Nikolay Murashko

Nikolay Ivanovich Murashko (Russian: Никола́й Ива́нович Мура́шко, Nikolai Ivanovich Murashko; Ukrainian: Микола Іванович Мурашко, Mykola Ivanovych Murashko; 20 May 1844, Glukhov, Chernigov Governorate, Russian Empire – 22 September 1909, Bucha, Kiev Governorate, Russian Empire) was a Ukrainian-born Russian[1][2][3][4][5][6] Imperial painter, art teacher, art critic and art historian, who belonged to promoters of the Russian movement of Peredvizhniki; he was a student and successor of painter Adrian Prakhov at the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts, the founder and the first director of his own private drawing school in Kiev and memoirist.

Nikolay Murashko
Portrait by Ilya Repin

Murashko was one of the best friends of Russian painter Ilya Repin[7][8]. His nephew Aleksandr Murashko was an artist and one of the first members of the National Academy of Arts of Ukraine.

Biography

His father was an icon carver of Ukrainian descent.[9][10] From an early age he showed an interest in art; copying pictures from books. In 1858, the family moved to Kiev. Five years later, Ivan Soshenko, a teacher at the gymnasium, recommended that he pursue training in art. That same year, he began auditing classes at the Imperial Academy of Arts in Saint Petersburg.[11]

Illness prevented him from completing his course of study and he settled in Voronezh, but continued to send works to the Academy. On this basis, he was certified as an art teacher and began his career in a local primary school in 1868. In 1879, the Academy named him an "Artist, 3rd Degree".[11]

Nikolay Murashko - Ukrainian Landscape (1896)

Over the years, he taught in several schools at different levels. From 1875 to 1901, he operated his own drawing school in Kiev which was supported by many well known artists; notably Ilya Repin, a friend from the Academy. Among those who attended the school were Valentin Serov, Khariton Platonov, Ivan Seleznyov, Konstantin Kryzhitsky, Nikolay Pymonenko and Sergey Kostenko.[11] On his initiative, Kiev put on an annual art exhibition, beginning in 1877.

In the meantime, he produced numerous landscapes, many of which were purchased for the museum at the Academy. He also painted a few portraits and illustrated the first edition of Hans Christian Andersen's tales in the Imperial Russia.

Teaching, however, was always his priority and his students were given individual attention. In addition, he made numerous trips to Vienna, Paris, Rome and other notable art centers to study the latest teaching methods and wrote articles for a variety of local and national periodicals.[11]

After the school closed, he retired to the village of Bucha and began to write "Memoirs of an Old Master". Two parts were published, but the book was never finished, due to illness.

Nikolay Murashko
Portrait by Ilya Repin (1866)

References
  1. Мурашко Н. И. Воспоминания старого учителя / Киевская рисовальная школа. 1875—1901. — Киев: тип. С. В. Кульженко, 1907. с. 7-10, 21, 144.
  2. Leek, Peter: Russian Painting. Parkstone Press, 2005. P. 178.
  3. Jackson, David: The Russian vision: the art of Ilya Repin. Antique Collectors Club Dist, 2006. P. 34.
  4. Vzdornov, Gerold I.: The History of the Discovery and Study of Russian Painting. Brill, 2017. P. 183.
  5. Кондаков С. Н. Список русских художников. М., 2013. C. 134.
  6. Fan Parker, Stephen Jan Parker: Russia on Canvas: Ilya Repin. Pennsylvania State University Press, 1980. P. 47.
  7. Valentin Aleksandrovich Serov (1865-1911)
  8. Fan Parker, Stephen Jan Parker: Russia on Canvas: Ilya Repin. Pennsylvania State University Press, 1980. P. 47f.
  9. A Dictionary of Russian and Soviet Artists, 1420-1970
  10. Мурашко, Николай Иванович (Большая советская энциклопедия)
  11. Brief biography from Biblioteka: Virtual Exhibitions.

Further reading

Media related to Mykola Murashko at Wikimedia Commons

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