Pomerania (Russia) 16 March 1824 – 27 October 1896, Paris
After a brilliant career in Russia, he travelled in Europe between 1854 and 1860. On this occasion, he became a pupil of Thomas Couture (1815-1879) and Eugène Isabey (1803-1886) who made him discover Normandy where we find traces of his visit in 1857.
It is in Normandy, in Veules-les-Roses and its surroundings, that he became particularly known for his landscapes and seascapes. The village still keeps the memory of it today.
He returned to Paris in 1873 where he received his Russian painter friends, including Ilya Repine (1844-1930). He became friends with Charles Daubigny (1817-1878), Jean-Baptiste Corot (1796-1875) and some painters from Barbizon.
He also travelled around our couty, looking for interesting landscapes. He set up his easel in Isle-Adam, Mériel, Auvers, Villiers-le-bel, but especially in Ecouen where he lived between 1880 and 1883. He painted 10 pictures there, almost all dated 1880, in which he sometimes appears.
Back in Russia, he founded in Saratov, a large port on the Volga, the Radishchev Museum, named after his grandfather, which opened to the public on June 25, 1885. A great number of his paintings are exhibited there, as well as some by Camille Corot, Auguste Rodin, Ilya Repine and many other famous Russian painters.
For further information, please read the book “L’Ecole d’Ecouen, une colonie de peintres au XIXe siècle” (bilingual French-English).
