Valery Jacobi

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Valery Ivanovich Jacobi (Russian: Валерий Иванович Якоби or Якобий; 15 May [O.S. 3May] 1834, Village Kudryakovo, Kazan Governorate, Russia - 13 May 1902, Nice, France) was a Russian painter^[1] and an older brother of Pavel Jacobi (1842-1913), a notable revolutionary and ethnographer.^[2][3]

Valery Jacobi was born to a family of an estate owner and started his education in the Kazan University, but broke his study to enlist in Russian Army^[1] (Siberian Volunteer Corps^[4]) during the Crimean War. In 1856 after retirement from the Army he decided to abandon his University study and pursue the artistic career instead.^[1]

In 1856-1861 he studied at the Imperial Academy of Arts, receiving a small gold medal for his painting Serene holiday of a beggar (1860). In 1861 he paints his probably the most notable painting Prisoners Stopping Place. In 1861-1869 Jacobi travels to Europe by an Academy grant, visiting Germany, Switzerland, France and Italy.^[1]

In 1870 Jacobi became one of the founding members of the Peredvizhniki art society. But in 1872 he was excluded for his failure to participate in a society exhibition^[1] and the general disagreement with the ideals of the society.^[4] Later he was considered a conservative, sceptical to the Peredvizhniki's ideas.

Jacobi was a member of the Imperial Academy of Arts since 1868, a professor since 1871, taught in the Academy in 1878-1889.^[2] He lived mostly in Saint-Petersburg creating historical paintings like Jesters at the Court of Anna Ioanovna (1872), Ice Palace (1878), etc. His works were criticized as purely decorative, lacking substance.^[4]

Jacobi died in Nice, France in 1902.

[edit] Works

Serene holiday of a beggar, 1860	Jesters at the Court of Empress Anna, 1872	Ice palace, 1878	Entrance to a mosque
Inauguration of the Academy of Arts, 7 July 1765, 1889

[edit] References