Yakov Mikaylovich Kolokolnikov-Voronin (1782–1845) was a Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

n painter

Painting

Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...

 who worked as a portrait

Portrait

thumb|250px|right|Portrait of [[Thomas Jefferson]] by [[Rembrandt Peale]], 1805. [[New-York Historical Society]].A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expression is predominant. The intent is to display the likeness,...

ist and icon

Icon

An icon is a religious work of art, most commonly a painting, from Eastern Christianity and in certain Eastern Catholic churches...

-painter in the town of Ostashkov

Ostashkov

Ostashkov is a town and the administrative center of Ostashkovsky District of Tver Oblast, Russia, located west of Tver on a peninsula at the southern shore of Lake Seliger. Population:...

, Tver

Tver

Tver is a city and the administrative center of Tver Oblast, Russia. Population: 403,726 ; 408,903 ;...

 gubernia.

Yakov was born in Ostashkov into a family of artists. His father Mikhail Lukich Kolokolnikov-Voronin (1710 - after 1788) was a portraitist working in Ostashkov, and his uncles Mina

Mina Kolokolnikov

Mina Lukich Kolokolnikov was a Russian painter and teacher.Kolokolnikov was born in the village of Kravotyn in Tver gubernia. He was a serf of the Pafnutievo-Borovsky Monastery, and learnt the art of portrait painting from Ivan Nikitich Nikitin and Louis Caravaque; he also studied icon painting...

 and Fedot were artists working in Saint-Petersburg.

Yakov was documented as a Merchant of the 3d Guild (kupets 3ej gildii), a small retailer. In 1838, after presentation of his works 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...

 he received a certificate stating him to be a free (vneklassniy) artist. In 1841 he officially removed himself from the guild of merchants and painting became his only occupation.

Yakov painted portraits, genre paintings, miniatures, and icon

Icon

An icon is a religious work of art, most commonly a painting, from Eastern Christianity and in certain Eastern Catholic churches...

s. Since he did not have a formal education he is usually classified as a primitivist. He was the maker of the silver Tsar Doors for the Transfiguration Cathedral in the Nilo-Stolbenskaya Pustyn Monastery. In 1805 he became the founder of the Ostashkov Theater.

Yakov had three sons: Alexander (1818–1870), Ivan (1828–1865) and Mikhail (1830–1867). All of them became painters and were connected with the Ostashkov Theater.