Background
Maxim Vorobiev was born on August 17, 1787 in Pskov. He was the son of a retired soldier who later served as a custodian at the Imperial Academy of Arts.
Maxim Vorobiev was born on August 17, 1787 in Pskov. He was the son of a retired soldier who later served as a custodian at the Imperial Academy of Arts.
At the age of ten, he was enrolled in the elementary classes and went on to study landscape painting with Fyodor Alekseyev and architecture with Jean-François Thomas de Thomon.
In 1809, Alekseyev joined an expedition to explore the historic areas of Central Russia and Vorobiev went with him as an assistant. From 1813-1814, he accompanied the Russian army on its campaigns in Germany and France.
In 1815, he became a teacher at the Academy, a position he held until his death. Later, in 1820, he would make trip to Palestine as part of a diplomatic mission, on behalf of then Grand Duke Nikolai Pavlovich, to draw and make architectural plans of the major Christian sites, for eventual use on projects near Moscow. Most of this work had to be done in secret to avoid interference by the local Ottoman authorities.
Besides the ancient ruins, he also drew sketches of contemporary Jerusalem and the Dead Sea as well as scenes from Istanbul, Smyrna, Jaffa and other places he passed through. The final result was a collection of over 90 watercolor sheets that would serve as the basis for many paintings. He received a lifetime pension for his work there.
During the Russo-Turkish War he was attached to the retinue of Nicholas I (now the Tsar) to sketch and make paintings upon his direction, which included several scenes from the Siege of Varna. His output decreased to a trickle, consisting largely of sketches made from 1844 to 1846 while travelling thorugh Italy in an effort to assuage his grief. When he died, most of his paintings were still in his possession or being passed around by friends and associates.
View of Sobornaya Square in the Moscow Kremlin
View of Jerusalem
View from the Terrace of the Elagin Palace
Moonlit Night in St. Petersburg
Bosphorus
View of Moscow
Oak fractured by a lightning. Allegory on the artist's wife death
Sphinxes lining a quay in front of St. Petersburg Academy of Arts
View of a Town (Grodno)
Italian Seaside Landscape
View from Window
The Nevka by the Elagin Island
Odessa
View of Manege, Kutafya Tower and churches of St. Nicholas in the Sapozhki
By an Old Mill
Smirna
View of the Military Telegraph near Varna
Sunrise. In the Suburbs of St. Petersburg
Oriental Landscape
Landscape with a Cross. Lithuania
Elagin Island at Night
Italian Landscape
View from Yauza on Kremlin in Moscow