Matveev, Andrei Matveevich

Born 1701 in Novgorod; died 1739. Russian painter. Sent abroad to study by Peter I.

In 1716, Matveev went to study in the Netherlands. He spent his first years abroad in Amsterdam; between 1725 and 1727 he studied at the Antwerp Academy of Arts. Beginning in 1727 he headed the group of painters at the Office of Construction in St. Petersburg. Matveev played an important role in the development of secular art in Russia at the beginning of the 18th century. His works include murals in St. Petersburg (including the Cathedral of St. Peter and St. Paul) and Moscow. Matveev also did easel paintings and icons. Of the artist’s few surviving works, his portraits (late 1720’s) are particularly noteworthy. They are marked by spontaneity of composition and truthfulness of characterization (portraits of I. A. Golitsyn and A. P. Golitsyn, 1728, Golitsyn Collection, Moscow; Self-portrait With Wife, 1729, Russian Museum, Leningrad).