Pimen Orlov

Pimen Nikitich Orlov (Russian: Пимен Никитич Орлов; 1812, near Malo-Foshchevaty, Voronezh Governorate — 6 October 1865, Rome) was a Russian painter in the Classical style. He worked in a wide variety of genres and spent most of his career in Italy.

He was born on a farm to a family of millers. At an early age, he showed a talent for drawing. His father wanted him to continue the family business and could not afford to pay for an art school in any event.

He was determined, however, and apprenticed himself to an itinerant decorative painter when he was a teenager. They travelled from village to village, painting signs and billboards as well as doing simple paint jobs on walls and fences. He changed employers as his experience grew, but still received no orders for icons or murals.

He eventually turned to painting portraits of local landowners and, in 1834, with recommendations from the Gladkis, a Ukrainian noble family, he was able to go to Saint Petersburg and audit classes at the Imperial Academy of Arts, where he studied with Karl Bryullov and decided to become a painter of genre scenes. While studying, he continued painting portraits to help support himself. Members of the Golitsyn family were among his most notable clients. He graduated in 1837 with a silver medal and the title of "Free Artist".

In 1841, with the support of the Imperial Society for the Encouragement of the Arts, he obtained a grant that enabled him to go to Italy. He established himself in Rome and soon had a steady flow of commissions, although he was still not financially secure. Then, in 1848, he sent home a painting ("Young Woman Doing laundry") that was brought to the attention of Tsar Nicholas I, who awarded him an annual pension of 300 Rubles.

The following year, all pensioners were ordered to return to Russia, but he was able to get permission to stay, pleading eye disease and the necessity of completing his standing commissions. He would remain there until his death, sixteen years later. He continued to send the occasional painting back to Saint Petersburg and was awarded the title of "Academician" in 1857.

Most of the works that were left in Italy are in private collections, but the ones he sent home are in museums throughout Russia.

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