Ivan Vladimirovich Tsvetaev

Born May 4 (16), 1847, in the village of Drozdovo, Vladimir Province; died Aug. 30 (Sept. 12), 1913, in Moscow. Russian philologist, art scholar, and cultural figure. Member of the Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg (1903) and corresponding member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences (1904).

Tsvetaev graduated from the University of St. Petersburg in 1870. He was a professor at Warsaw University in 1872 and 1873 and at the University of Kiev from 1876 to 1877. He became a professor at Moscow University in 1877, and in 1889 he was given the university’s subdepartment of the theory and history of fine arts. Tsvetaev was on the staff of the Rumiantsev Museum in Moscow from 1882 to 1889 and was director of the museum from 1900 to 1910. He founded the Moscow Museum of Fine Arts (now the A. S. Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts) and became the museum’s first director in 1911. He organized a drive for private contributions for the acquisition of art collections and for the construction of the museum’s building (1898–1912, architect R. I. Klein).

Tsvetaev’s principal works were devoted to classical philology and the study of the Italic languages, as well as to the art and cultural and social life of ancient peoples.

Tsvetaev became an honorary member of the University of Bologna in 1888.