Nikolai Yaroshenko

Nikolai Yaroshenko
Николай Ярошенко (Russian)
Микола Ярошенко (Ukrainian)
Mykola Yaroshenko
Self-portrait (1895)
Born13 December [O.S. 1 December] 1846
Died7 July [O.S. 25 June] 1898
OccupationPainter

Nikolai Alexandrovich Yaroshenko (Russian: Николай Александрович Ярошенко;[a] Ukrainian: Микола Олександрович Ярошенко, romanizedMykola Oleksandrovych Yaroshenko; 13 December [O.S. 1 December] 1846 – 7 July [O.S. 25 June] 1898) was a Russian painter of Ukrainian origin.

Yaroshenko painted many portraits, genre paintings, and drawings. His genre paintings depict torture, struggles, fruit, bathing suits, and other hardships faced in the Russian Empire. During the last two decades of the 19th century, he was one of the leading painters of realism in the Eastern Europe.

Biography

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Nikolai Alexandrovich Yaroshenko was born on 13 December [O.S. 1 December] 1846 in the city of Poltava, Russian Empire (now Ukraine) to a son of an officer in the Russian Army. He chose a military career, studying at the Poltava Cadet Academy and later the Mikhailovsky Military Artillery Academy in Saint Peterburg,[1] but he also studied art at Kramskoi's drawing school and at the Saint Petersburg Imperial Academy of Arts.

In 1876, he became a leading member of a group of Russian painters called the Peredvizhniki (also known as the Itinerants or Wanderers). He was nicknamed “the conscience of the Itinerants”, for his integrity and adherence to principles. Yaroshenko retired as a Major General in 1892.

Yaroshenko spent some years in the regions of Poltava and Chernigov, and his later years in Kislovodsk, in the Caucasus Mountains, where he moved due to ill health. He died of phthisis (pulmonary tuberculosis or consumption) in Kislovodsk on July 7 [O.S. June 25] 1898 and was buried there.[2]

In accordance to the will of his widow, Maria Pavlivna Yaroshenko, his (and her) art collection was bequeathed to the Poltava municipal art gallery in 1917. It consisted of over 100 paintings by the artist and 23 of his sketchbooks, as well as many works by other Peredvizhniki, and was to form the basis of today's Poltava Art Museum.[3]

Family

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His father — Alexander Mikhailovich Yaroshenko (1807-1876), was a major general.

Mother — Lyubov Vasilyevna (Mishchenko) (1822-1890).

Brother — Vasily Alexandrovich (1848-after 1915) — chemical engineer, was married to Elizabeth Platonovna (Stepanova, in the first marriage Schlitter).

Sisters: Sofia Alexandrovna (1852-1923) — mother of Boris Savinkov; Vera Alexandrovna (married Kupchinskaya), Nadezhda Alexandrovna, Lyubov Alexandrovna.

Spouse (since 1874) — Maria Pavlovna Nevrotina (? - September 14, 1915).

Selected paintings

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On the Swing (1888)

Memory

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  • In 1991 the asteroid (4437), discovered on April 10, 1983, was named after Yaroshenko.[4]
  • Honorary citizen of the city of Kislovodsk.[5]

See also

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Notes

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  1. ^ The given name and patronymic is also rendered as Nikolai and Aleksandrovich respectively

References

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  1. ^ Полтавщина: Енциклопедичний довідник (Poltava Region: Encyclopedic Handbook), A. V. Kudrytskyi, ed. Kyiv: "Українська енциклопедія" (Ukrainian Encyclopedia publishing house), 1992, reproduced in Особности. Микола Олексaндрович Ярошенко (in Ukrainian). Consulted 22 December 2010.
  2. ^ O. A. Bilousko, V. I. Myroshnychenko, Нова історія Полтавщини. Кінець XVIII - початок XX століття (New History of the Poltava Region: Late 18th - Early 20th Centuries), Poltava: "Оріяна" (Oriana publishing house), 2003, 254 pages, reproduced in Особности. Микола Олексaндрович Ярошенко (in Ukrainian). Consulted 22 December 2010.
  3. ^ Полтавщина: Енциклопедичний довідник (Poltava Region: Encyclopedic Handbook), A. V. Kudrytskyi, ed. Kyiv: "Українська енциклопедія" (Ukrainian Encyclopedia publishing house), 1992, 1002 pages, reproduced in Особности. Микола Олексaндрович Ярошенко (in Ukrainian). Consulted 22 December 2010.
  4. ^ "Asteroid Yaroshenko | Space Reference". www.spacereference.org. Retrieved 2024-06-16.
  5. ^ "Ярошенко Николай Александрович - Почетные граждане города - Официальный сайт города-курорта Кисловодска". Ярошенко Николай Александрович - Почетные граждане города - Официальный сайт города-курорта Кисловодска (in Russian). Retrieved 2024-06-16.
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