Alexey Bogolyubov

Alexey Bogolyubov
Алексей Боголюбов
Portrait photograph by Andrei Karelin
Born	(1824-03-16)March 16, 1824 Novgorod Governorate, Russia
Died	November 7, 1896(1896-11-07) (aged 72) Paris, France
Resting place	Tikhvin Cemetery, Saint Petersburg
Education	Member Academy of Arts (1858) Professor by rank (1861) Full Member Academy of Arts (1893)
Alma mater	Imperial Academy of Arts (1853)
Known for	Painting
Style	landscape art marine art
Movement	Peredvizhniki[a]
Awards

Alexey Petrovich Bogolyubov (Russian: Алексе́й Петро́вич Боголю́бов; 16 March 1824 – 3 February 1896) was a Russian landscape and seascape painter.

Bogolyubov was born in the Pomeranie village of Novgorod Governorate. His father was retired colonel Pyotr Gavriilovich Bogolyubov. Bogolyubov's maternal grandfather was the philosopher and social critic Alexander Radishchev.^[2]

In 1841, Bogolyubov graduated from military school, serving in the Imperial Russian Navy and travelling with the fleet to many countries. In 1849, he started to attend classes of the Saint Petersburg Academy of Arts, where he studied under Maxim Vorobiev. The young painter was greatly influenced by Ivan Ayvazovsky (Aivazovsky). In 1853, he finished the Academy with a major Gold medal. He retired as a navy officer and was appointed an artist to the Navy headquarters.

From 1854 to 1860, he travelled around Europe and worked prolifically. In Rome, he was acquainted with Alexander Ivanov, who convinced Bogolyubov to focus more on drawing. In Düsseldorf, Bogolyubov took classes from the painter Andreas Achenbach. In Paris, he admired the artists of the Barbizon School. French painters Camille Corot and Charles-François Daubigny were good friends and collaborators with Bogolyubov. He also painted the frescoes in the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral.

Bogolyubov returned to Russia in 1860. He exhibited his works in the Academy and received the title of professor. For some time, he taught in the Academy. In the 1860s, he traveled along the Volga. His paintings lost all traces of Romanticism, replacing that element with staunch realism of the natural. In 1871 he was elected to the Imperial Academy of Arts.

From 1870, he became close to the Wanderers art movement, participated in all their exhibitions. He became a member of their board. Much older than most of the other members of the movement, he had reservations on their social ideas. In 1873, Bogolyubov left the Academy in solidarity with his fellow Itinerants. He even tried to create an alternative Russian Academy of Arts in Rome.^[2]

After 1873, Bogolyubov lived primarily in Paris, because of his heart condition. His house was like a Russian colony: frequent visitors included Ivan Turgenev, Ilya Repin, Vasily Polenov, Mark Antokolski, Vasily Vereshchagin.^[2]

In 1885, Bogolyubov opened an art museum in Saratov, the Radischev Art Museum, named after his grandfather. It was opened to the general public seven years earlier than the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow and fifteen years earlier than the Russian Museum in Saint Petersburg.^[3] The naming of the museum after the "first Russian revolutionary", Alexander Radishchev, was a direct challenge to the authorities: Bogolyubov had to endure a legal battle to get permission.

Bogolyubov died on 3 February 1896 in Paris. He left all his money and capital (around 200 thousand Russian rubles (approximately US$6 million)) to the museum and its painting school.^[2] The school was opened after Bogolyubov's death and named Bogolyubov's Painting School (Боголюбовское Рисовальное Училище).^[2] Among painters who attended Bogolyubov's School were modernist painters as Victor Borisov-Musatov, Alexei Karev and Pavel Kuznetsov.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Alexey Bogolyubov.

• Bogolyubov, Alexei P. (2019). Ogaryova, Nonna V. (ed.). Записки моряка-художника (in Russian). Samara: Agni. ISBN 978-5-6043148-0-7.

• Andronikova, Manana I. [in Russian] (1962). Боголюбов (in Russian). Moscow: Iskusstvo. OCLC 28105293.
• Kozhevnikov, Grigory I. (1962). "Алексей Петрович Боголюбов". In Leonov, Alexei I. (ed.). Русское искусство. Очерки о жизни и творчестве художников. Вторая половина XIX века (in Russian). Vol. 1. Moscow: Iskusstvo. pp. 421–444. OCLC 71538004.
• Ogaryova, Nonna V. (1988). Летопись жизни и деятельности художника А. П. Боголюбова (in Russian). Saratov: Saratov State University. ISBN 5-292-00098-1. OCLC 165362450.
• Pashkova, Lyudmila V. and Borovskaya, Marina I. (2019). Radishchev Museum, Saratov (ed.). Алексей Боголюбов: художник, моряк, путешественник (artbook) (in Russian). Saratov: Radishchev Museum. ISBN 978-5-94370-036-1.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)
• Usacheva, Svetlana V. (2023). Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow (ed.). Алексей Боголюбов (artbook / exhibition catalogue) (in Russian). Moscow: Tretyakov Gallery. ISBN 978-5-89580-407-0.

• Alexey Bogolyubov at the Russian Academy of Arts' official website
• Alexey Bogolyubov Notes of an Sailor-Artist Archived 2007-02-03 at the Wayback Machine (in Russian)