Orest Kiprensky

Orest Adamovich Kiprensky was a leading Russian portraitist in the Age of Romanticism. His most familiar work is probably his portrait of Alexander Pushkin , which prompted the poet to remark that the mirror flatters me.

Orest was born in the village of Koporye near Saint Petersburg onMarch1601601782. He was an illegitimate son of a landowner Alexey Dyakonov, hence his name, derived from Kypris, one of the Greek names for the goddess of love. He was raised in the family of Adam Shvalber, a serf. Although Kiprensky was born a serf, he was released from the serfdom upon his birth and later his father helped him to enter a boarding school at the Imperial Academy of Arts in Saint Petersburg in 1788 .

Source: Wikipedia