe. The Constitution of Ukraine applies the term 'Ukrainians' to all its citizens...
Neoclassical
Neoclassicism
Neoclassicism is the name given to Western movements in the decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that draw inspiration from the "classical" art and culture of Ancient Greece or Ancient Rome...
painter who lived in Imperial Russia and who specialized in historical subjects and portraits.
Life
Anton Losenko was born to the family of a Ukrainian cossackCossack
Cossacks are a group of predominantly East Slavic people who originally were members of democratic, semi-military communities in what is today Ukraine and Southern Russia inhabiting sparsely populated areas and islands in the lower Dnieper and Don basins and who played an important role in the...
. Soon he became an orphan and at the age of seven was sent to a Court Choir
Choir
A choir, chorale or chorus is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform.A body of singers who perform together as a group is called a choir or chorus...
in Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...
. In 1753, as he had lost his voice but had shown talent for painting, he was sent for apprenticeship to the artist Ivan Argunov
Ivan Argunov
Ivan Petrovich Argunov was a Russian painter, one of the founders of the Russian school of portrait painting.He was a serf belonging to Count Sheremetev and had grown in the family of his uncle, Semyon Mikhaylovich Argunov, who was a steward of princess Cherkassky and later a major-domo for count...
. In 1758, after five and a half years of apprenticeship, he was admitted to the Imperial Academy of Arts
Imperial Academy of Arts
The Russian Academy of Arts, informally known as the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts, was founded in 1757 by Ivan Shuvalov under the name Academy of the Three Noblest Arts. Catherine the Great renamed it the Imperial Academy of Arts and commissioned a new building, completed 25 years later in 1789...
. Among the paintings created there was his Portrait of Ivan Shuvalov
Ivan Shuvalov
Ivan Ivanovich Shuvalov was called the Maecenas of the Russian Enlightenment and the first Russian Minister of Education...
.
In 1760, the Academy sent him to Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
to study art under the French neoclassical painter Jean II Restout
Jean II Restout
Jean II Restout was a French painter, whose late baroque classicism rendered his altarpieces, such as the Death of Saint Scholastica an "isolated achievement" that ran counter to his rococo contemporaries.-Biography:...
. There he painted a large painting based on the New Testament
New Testament
The New Testament is the second major division of the Christian biblical canon, the first such division being the much longer Old Testament....
story of the miraculous catch of fish. In 1766-1769 Losenko worked in Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, studying Italian art, especially the painting of Rafael. There he created his two paintings of Kain
Cain and Abel
In the Hebrew Bible, Cain and Abel are two sons of Adam and Eve. The Qur'an mentions the story, calling them the two sons of Adam only....
and Abel
Cain and Abel
In the Hebrew Bible, Cain and Abel are two sons of Adam and Eve. The Qur'an mentions the story, calling them the two sons of Adam only....
.
In 1769, Losenko returned to Saint-Petersburg. He received an offer to present a historical painting as a way of receiving Academician status in the Imperial Academy of Arts
Imperial Academy of Arts
The Russian Academy of Arts, informally known as the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts, was founded in 1757 by Ivan Shuvalov under the name Academy of the Three Noblest Arts. Catherine the Great renamed it the Imperial Academy of Arts and commissioned a new building, completed 25 years later in 1789...
. From an episode of Kievan Rus'
Kievan Rus'
Kievan Rus was a medieval polity in Eastern Europe, from the late 9th to the mid 13th century, when it disintegrated under the pressure of the Mongol invasion of 1237–1240....
history, he painted his canvas of Vladimir
Vladimir I of Kiev
Vladimir Sviatoslavich the Great Old East Slavic: Володимѣръ Свѧтославичь Old Norse as Valdamarr Sveinaldsson, , Vladimir, , Volodymyr, was a grand prince of Kiev, ruler of Kievan Rus' in .Vladimir's father was the prince Sviatoslav of the Rurik dynasty...
and Rogneda
Rogneda of Polotsk
Rogneda of Polotsk is the Slavic name for Ragnhild, whose father Ragnvald came from overseas and established himself at Polatsk in the mid-10th century....
. This painting not only brought him the title of Academician but also a professorship position at the Imperial Acadademy (initially, in 1770, an adjunct-professor, but from 1772 a full professor and director of the Academy). While in this position Losenko wrote a text book called "Short Explanation of the Human Proportions" that served a few generations of Russian painters. He worked as the Director of the Academy until his death in 1773. He died in poverty.
Recognition and impact
Losenko was one of the painters honoured by having his work appear on Soviet postage stamps, with his Portrait of Fyodor VolkovFyodor Volkov
Fyodor Grigorievich Volkov was a Russian actor and founder of the first permanent Russian theater.The stepson of merchant Polushkin from Kostroma, Fyodor Volkov received a versatile education. He established the very first public theater in Yaroslavl in 1750, which would later bring fame to the...
appearing in 1972. The painters Ivan Akimov
Ivan Akimov
Ivan Akimovich Akimov was a Russian Neoclassical painter who studied under Anton Losenko and then worked in the Saint Petersburg Academy of Arts, capping off his career as its director in 1796-1800...
and Mikhail Kozlovsky
Mikhail Kozlovsky
Mikhail Ivanovich Kozlovsky was a Russian Neoclassical sculptor active during the Age of Enlightenment....
studied under him.