Karl Andreyevich Fischer (russian: Карл Андреевич Фишер, born Karl August Fischer, 1850,Карл Андреевич Фишер
The Moscow Encyclopedic Dictionary // Москва. Энциклопедический справочник. — М.: Большая Российская Энциклопедия. 1992. according to other sources, 1859,
biography at www.photographer.ru — date of death unknown; after 1923) was a prominent

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

-born, Russian photographer.

Biography

There is conflicting evidence as to Fischer's early years. MuseumArt, while giving the date of birth as 1859, elsewhere suggests that it might have been 1847, and cites the

Saratov Governorate Saratov Governorate (russian: link=no, Саратовская губе́рния, ''Saratovskaya guberniya'', Government of Saratov), was an administrative division (a ''guberniya'') of the Russian Empire and the Russian Socialist Federative Sovie ...

Imperial archives, according to which he owned a photography salon in Saratov in as early as 1863-1868, the official permission having been granted ("...to Karl Fischer, the citizen of

Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach (german: Sachsen-Weimar-Eisenach) was a historical German state, created as a duchy in 1809 by the merger of the Ernestine duchies of Saxe-Weimar and Saxe-Eisenach, which had been in personal union since 1741. It was rais ...

") personally by the Governor Grigory Aksakov (the son of writer

Sergey Aksakov Sergey Timofeyevich Aksakov (russian: Серге́й Тимофе́евич Акса́ков) (—) was a 19th-century Russian literary figure remembered for his semi-autobiographical tales of family life, as well as his books on hunting and fi ...

). In 1877 he founded a photographic salon in

Orenburg Orenburg (russian: Оренбу́рг, ), formerly known as Chkalov (1938–1957), is the administrative center of Orenburg Oblast, Russia. It lies on the Ural River, southeast of Moscow. Orenburg is also very close to the Kazakhstan-Russia bor ...

, and in mid-1880s moved to

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

to buy there in 1887 a house which would later become the famous Fischer Atelier. Fischer's vast artistic legacy includes series of portraits of Russian actors (among them

Maria Ermolova Maria Nikolayevna Yermolova (russian: Мария Николаевна Ермолова; in Moscow – 12 March 1928, ''id.'') was a Russian actress, said to be the greatest in the history of the Maly Theatre in Moscow and the first person to ...

Ivan Moskvin Ivan Mikhailovich Moskvin (russian: Иван Михайлович Москвин; 18 June 1874, in Moscow – 16 February 1946, in Moscow) was a Russian and Soviet actor and theater director. People's Artist of the USSR (1936). He became director ...

, Vsevolod Meyerkhold), writers (

Leo Tolstoy Count Lev Nikolayevich TolstoyTolstoy pronounced his first name as , which corresponds to the romanization ''Lyov''. () (; russian: link=no, Лев Николаевич Толстой,In Tolstoy's day, his name was written as in pre-refor ...

Leonid Andreyev Leonid Nikolaievich Andreyev (russian: Леони́д Никола́евич Андре́ев, – 12 September 1919) was a Russian playwright, novelist and short-story writer, who is considered to be a father of Expressionism in Russian litera ...

Anton Chekhov Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (; 29 January 1860 Old Style date 17 January. – 15 July 1904 Old Style date 2 July.) was a Russian playwright and short-story writer who is considered to be one of the greatest writers of all time. His career ...

) artists (

Ilya Repin Ilya Yefimovich Repin (russian: Илья Ефимович Репин, translit=Il'ya Yefimovich Repin, p=ˈrʲepʲɪn); fi, Ilja Jefimovitš Repin ( – 29 September 1930) was a Russian painter, born in what is now Ukraine. He became one of the ...

Vasily Surikov Vasily Ivanovich Surikov (Russian: Василий Иванович Суриков; 24 January 1848 – 19 March 1916) was a Russian Realist history painter. Many of his works have become familiar to the general public through their use as illus ...

Mikhail Vrubel Mikhail Aleksandrovich Vrubel (russian: Михаил Александрович Врубель; March 17, 1856 – April 14, 1910, all New Style, n.s.) was a Russian Painting, painter, Drawing, draughtsman, and sculptor. A prolific and inno ...

) and composers (

Pyotr Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky , group=n ( ; 7 May 1840 – 6 November 1893) was a Russian composer of the Romantic period. He was the first Russian composer whose music would make a lasting impression internationally. He wrote some of the most popu ...

, Sergey Rakhmaninov). An official

Imperial Theatres Imperial Theatres of Russian Empire ( rus, Императорские театры Российской империи) was a theatrical organization financed by the Imperial exchequer and managed by a single directorate headed with a director; was ...

photographer in 1892-1915, he documented several major productions at the

Alexandrinka The Alexandrinsky Theatre (russian: Александринский театр) or National Drama Theatre of Russia is a theatre in Saint Petersburg, Russia. The Alexandrinsky Theatre was built for the Imperial troupe of Petersburg (Imperial trou ...

Maly Theatre The Maly Theatre, or Mali Theatre, may refer to one of several different theatres: * The Maly Theatre (Moscow), also known as The State Academic Maly Theatre of Russia, in Moscow (founded in 1756 and given its own building in 1824) * The Maly Thea ...

and

Moscow Art Theatre The Moscow Art Theatre (or MAT; russian: Московский Художественный академический театр (МХАТ), ''Moskovskiy Hudojestvenny Akademicheskiy Teatr'' (МHАТ)) was a theatre company in Moscow. It was f ...

. In 1894 he became a co-founder of the Russian Photographic Society and served as its Chairman in 1898—1907. The famous Fischer Atelier at the

Kuznetsky Bridge Kuznetsky Most ( rus, Кузне́цкий Мост, p=kʊˈzʲnʲet͡skʲɪj ˈmost) is a street in central Moscow, that runs from Bolshaya Dmitrovka Street to Lubyanka Street. The name, literally ''Blacksmith's Bridge'', refers to the 18th-ce ...

(1895-1915) in Moscow specialized also in architectural and historical photography which featured regularly in the magazines like '' Niva'' and '' Vsemirnaya Illustratsiya''. Fischer, who was closely associated with the

Tretyakov Gallery The State Tretyakov Gallery (russian: Государственная Третьяковская Галерея, ''Gosudarstvennaya Tretyâkovskaya Galereya''; abbreviated ГТГ, ''GTG'') is an art gallery in Moscow, Russia, which is considered th ...

, was the first in Russia to publish illustarted catalogues of paintings, among his best-known being The 25th Anniversary of the Peredvizhniki Group, 1872—1897 and the Tretyakov Gallery Catalogue (both 1899). After the death of Leo Tolstoy in 1910 Fischer, responding to the request of the writer's widow, published several albums which collected practically every single photograph of Tolstoy made in his lifetime, and featured also portraits of his family members and many of his friends.Carl Fischer
at the Museum Art site In 1915, at the height of the jingoistic anti-German campaign in Russia, Fischer (then still a citizen of

Prussia Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an em ...

) was stripped of his Imperial honours. The Fischer Atelier was destroyed by the mob as a result of anti-German pogrom and never re-opened. That year he applied for Russian citizenship and apparently received it, but when exactly, remains uncertain. Fischer continued to work as a photographer in the Soviet Russia after 1917. It is known that in 1923 he handed all his photographs of

Alexander Ostrovsky Alexander Nikolayevich Ostrovsky (russian: Алекса́ндр Никола́евич Остро́вский; ) was a Russian playwright, generally considered the greatest representative of the Russian realistic period. The author of 47 origina ...

Anna Golubkina Anna Semyonovna Golubkina (russian: Анна Семёновна Голубкина; January 28, 1864 – September 7, 1927) was a Russians, Russian impressionist sculptor. As the first Russian sculptor to receive the Paris Salon prize, she is reg ...

, for her to use them in her work on the monument which years later would be placed by the Maly Theatre. Nothing has been heard of Karl Fischer ever since.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fischer, Karl Russian photographers 1850s births German emigrants to the Russian Empire Year of death unknown