Nikolay Lanceray

Nikolay Lanceray
Self-portrait made in 1920, while in Cheka custody at Rostov-on-Don.
Born	April 26, 1879 Saint Petersburg
Died	May 6, 1942 Saratov
Nationality	Russian Empire, Soviet Union
Occupation	Architect

Nikolay Lanceray (Russian: Николай Евгеньевич Лансере, April 26, 1879 in Saint Petersburg – May 6, 1942 in Saratov) was a Russian architect, preservationist, illustrator of books and historian of neoclassical art, biographer of Charles Cameron, Vincenzo Brenna and Andreyan Zakharov. Lanceray was associated with Mir Iskusstva art circle and was a proponent of Russian neoclassical revival school.

Lanceray was a son of sculptor Eugene Lanceray (senior, 1848–1886) and Yekaterina Benois (daughter of architect Nikolay Benois). Father died when Nikolay was six; he and five his siblings were raised by the Benois family and lived most of their childhood at grandfather's Saint Petersburg place. Lanceray completed high school in 1898 and joined the Imperial Academy of Arts, where his illustrious uncle Leon Benois chaired one of three architectural workshops. Lanceray graduated from the Academy in 1904.

In 1903 Lanceray, Vladimir Shchuko and Ludwig Shroeter settled on a long survey tour of Pskov and Novgorod regions; Mir Iskusstva published Vandalism in Novgorod and Pskov governorates (Вандализм в Новгородской и Псковской губерниях) by Lanceray and Schuko in 1907. He worked as a practical architect in Moscow and as restorator in Saint Petersburg. Soon, however, he quit construction for historical studies of Russian Enlightenment, and co-authored Tsarskoye Selo in the reigh of Elizabeth, contributing over 200 graphical sheets. He was a regular author of Starye Gody magazine that published his 1911 biography of Andreyan Zakharov and 1912-1913 essays on Gatchina Palace and Tsarskoye Selo. Lanceray continued collecting material on neoclassical architects, primarily Brenna, Cameron and Zakharov, until his arrest in 1931.