02.02.1817 – 25.07.1898

Nikolai Egorovich Sverchkov is a Russian battle and genre painter, academician and professor.

The future artist was born in the family of a servant of the court stables department. Nikolai began to paint as a child and quickly achieved remarkable success, especially in depicting horses, which he loved very much. Father, seeing his son’s penchant for drawing, identified him in the School of Education at the Academy of Arts and, although the study had to be interrupted due to illness, the young artist continued to seriously engage in self-education and study the work of masters of painting.

Gradually Nikolay Sverchkov developed his abilities to such an extent that in 1839 he dared to send the first pictures to the academic exhibition: “Self-portrait”, “Ezdok”, “Italian with a guitar” and “Portrait of the Maiden Sverchkova.” Success was evident, and he was awarded the title of free artist of portraiture.

In addition to portraits, the artist continued to write works depicting horses. The gift of an animal painter, the ability to portray scenes with horses in a truly truthful and free manner, helped Sverchkov take the place of the artist of the Khrenov and Chesmen state stud farms, which were the largest in Russia. In this post he created a whole gallery representing thoroughbred horses. Having become famous for his knowledge of the breeds and the ability to convey their characteristics, Sverchkov began to receive orders from well-known horse breeders. He traveled Russia from end to end, learned the customs of the province and embodied them in genre sketches.

Since 1844 the artist’s works began to appear at annual academic exhibitions and soon drew general attention to him. In 1852, for the painting “The landlord troika crosses the carts all the way along the big road” Sverchkov received the title of academician, and in 1855 for the painting “The Cargo Crew” – the professorship.

A significant place in his work was occupied by scenes from the hunting life. He wrote a lot of pictures touching this topic.
In the early 1860’s. Sverchkov made a trip abroad, having visited Paris, London and Brussels, where his exhibitions were a great success.
A new genre in the artist’s work was the battle scenes, which are devoted to the events of the Russian-Turkish war.

During his life, the artist painted 350 paintings, created 1000 drawings and 12 sculptures.

NOT. Sverchkov died at the age of 81 in 1898 and was buried in the Kazan cemetery of Tsarskoe Selo.