Ivan nikitin (?) 006 - Public domain portrait painting

Ivan Nikitich Nikitin (circa 1680-1742) was a prominent eighteenth-century Russian painter. He was the first Russian artist to move away from the iconographic style characteristic of Russian painting and began to create works using perspective inspired by European artistic traditions. Ivan Nikitin was born in the 1680s in Moscow. His father, Nikita Nikitin, was a priest and his brother, Roman Nikitin, was a painter. Ivan Nikitin was educated in Moscow, probably in the Armoury Chamber, possibly under the Dutch artist Schhonebeck in an engraving workshop. In 1711 Nikitin moved to St Petersburg, where he studied under the German artist Johann Tannauer. He quickly gained prestige at court and was transferred on a state pension to study in Italy with his brother Roman. After returning to Russia, they both became court painters. However, in 1732 Ivan Nikitich Nikitin, together with his brother, was arrested on charges of spreading libels against Archbishop Theophan Prokopovich and after a five-year imprisonment was exiled to Tobolsk, where he died in 1742.