Nikolay Koshelev

Who was Nikolay Koshelev?

Nikolay Andreyevich Koshelev was a Russian painter.

Koshelev was born in the village of Serman, in Penza Oblast. Being poor, Koshelev could not afford to enter the Stupin School of Painting in Arzamas, and instead became an apprentice of a local Church painter. In 1860, Koshelev travelled to St. Petersburg and studied at the Saint Petersburg School of Art. In a notable early collaboration with Ivan Kramskoi, he worked on the interior of the Salvator Cathedral. Koshelev began by painting portraits and genre art, but soon transferred mainly to historical painting. In 1873, he was made an academician and five years later a professor at the Academy. Koshelev generalized himself with the Russian academic camp of painting more so than with the association of travelling exhibitioners. In 1902, he moved to Brazil to paint the interiors of the Russian Orthodox churches located there. A set of paintings by Koshelev depicting the passion of Jesus are presented at the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral in Jerusalem.