Nikolai Utkin

Born May 8 (19), 1780, in Tver’ (present-day Kalinin); died Mar. 5 (17), 1863, in St. Petersburg. Russian engraver.

Utkin studied at the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts from 1785 to 1800 under A. la. Radig and I. S. Klauber. He studied on a stipend from 1803 to 1814, mainly in Paris, where he worked in the studio of C. C. Bervic; he completed his studies in 1814 in London. He taught at the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts beginning in 1815, becoming director of the engraving class in 1817 and a professor in 1831. His pupils included F. I. Iordan. Utkin was a member of a number of European academies of art.

Utkin was the most important master of Russian portrait line engraving of the first half of the 19th century. He creatively interpreted the originals he worked from, heightening the special qualities of the subject and enriching them with a great variety of strokes. His best works include portraits of I. A. Krylov and E. S. Semenova (both executed in 1816 from sketches by O. A. Kiprenskii), A. V. Suvorov (1818), N. M. Karamzin (1818, from an original by A. G. Varnek), and A. S. Pushkin (1827 and 1838, from the original by Kiprenskii). He also executed prints from paintings, vignettes, and 20 engravings from medallions by F. P. Tolstoi that commemorated the Patriotic War of 1812.