Nikolai Yaroshenko

Nikolai Yaroshenko Mykola Yaroshenko
Self-portrait (1895)
Born	Nikolai Alexandrovich Yaroshenko 13 December [O.S. 1 December] 1846 Poltava, Russian Empire (now Ukraine)
Died	7 July [O.S. 25 June] 1898 Kislovodsk, Russia
Occupation	Painter

Nikolai Alexandrovich Yaroshenko (Ukrainian: Мико́ла Олекса́ндрович Яроше́нко; 13 December [O.S. 1 December] 1846 – 7 July [O.S. 25 June] 1898) was a Ukrainian painter.

Nikolai Alexandrovich Yaroshenko was born on 13 December [O.S. 1 December] 1846 in the city of Poltava, Russian Empire (now independent Ukraine) to a son of an officer in the Russian Army. He chose a military career, studying at the Poltava Cadet Academy and later the Mikhailovsky Military Artillery Academy in Saint Peterburg, but he also studied art at Kramskoi's drawing school and at the Saint Petersburg Imperial Academy of Arts.

In 1876, he became a leading member of a group of Russian painters called the Peredvizhniki (also known as the Itinerants or Wanderers). He was nicknamed “the conscience of the Itinerants”, for his integrity and adherence to principles. Yaroshenko retired as a Major General in 1892. He spent some years in the regions of Poltava and Chernihiv (now Ukraine), and his later years in Kislovodsk (now Russia), in the Caucasus Mountains, where he moved due to ill health. He died of phthisis (pulmonary tuberculosis or consumption) on July 7 [O.S. June 25] 1898 and was buried there.