Ivan Firsov
Firsov, Ivan
Born circa 1733 in Moscow; died after 1785 (?) in St. Petersburg. Russian painter.
From 1747 to 1756 Firsov studied and worked at the Office of Construction. In the late 1750’s he became a court artist and as such created decorative paintings for the palaces and churches of St. Petersburg and designed court entertainments. He also painted icons and stage scenery. Firsov produced one of the first Russian genre paintings, The Young Painter (second half of the 1760’s; Tret’iakov Gallery), which is distinguished by the easy naturalness of its figures and the subtle harmonies of its coloring.