Aleksandr Sokolov
1829–1913 · Russian watercolor portrait painter, active in St. Petersburg
Aleksandr Petrovich Sokolov (10 November 1829 - 2 December 1913) was a Russian painter active in St. Petersburg during the reigns of Alexander II and Nicholas II. He is best remembered for his watercolor portraits, a genre he took up in the footsteps of his family and which brought him standing at the imperial court.
The son of the portrait painter Pyotr Sokolov, he left the gymnasium in 1847, before finishing his studies, to enter the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. After two years there he joined the Imperial Academy of Arts. Once he received the title of artist, he chose to follow his father and devote himself mostly to watercolor. In 1859 he was named academician, and in 1881 he joined the Peredvizhniki, exhibiting with them often.
He became especially known for portraits of women, including several of Empress Maria Feodorovna and other members of the Imperial Family. In 1883 his portraits of Tsar Alexander III and the Tsarina in imperial robes were published as lithographs in the official Coronation Album. From 1892 to 1907 he was curator of the museum of the Imperial Academy of Arts, and in 1896 he became a full member of the institution.