Argunov

Russian portrait painters, serfs of the Counts Sheremetev.

Ivan Petrovich Argunov. Born 1729; died 1802 in Moscow. May have studied with his cousin Fedor Leont’evich Argunov and with G. Groot.

I. P. Argunov painted formal portraits, extensively using the baroque style (posthumous portraits of B. P. and A. P. Sheremetev, 1768, both in the museum in Kuskovo). He was one of the creators of chamber portrait painting in Russia (portraits of K. A. and Kh. M. Khripunov, 1757, both in the museum in Ostankino; Portrait of Unknown Peasant Girl in a Russian Costume, 1784, the Tret’iakov Gallery).

Nikolai Ivanovich Argunov. Born 1771; died after 1829 in Moscow. Son and pupil of I. P. Argunov. Manumitted in 1816.

In 1818, N. I. Argunov became academician of the St. Petersburg Academy of Art. He was influenced by classical art. He painted a number of portraits of members of the serf intelligentsia, including T. V. Shlykova-Granatova (1789) and P. I. Kovaleva-Zhemchugova (1802–03); both are in the museum in Kuskovo.

Russian architects, serfs of the Counts Shere-metev.

Fedor Semenovich Argunov. Born circa 1732; died circa 1768. Cousin of the painter I. P. Argunov. Probably studied with S. I. Chevakinskii in St. Petersburg. Had a part in the construction of the Sheremetev house on the Fontanka (1750–55). Lived in St. Petersburg.

On the Kuskovo estate in the vicinity of Moscow, F. S. Argunov designed a kitchen wing (1755), the “Grotto” pavilion (1755–75), and probably a greenhouse (1761–64). These buildings were characteristic of the Russian baroque of the mid-18th century. Argunov’s early works include the design of a manor house (today in the Research Museum of the Academy of Arts of the USSR, Leningrad).

Pavel Ivanovich Argunov. Born circa 1768; died 1806 in Moscow. Son of the painter I. P. Argunov.

From 1793 on, P. I. Argunov headed the construction of a wooden theater-palace on the Ostankino estate near Moscow (built in the Russian classical style), in which he designed a number of interiors.