Ivan Argunov

Ivan Petrovich Argunov (Russian: Иван Петрович Аргунов) (1729–1802) was a Russian painter, one of the founders of the Russian school of portrait painting.

He was a serf belonging to Count Sheremetev and had grown up in the family of his uncle, Semyon Mikhaylovich Argunov, who was a steward of princess Cherkassky and later a majordomo for count Sheremetev. For many years Semyon managed Sheremetev's house on Millionnaya Street in Saint Petersburg, the house where Ivan grew up.

In 1746–1749 Ivan Argunov studied painting with a German artist named Georg Grooth who at the time was in the employ of the Empress Elizabeth of Russia. Ivan also got lessons from his cousins Fedor Leontyevich Argunov and Fedor Semenovich Argunov, painters working in Saint-Petersburg on decorating the Imperial residences.

Argunov's first works were icons for the Palace Church in Great Tsarskoe Selo Palace (1753) and for the New Jerusalem Monastery (1749). At that time he also created his only known historical painting Dying Cleopatra. His earliest known portraits were of Prince Ivan Ivanovich Lobanov-Rostovsky (1752) and Princess Ekaterina Alexandrovna Lobanova-Rostovskaya (1754). There can be seen the old traditions of traditional Russian Parsuna art mixed with the new Baroque influence.

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