Alexey Petrovich Bogolyubov was a Russian artist. Bogolyubov created his paintings in the styles of Romanticism and Realism. He is known for his numerous landscapes and seascapes, and especially, his marine battle scenes.
Background
Bogolyubov was born in Pomeranian, Novgorod Oblast, Russia, on March 16, 1824. In general, Bogolyubov's family was a cultured one. For instance, his maternal grandfather, Alexander Nikolayevich Radishchev, was a philosopher. His father, Pyotr Gavriilovich Bogolyubov, was a retired colonel, whom he lost at an early age.
Education
Bogolyubov always had an interest in painting, and painted through his student years. His interest was encouraged by Duke Maximilian Leuchtenberg from Bavaria, who had a chance to see his artworks when they were both aboard the ship "Kamchatka" in 1849.
Taking the Duke Maximilian Leuchtenberg’s advice, Alexey Bogolyubov enrolled in the Imperial Academy of the Fine Arts (today Ilya Repin St. Petersburg State Academic Institute for Painting, Sculpture and Architecture) in Saint Petersburg in 1850. Among his professors were Maksim Nikiforovich Vorobyov and Bogdan Willewalde. During his studies, he became deeply influenced by the work of the artist Ivan Aivazovsky. He graduated with a gold medal in 1853.
In several years, Bogolyubov took classes from the painter Andreas Achenbach in Düsseldorf.
Career
Bogolyubov travelled all over Europe between 1854 and 1860; these trips were part of his job. During this period he painted prolifically. In Rome, the artist got acquainted with Alexander Ivanov, who convinced Bogolyubov to focus more on drawing. Then he visited Paris, where he worked with the marine painter Eugene Isabey, and befriended Camille Corot and Charles-François Daubigny. In Paris, he started to admire the artists of the Barbizon School.
He was commissioned to travel to Constantinople on the river Danube to make sketches for Emperor Nikolai Pavlovich. Soon after that, he accompanied the future Emperor Alexander III on his travels across the country.
Alexey Bogolyubov returned to Russia in 1860. He exhibited his artworks at the Imperial Academy of the Fine Arts (now Ilya Repin St. Petersburg State Academic Institute for Painting, Sculpture and Architecture) and received the title of professor. For some time, he worked as a professor of the academy. However, he was not to remain in Saint Petersburg for long, as he was commissioned to produce sketches of the Caspian Sea coast.
He later travelled along the Volga river, creating illustrations for a guide to the river for the Volga Steamship Company. He was accompanied by his elder brother Nicholas, who wrote the text for the same guide. A great number of the sketches that he produced during this time served as the basis for larger paintings. Bogolyubov undertook a similar voyage along the Gulf of Finland in 1864. His paintings of this period lost all traces of Romanticism, replacing that element with solid realism of the natural.
Bogolyubov joined the Wanderers art movement in 1870, often exhibiting with them. In 1871 he travelled to Paris to make frescoes for the Orthodox Church. He left the Academy in 1873 following disagreements between them and other members.
After 1873, Alexey Bogolyubov lived primarily in Paris, where his house became the central meeting place for a number of Russian artists and writers in the city, including Vasily Polenov, Vasili Vereshchagin, Mark Antokolski, Ilya Repin, and Ivan Turgenev. In 1885, Bogoliubov opened an art museum in Saratov, the Radischev Art Museum, named after his grandfather.