Matveev Andrey Matveevich (1701-1739) - one of the first emissaries of Peter I to Western Europe to study art. One of the founders of secular painting and portraiture in Russia. Icon painter, author of allegorical, decorative and monumental compositions. Court painter.
In 1739, Irina Stepanovna, the painter's wife, after his death reported that “she remained after her husband Matveyev with her young children and that she didn’t have anything to bury her body in with her husband.”
Emperor Peter I and pensioner Andrei Matveev in Western Europe
It is difficult to find reliable information about the early years of the life of the Russian portrait painter Matveyev Andrei Matveyevich. Almost always, in the description of his biography, the name of Emperor Peter I is mentioned, who saw a talented boy and gave him, as they say, a ticket to creativity. Whether it was so or not, however, Peter the Great, undoubtedly, played a significant role in the fate of the artist.
The crowned reformer willingly studied with Western craftsmen, he mastered fourteen crafts and hoped for a similar zeal from young Russian talents. Peter introduced training in Europe to shipbuilding, astronomy, engineering and other technical sciences at the expense of the state "pension". The artistic direction was no exception. The emperor was guided by the practical tasks facing the country: artists were needed as participants in the transformation of the state, assistants in scientific works and promoting the technical development of the empire. Russia needed specialists who could illustrate books, treatises, make drawings and plans, fix any object: "Artists are necessary for drawing anatomical figures, grasses and other natural people."
At first, the aesthetic side of the issue was not or was not in the first place. Nevertheless, Peter I strove to be no worse than the European sovereigns in all respects. He wanted a generation of Russian masters to appear in the arts as well. Ivan Nikitin and Andrey Matveev became the first pensioners of Peter in the picturesque profile. Andrey was sent to Holland to get an education. At that time he was 15 years old. He then studied in Flanders.
Return of artist Andrey Matveev to Russia
In total, Matveev spent 11 years in Western Europe and returned to Russia in 1727. By this time, Peter the Great had been dead for two years. Perhaps Empress Catherine I has already died: she died in May 1727, and the first mention of the artist after returning from abroad dates back to August of this year. For the Empress Matveyev and for the death of Peter I in 1725 he wrote and sent his work "Allegory of Painting", thereby showing his achievements in studies and, apparently, wanting to extend his retirement. Catherine favored him, and Andrei Matveev managed to study in Europe for two more years. This painting from the period of his Western European apprenticeship has been preserved and is in the collection of the Russian Museum in St. Petersburg.
Andrey Matveev and the "picturesque team" of the Chancellery from buildings
On August 8, 1727, Alexander Danilovich Menshikov ordered the Chancellery to hire Andrei Matveyev from the buildings, and the painter Karavakku was instructed to examine him. Yesterday's pensioner successfully passes the exam and enters the service in the Chancellery. This institution was engaged in restoration, painting and decorative works in St. Petersburg and its environs. So in 1730, on one of the facades of the Peter and Paul Cathedral, the painting "The Standing of the Apostles Peter and Paul before Christ" was installed.
In 1731, after the architects Mikhail Zemtsov and Domenico Trezzini confirmed that Matveyev was “much skillful in drawings,” he received the rank of “painting master” and became the first Russian head of the Chancellery from buildings…. Under the leadership of Andrei Matveyevich, talented artists and talented students gathered in the "painting team", and, in fact, it turned into an art school that influenced the development of national art of the 18th century.
Andrey Matveev - portrait painter
Before the era of Peter the Great, secular painting in Russia was not developed. The portrait genre did not exist. Andrey Matveevich Matveev became one of the first Russian portrait painters. The portraits of the Italian doctor I. A. Azaretti and the Golitsyn spouses, painted by him, have survived to our time.
But the most extraordinary work is Self-Portrait with Wife. In 1729, a serious event took place in Matveyev's personal life: he married Irina Stepanovna Antropova, a cousin of the artist Alexei Antropov, who was his student. Presumably, the creation of the picture belongs to the same year. There is much in it - an innovation: this is the first self-portrait in Russian painting and at the same time the first double and family. In addition, the artist frankly showed love and touchingly depicted the tender feelings of the couple. He showed a woman equal to a man, worthy of respect and friendship, which was not accepted in the society of the 18th century.
The end of the life of Andrei Matveev
Under the short reign of the young Peter II, and then Empress Anna Ioanovna, the ebullient activity of the era of Peter the Great became a thing of the past. Andrei Matveev had a decrease in the number of orders for work, and for those that were carried out, the payment was low, and it was delayed. When the artist died in the spring of 1739, his widow did not have the funds to bury her husband.
