Nikolay Ramazanov
1817–1867 · Russian sculptor and painter
Nikolai Alexandrovich Ramazanov (1817-1867) was a Russian sculptor who also worked as a painter, writer and art historian. He came from a family of theatre people and began learning drawing in 1827, at the age of ten, under Fedor Solntsev at the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts. He later studied with Boris Orlovsky and completed his training in 1839, earning the right to travel abroad as an Academy pensioner.
He settled in Italy from 1843, but in 1846 he was recalled to Russia after a clash with the Papal Police. The following year he began teaching at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, where he stayed until he was forced to resign in 1866, for reasons that remain unknown. His best-known works include the bas-reliefs on the pedestal of the Monument to Nicholas I in Saint Petersburg, some external decorations of the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, and several busts, among them those of Fyodor Tolstoy, Alexander Pushkin and Nikolai Gogol, the last made from his death mask. For many years he also wrote biographies, obituaries and notes on art exhibitions for Moscow periodicals. His most notable student was Matvei Chizhov.