Martynov Andrey E. (1768-1826)

AE Martynov - the most famous of the talented family (the artists were also his younger brother and son). In 1788 he graduated from the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts in the class of landscape painting with Sam. Shchedrin .

After the customary at the time of the pensioner's stay in Italy (1788-94) with the aim of improving skills Martynov returned to Russia. As the report he had submitted a number of Italian landscapes, "Ponte Lucano on the way from Rome to Tivoli" (1794), "Landscape" (1790), etc.

Arts appreciated his talent by awarding the title in 1795, appointed, three months - the academician, and in 1802 - EA Arts. This allowed Martynov get honorable court orders and high-ranking dignitaries. So, together with his teacher Sam. Shchedrin he performs wall paintings and frescoes for the interiors of the Pavlovsk Palace, writes the landscape mural in the palaces and estates of Gatchina and Tsarskoye Selo. It did not help the artist to enter the academic environment, to secure a relatively peaceful and honorable position.

Gradually Martynov leaves easel painting and preference graph. By this he was inspired by the numerous trips in which the artist found new themes and images for their work.
Martynov in 1804 "surveyed the entire southern region of Russia and took on all kinds of cities." And in 1805, he as the chief artist of the Russian embassy, ​​headed by Count YA Golovkin, has come a long way from Moscow to Urga (now Ulan Bator) - Chief of the Mongolian nomads in the steppes of the Gobi.

The result was collected extensive life material, and later formed the basis of graphic series of cycles ("Types of Russia and Mongolia," a series of watercolors, 23 sheet, 1806-10, a series of engravings "Types of the peoples of Russia and Mongolia", 39 pages, 1808; album of watercolors, 29 sheets, 1814-19, which, in turn, was published in the original for 1819 album of etchings "Picturesque Journey from Moscow to the Chinese border," etc.).

In the summer of 1810 Martynov made a new journey, this time in the suite of the Empress Elizabeth Alekseevny, on the Baltic coast. Thus, a series of gouaches "Baltic Landscapes" (1810s).

At this time the artist was already pretty big family. To keep it, Martynov entered decorator to the Directorate of the Imperial Theatres, where he worked, embodying someone else's ideas, thirteen years prior to his retirement in 1821, the artist's final period proved to be very productive. It was in the 1820s. were created by the best graphic series, which provided Martynov posthumous fame and a place of honor in the history of Russian art.

He owned a great technique of engraving on metal, as evidenced by their numerous works ("The satirical images on the theme of the Patriotic War of 1812", 7 sheets, 1812-13, a series of engravings "giving views of Count Stroganov, the Black River and the Stone island ", 10 sheets, 1813-14, a series of etchings" Russian national types ", 30 pages, 1816," Neva Embankment ", 6 etchings, 1817, etc.).