Mikeshin Mikhail Osipovich (I.)

February 9, 1835 (s Maksimovka Smolensk Province) - January 19, 1896 (St. Petersburg)

sculptor, painter, graphic artist.

occurred from a merchant family. As a child he studied painting at the local icon painter. He graduated from the three-class district school Roslavl some time working as a draftsman in the construction of the Moscow-Warsaw railway. In 1852 joined the IAH in St. Petersburg. Engaged in battle-painting class at BP Villevalde. In parallel, he studied sculpting at the sculptor I. Schroeder.

in 1852 for his film "Horse Grenadiers in the village, purchased by Nicholas I, was awarded a small silver medal. In 1854 he was awarded a large silver medal for the painting "The feat battery Colonel AP Nikitin in the battle of red in 1812. In the same year received from the President of the IAH Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna order on the execution of a number of battle figures, as well as an invitation to teach her children. In 1855, for the painting "Battle of Bash-Lara-Adam's apple" has been awarded a small gold medal, in 1858 - a large gold medal for his painting "The Count Tilly in Magdeburg in 1636, was promoted to the class artist of degree 1 and the right trip for a pensioner border.

in 1857 became one of the founders of the Art Society in IAH. In 1858, accompanied by the Grand Duke Nicholas Nikolaevich and Michael on a journey to the Caucasus and Crimea. In 1859-1860 as a pensioner IAH traveled in Europe.

From 1859 dealt primarily with sculpture and graphics. In 1859 participated in the contest for the drafting of the monument "Millennium of Russia" for Novgorod, was awarded the first prize, and the work accepted for implementation. After the opening of the monument in 1862 Mikeshin was granted the Order of St. Vladimir 4-th degree and a lifetime pension.

in 1864 created a competitive design of the monument of the Portuguese Constitution, in Lisbon, which was also marked by the first prize, awarded by the Order and was elected an honorary member of the Higher School of Fine Arts of Lisbon.

From 1868 - Honorary Member of the Serbian academic community. In 1869 he was awarded the title of Academician IAH. In 1882 he became a member of the Society for the Encouragement of Arts.

Under the leadership Mikeshina created monuments to Catherine II in St. Petersburg (opened in 1873), Admiral A. Craig in Nikolaev (1873), Bogdan Khmelnitsky in Kiev (1888) and many others. By working drawings Wizard AM Opekushin, M. Chizhov, RK Salemann, AL Ober, NA Lavretzky. Served as a statue for the bow of the ships commissioned by the Naval Ministry.

Many worked in the field of book and magazine graphics. Collaborated in the magazine "Russian Chronicle" (1860), "Russian Antiquity", "Petersburg Life" (1870 - 1890). In 1873-1874 he was an editor and one of the authors of the satirical magazine "painter". In 1875-1878 he published the magazine "bee", in 1879-1880 - the magazine "Russia", which published his drawings. I created the illustrations for Gogol.

worked in oil painting on porcelain and enamel.

In 1896 in Moscow and Nizhny Novgorod held memorial exhibitions wizard.

Mikeshin - one of the leading representatives of the academic trend in the art of the second half of the XIX century. Feature of his work is eclectic artistic language: in the works of masters of combining elements of academic, realism, naturalism. Work Mikeshina performed at a sufficiently high level, but at the same time they are characterized by narrative, saturation, and even finicky, in some cases - atektonichnost. Because of this sculptor has repeatedly been criticized.

Mikeshina works are in many museum and private collections, including the State Tretyakov Gallery, State Russian Museum, Pushkin Museum im. Pushkin.