Arzamas School of Painting

(1802–62), the first private provincial art school in Russia, founded in the city of Arzamas by the painter A. V. Stupin, who was a director of the Arzamas School until 1861. The school was under the tutelage of the St. Petersburg Academy of Fine Arts, which awarded medals to its best students (although passing over the serfs) and accepted them for further study. During its best years (the 1830’s) the Arzamas School helped to develop genre painting close to the style of the Venetian school. The Arzamas School was the alma mater of such artists as N. M. Alekseev, N. E. Rachkov, K. A. Makarov, and R. A. Stupin.