Mykola Murashko
1844–1909 · Ukrainian painter, graphic artist and teacher, founder of the Kyiv Painting School
Mykola Murashko (Glukhov, 1844 – Bucha, 1909) was a Ukrainian painter, graphic artist, art historian and teacher associated with the Peredvizhniki movement. He is remembered above all for founding and directing the first Kyiv Painting School, and for his close friendship with Ilya Repin.
The son of an icon carver, he showed an early interest in art, copying pictures from books. After the family moved to Kyiv in 1858, he audited classes at the Imperial Academy of Arts in Saint Petersburg under Adrian Prakhov, but illness prevented him from finishing. He qualified as an art teacher and, from 1875 to 1901, ran his own drawing school in Kyiv, attended by Valentin Serov and Mykola Pymonenko.
His work includes illustrations for the first Ukrainian translation of Andersen's tales, portraits such as the one of Nikolai Ge, and landscapes of the Dnipro, among them "Over the Dnieper". His painting follows Russian realism and stands out for its psychological expressiveness. After the school closed he retired to Bucha, where he wrote memoirs that were never finished. His legacy rests mainly on the school he founded.