Gravestone of Nikolai Utkin

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Nikolai Ivanovich Utkin was a renowned Russian artist, engraver, and illustrator born on May 19, 1780, in Tver, Russia. He spent his early years at the Hermitage Museum as curator of prints and superintendent of the museum's Imperial Academy of Arts division. Utkin's mother was a serf on Mikhail Nikitich Muravyov's estate, who is believed to be Utkin's biological father. After Nikolai's birth, they moved to Saint Petersburg in 1785, where his education began at the Imperial Academy's primary school. By the age of fourteen, Utkin had demonstrated exceptional drawing skills and was transferred to the engraving school, where he studied under Antoine Radigues and Ignatz Klauber. Four years later, Utkin created eighteen engravings of antique statues, earning him a gold medal and allowing him to continue his education at the Academy for three more years. In 1802, he was awarded another gold medal that granted him permission to travel abroad; he took advantage of this opportunity in 1803 by leaving for Paris. While in Paris, Utkin worked at Charles Clément Balvay's workshop, where he helped fulfill orders and studied alongside other artists. In 1810, he exhibited his work at the Salon, receiving a gold medal from the Académie des Beaux-Arts and earning the title of "Academician" from the Imperial Academy. During Napoleon's invasion of Russia, Utkin was placed under house arrest and police surveillance for two years until Napoleon's defeat. After his release, he returned to Saint Petersburg and took on Klauber's positions at the Academy and the Hermitage. In 1819, Utkin was appointed official engraver to the Tsar at a salary of 3,000 rubles per year. His students included Antoni Oleszczyński, Fyodor Iordan, and Georg Johann Heitman. Additionally, Utkin provided illustrations for works by Vasily Zhukovsky and Gavrila Derzhavin, as well as a translation of the Iliad by Nikolai Gnedich. Utkin became a Professor in 1831 and was named Professor Emeritus in 1840. He handed over his engraving class to Iordan in 1850 and received an embossed gold medallion from the Academy in 1860. His final known work, depicting the Holy Family, was completed just before his death on March 17, 1863. In 1932, the State Museum of City Sculptures was founded to study, restore, and protect city sculptures and gravestones. The museum has several branches around Saint Petersburg, with the main ones concentrated within the former territory of the Aleksandro-Nevsky Lavra, which was granted to the museum upon its founding. The Aleksandro-Nevsky Lavra's Tikhvinskoe Cemetery was established in 1823 and named after the Our Lady of Tikhvin Church built between 1869 and 1873. In 1931, the church was closed, and in 1932, the cemetery became a branch of the State Museum of City Sculptures known as the Necropolis of Masters of Culture. This branch is named after many leading figures of Russian culture who have been laid to rest there, including writers Fyodor Dostoevsky, Nikolai Karamzin, and Ivan Krylov; composers Aleksandr Borodin, Mikhail Glinka, Modest Musorgsky, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, and Pyotr Tchaikovsky; and artists Boris Kustodiev, Ivan Kramskoy, and Ivan Shishkin.