Mikhail Ivanovich Belsky (Russian:Михаи́л Ива́нович Бе́льский; 1753 — 29 May 1794) was aRussian painter, active inSt. Petersburg duringCatherine the Great's reign, commonly known for hisportraits.
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His father,Ivan Ivanovich Belsky, was a history painter and Academician at theImperial Academy of Arts.[2] In 1770, the Academy awarded him a silver medal for his outstanding classwork. His primary instructors there wereAnton Losenko andDmitry Levitzky.[3]
In 1773, together with the engraver,Gavriil Skorodumov, he was awarded a travel grant to study abroad, in London. They received 300 Rubles per year, and letters of recommendation.[3] When they arrived, they were placed under the patronage of CountAlexei Semyonovich Musin-Pushkin [ru], the RussianEnvoy. Classes at theRoyal Academy of Arts were open to them, they were able to copy theOld Masters, attend lectures and travel throughout the provinces.[3]
In 1776, they were scheduled to continue their travels, but Skorodumov chose to remain in London. Belsky went to Paris and became a student ofJoseph Duplessis,[4] at his father's expense.[3][5]
Very little is known of his life beyond that point, except that he returned to Russia and worked as a portrait painter in St. Petersburg; in 1787, he was elected an Academician Canditate for his portrait, likely lost, of historianAlexei Ivanovich Musin-Pushkin. Few of his paintings have been identified with any certainty and most are believed to be in the possession of their subject's families.
As of the early 21st century, Belsky's surviving body of work consists of only a small number of works present in public museums across post-Soviet nations. Among these, the 1788 portrait of composerDmitry Bortniansky, in theTretyakov Gallery, is the most notable.[1] TheRussian Museum, St. Petersburg holds Belsky's diploma work of 1773, the portrait of the certain Baudouin with two academical pupils, as well as some drawings from academical years. InKyiv, thePicture Gallery [uk] owns a large painting of thesiege of Ochakov, signed and dated 1794, reported to be a loose copy after the 1790 piece byFrancesco Casanova.[6][7][8]