Dmitry Levitsky

Dmitry Grigoryevich Levitsky (russian: Дмитрий Григорьевич Левицкий, May 1735 – 17 April 1822) was a Russian portrait painter and Academician.

Biography

He was born to , a priest, who was also an amateur painter and engraver and served as his first art teacher. In 1758, he moved to Saint Petersburg to became a pupil of the Russian artist Aleksey Antropov, who had been in Kiev to create decorative paintings at the Cathedral of St Andrew. He also studied with Giuseppe Valeriani. In 1764, he established himself as a free-lance artist.

In 1770, Levitzky became famous after the exhibition of six of his portraits in the Imperial Academy of Arts; notably for a portrait of the architect Alexander Kokorinov. As a result, he was named an Academician and appointed Professor of the portrait painting class at the Academy. He remained in this position until 1788, when he resigned, citing an eye disease, although it may have been for political reasons. In 1807, he was invited back to the Academy by Tsar Alexander I. One of his best known students was Vladimir Borovikovsky.

In 1772–1776 Levitzky worked on a series of portraits of the pupils of the privileged women's establishment, the Smolny Institute for Young Ladies, in St. Petersburg. They were commissioned by Catherine II. The girls are depicted performing dances, music, and plays. His portrait of Denis Diderot is said to be the only one the philosopher liked.

Though Levitzky had many commissions, they were, in most cases, poorly paid, and the painter died in poverty in 1822.

Works

File:Dmitry Levitzky А.I.Vorontsov.jpg, Count Artemiy Vorontsov (late 1780s)
File:Levitsky kokrinov.jpg, Architect Alexander Kokorinov, Director and First Rector of the Imperial Academy of Arts (1769)
File:Levitzky Demidov.jpg, Prokofiy Demidov (1773)
File:Levitzky Khruscheva Khovanskaya.jpg, E. N. Khruschova and Princess E. N. Khovanskaya (1773)
File:Ekaterina Ivanovna Nelidova by Dmitry Levitzky 001.jpg, Ekaterina Nelidova (1773)
File:Levitsky Lanskoy.jpg, Alexander Lanskoy, Aide-de-camp to the Empress (1782)
File:Catherine II the Legislatress by D.Levitskiy (1783, Novosibirsk musem).jpg, Catherine II as Legislator in the Temple of the Goddess of Justice (1783)
File:E. Vorontsova-Dashkova by Dm. Levitsky (1784, Hillwood).jpg, Yekaterina Romanovna Vorontsova-Dashkova (1784)
File:Levitsky Igelstrom.jpg, Portrait of General Iosif Igelström (1790)
File:Dmitry_Grigorievich_Levitzky_-_Portrait_of_Nikolai_Novikov_-_WGA12915.jpg, Nikolay Novikov (1797)

References

Further reading

Dmitry Grigoryevich Levitsky
@ the Encyclopedia Krugosvet

Dmitry Grigoryevich Levitsky
@ the Short Biographical Encyclopedia
*

External links

More works by Levitzky
@ ArtNet

{{DEFAULTSORT:Levitzky, Dmitry
1735 births
1822 deaths
18th-century painters from the Russian Empire
Russian male painters
19th-century painters from the Russian Empire
Russian people of Ukrainian descent
Russian portrait painters
Ukrainian painters
Ukrainian male painters
Artists from Kyiv
National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy alumni
19th-century male artists from the Russian Empire