Cheskii, Ivan
Cheskii, Ivan Vasil’evich
Born 1777; died June 17 (29), 1848, in St. Petersburg. Russian engraver.
Beginning in 1791, Cheskii studied with I. Klauber at the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts; he enrolled in the academy’s landscape class in 1799. He became an academician in 1807.
Cheskii’s landscapes, portraits, and illustrations were executed in the technique of line engraving; most were derived from the drawings of other artists. The engravings are characterized by precision and clarity of line. Examples are Landscape With Hunters (1807, from the original by G. Dughet), The Temple of Friendship in Pavlovsk (from an original by S. F. Shchedrin), Portrait of V. A. Zhukovskii (published 1821–22), Portrait of G. R. Derzhavin (published 1825), and illustrations to Krylov’s fable “The Horse and the Horseman” (1825, based on drawings by A. Sauerweid).