Ivan Nikolaevich Kramskoi was born on May, 27th (on June, 8th N.S.), 1837 in the town of Ostrogozhsk of the Voronezh Province, into the family of a clerk. After finishing a local district school Kramsky worked as a clerk in Ostrogozhsk duma.

In 1853 he started working as a retoucher for a Kharkov photographer. In 1856 he moved to Petersburg, where he was a retoucher in the then known photo studio of Aleksandrovsky. In 1857 Kramskoi entered the St.Petersburg Academy of Arts as a student of Professor Markov.

In 1865 Markov invited him as an assistant in painting the dome of Christ the Savior’s Cathedral in Moscow. In 1863-1868 he taught at the drawing school of the society for supporting applied arts. In 1869 Kramskoi got the rank of an academician.

Ivan Kramskoi is the famous Russian artist of genre, historical and portrait painting. He was the inspirer and a founder of the peredvizhniki movement. Ivan Nikolaevich Kramskoi created a number of portraits of outstanding Russian writers, actors and public figures; in his portraits expressive simplicity of the composition and clarity of the figure emphasize the leading part of deep psychological characterization.

Ivan Kramskoi died while painting, at his easel, on March, 24th (on April, 5th new style) 1887. The grave of Kramskoi is at the Tikhvin Cemetery in the Aleksander Nevsky Monastery, St. Petersburg.