Dmitry Mikhailovich Strukov was a Russian painter, art restorer, and archaeologist.
Background
Dmitry Mikhailovich Strukov was born on October 7, 1829, in Moscow City, Russian Federation. His father was a tailor. In the 1830s, during the cholera pandemic, the family moved about; first to Nizhny Novgorod, then Verkhoturye and, finally, Nizhny Tagil.
Education
When they returned to Moscow in 1840, Dmitry Mikhailovich was enrolled at the Stroganov School for Technical Drawing (Moscow State Stroganov Academy of Industrial and Applied Arts).
Career
Four years later, Dmitry Mikhailovich produced his first professional works; an iconostasis and a portrait for the mayor of Lyubertsy. In 1849, he helped establish the icon-painting school at the Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius. That same year, Dmitry Mikhailovich compiled a guide to Moscow's Orthodox shrines. The following year, the Rector of Sarov Monastery commissioned him to draw the monuments there and at the Diveyevo Monastery.
After that, Dmitry Mikhailovich traveled almost constantly, sketching historical sites in Nizhny Novgorod, Vladimir, Murom, the Caucasus and Crimea. In 1853, he was named an "Artist" for watercolors by the Imperial Academy of Arts. His copy of an ancient icon at Grebnevskoy Church was presented to Tsar Nicholas I, who awarded him a diamond ring and free access to antiquities in every monastery and church.
In 1858, Dmitry Mikhailovich began publishing a magazine, Drawing School, containing lessons on drawing historiated initials and miniature vignettes, as well as essays on Russian art in general. He was forced to discontinue publication in 1863 and was left in debt for 25 years.
To help defray his debts, Dmitry Mikhailovich also served as a teacher at several Moscow schools. This experience allowed him to develop a special method to teach drawing quickly; which he demonstrated by teaching 200 soldiers from the Pernovsky Regiment.
In 1864, the Governor-General of Vilnius, Mikhail Muravyov-Vilensky, invited him to tour the Northwestern Krai to research ancient monuments that were damaged or nearly destroyed by the recent January Uprising. Many of these monuments are now known only through the medium of Strukov's watercolors. Five years later, he encouraged the "Moscow Society of Lovers of Spiritual Enlightenment" to initiate a program that would identify icons in need of restoration. Over 300 were eventually saved. In 1873, Dmitry Mikhailovich opened an icon painting school in a house donated by a prominent merchant and gave the works that were produced too poor rural churches.
His later notable restoration projects included ones at Saint Basil's Cathedral and the Ivan the Great Bell Tower. He also made numerous trips to Crimea and the Caucasus on behalf of the Imperial Russian Archaeological Society. In 1888, he discovered the "Zelenchukskaya Inscription"; a tenth-century tombstone with a Gothic script that is the earliest known example of the Ossetian language.
During his later years, Dmitry Mikhailovich operated a workshop that produced icons and church plate in the old styles.