Fedor Mikhailovich Matveev

Born 1758; died 1826 in Italy. Russian painter and graphic artist (mostly landscapes).

Matveev, the son of a soldier, studied at the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts from 1764 to 1778. His instructor at the academy was probably S. F. Shchedrin. In 1779 he went to Rome, where he studied at the Academy of Arts on a stipend; he later settled permanently in Italy. Matveev painted ideal landscapes, primarily of Italy, in an austere and majestic style, as well as classicist heroic landscapes (View of Naples, 1806; View of Lake Maggiore, 1808—both in the Russian Museum, Leningrad). He also drew landscapes from nalure-Landscape With Italian Stone Pines (sepia, india ink, and black chalk; Tret’iakov Gallery, Moscow).