ANTROPOV, Aleksey Petrovich

Russian painter. He was a portraitist but also an accomplished icon painter, miniaturist, and metal worker. He was born in St. Petersburg, to the family of a military carpenter. He trained at the Construction Office in St Petersburg, where his teachers included Ivan Vishnyakov, in whose team of painters Antropov later worked. He participated in the decorative painting of the Winter Palace and other imperial residences in St Petersburg and its environs.

In 1752 Antropov was sent to help in the restoration of the church of St. Andrew the First-Called in Kiev. In four years, without helpers, he completed the icons for the iconostasis and the murals. During his stay in Kiev, the artist became a mentor of Dimitrii Levitsky, who is often considered the greatest Russian painter of the 1700s.

He returned to St Petersburg in 1758 and then trained for two years with Pietro Antonio Rotari. Soon afterwards he was appointed principal supervisor of the artists and icon painters of the Synod. The 1760s were a productive period of the artist as a portraitist. In 1762 Peter III of Russia became the new Emperor and Antropov soon became his favourite painter. For the six month of Peter III rule Antropov painted at least four of his portraits.

In 1789, wishing to establish a private school of painting and a public college, he donated his house to the Office of Public Charity. He was active as a teacher of painting and an artist until his death in 1795.