Vyacheslav G. Schwartz (1838-1869)

V. Schwartz was born in the family of General, a member of the Patriotic War of 1812, Early childhood spent in the Caucasus, where his father served. In 1853-59, he studied at the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum. Figure they taught academic artists, and Schwartz, endowed with the ability to draw, got their first serious skills.

At the end of the Lyceum young man entered the historical-philological faculty of St. Petersburg University, and at the same time began to attend class battle Arts, headed by Prof. B. Villevalde. Later, he made the transfer in full-scale, and then in the historic class, where in 1860 earned the second silver medal for drawing "Appointment of Prince Svyatoslav with Emperor John Tzimiskes."

In 1861, the artist made a trip to Germany, and came back in the same year began work on the creation of "Ivan the Terrible at the body of their dead son." Preparatory cardboard, made with charcoal and white lead, was shown at the 1862 exhibition of the academic work was a success and brought its creator a large silver medal. Viewers' interest was aroused by the fact that Schwartz was first moved away from the traditional interpretation of the image of the terrible king, trying to uncover a complex psychological drama domineering personality and tragic at the same time. Subsequently Stasov wrote that "such a great task of historical and psychological dared not able to take any of our painter before Schwartz."

This work marked the beginning of a series of paintings related to scenes from the era of Ivan the Terrible. In particular, he created a small picturesque scene "Ambassador Prince Vasili Kurbskii Shibanov front of Ivan the Terrible" (1862), performed 5 ink illustrations to the "Song of the Merchant Kalashnikov" by Mikhail Lermontov (1862-64) and 4 illustrate the novel A. Tolstoy "Silver Prince" (1863-65).

In 1863, Schwartz went to Paris, where he studied in the studio of the painter Jean Lefebvre historic and picturesque completed version of his board "Ivan the Terrible at the body of their dead son" (1864).