Levitskii, Sergei Lvovich

Born in 1819 in St. Petersburg; died there in 1898. Russian photographer, one of the pioneers of photography in Russia.

Levitskii was interested in daguerrotypy from the moment the process was first publicized in 1839. During the 1840’s he studied the fundamentals of photography in Paris under the guidance of L. J. M. Daguerre. In 1849 he founded the Svetopis “establishment for daguerreotypy” in St. Petersburg. Soon afterward he became well known as a photographer specializing in portraits. During the early 1860’s, Levitskii worked in Paris and was repeatedly awarded prizes at international exhibitions. In 1867 he returned to St. Petersburg.

Levitskii’s legacy is large, constituting a whole portrait gallery of outstanding Russian literary figures and artists. His work probes the personality of the sitter and is marked by a precise reproduction of individual traits.