Maximilian Messmacher

Maximilian Egorovich Messmacher (also referred to as Maximilian von Messmacher) (Russian: Максимилиан Егорович Месмахер) (1842–1906) was a Russian architect of German ancestry. He attended the School of Painting of St. Petersburg Society for the Encouragement of Arts and thereafter the Imperial Academy of Arts, graduating in 1866. He was Professor of artistic and industrial painting as well as the history of decorative styles. He also developed a coherent system of academic training in arts. His main activities are however related to architecture and interior decoration. He engaged in the architecture and interior decoration of palaces of the members of the imperial family and of the mansions of aristocrats, as well as of several churches.

Messmacher was born in Saint Petersburg in 1842. He attended a high school in Saint Petersburg from 1850 to 1857 and thereafter the School of Painting of St. Petersburg Society for the Encouragement of Arts. Finally, in 1866 he graduated from the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts, receiving the gold medal for his graduation project.

He visited Italy and old Russian towns as a retainer of the Academy of Fine Arts He brought back over 200 watercolors from this trip, which are preserved at the State Hermitage Department of Drawings.. He also took part with Viktor Kossov (Russian: Виктор Александрович Коссов) in the restoration of the ancient theatre of Taormina (Sicily) drawing the plans for the general restoration works and for the façade. For this contribution he was also awarded a degree in architecture (1873)

In 1874 he was appointed professor at the School of Painting of the St. Petersburg Society for the Encouragement of Arts, teaching artistic and industrial painting as well as the history of decorative styles. In 1877-1879 he worked with A, Schambacher on the reconstruction of the school’s building

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