Piotr Feodorovich SOKOLOV
1791–1848, Russia

Sokolov was born in Moscow, but lived and worked in St. Petersburg. He studied at the Imperial Academy (1800-1810) under Egorov and Shebuyev. He is considered the founder of the Russian school of watercolour portraits, and was the first Russian to utilise pure watercolour without the addition of white or gouache. From 1820-40 these small scale intimate watercolour portraits began replacing portrait miniatures as the fashionable souvenir; Sokolov was a popular figure with the Russian aristocracy, who were in the habit of commissioning wedding portraits from him. He died of cholera near Kharkov.

Source: Stockholms Auktionsverk, Stockholm Sweden