Ivan Trutnev
1827–1912 · Russian painter and art teacher
Ivan Petrovich Trutnev (1827-1912) was a Russian painter and art teacher, active mainly in Vilnius. Born into a peasant family in Likhvin, he nevertheless gained admission in 1845 to the Stroganov Moscow State University of Arts and Industry. His significance lies in building an art school in a region where good local painters, capable of producing icons and murals for the Eastern Orthodox Church, had been hard to find.
He graduated in 1849 with a certificate in art teaching and from 1851 to 1858 studied at the Imperial Academy of Arts under Bogdan Willewalde. His graduating piece, Village Procession of the Cross, earned a gold medal and a stipend for study abroad. Between 1860 and 1865 he travelled across Europe, visiting Vienna, Paris, Dresden and Amsterdam, while carrying out commissions for the collector Pavel Tretyakov. After two years in Rome he returned home. In 1866 he was invited to organise an art school in Vilnius, where he taught a wide range of subjects and exhibited with the Peredvizhniki. He produced religious works, portraits of academics and politicians, and genre scenes, and in 1897 he collaborated on a monument to Mikhail Muravyov in Vilnius.
By the time of his death, his school had taught almost 4,000 students, 193 of whom graduated and went on to the Imperial Academy or other institutions. He received several state honours, but in his last years he painted very little because of failing eyesight.