Michael Gavrilovitch Biriukov. An unknown portrait of Prince Grigorii Aleksandrovitch Potemkin-Tavricheskii. 1789

Abstract

This article examines a portrait of Prince Grigorii Aleksandrovitch Potemkin, recently discovered by professor Yuri Schmavonovich Abramov (Saint Petersburg) and currently kept in his collection. The portrait bears a signature: “Copied by a 5th stage (5th “vozrast”) student M. Biriukov, in the year 1789”. Michael Gavrilovitch Biriukov (September 1st 1770 – July 12th 1809) studied at St. Petersburg Academy of Arts from 1776, under tuition of S.S. Shchukin. In 1791 he completed, together with a co-student N.A. Siniavski, an academic programme on the following subject: “present a female in Russian dress in the occupation suitable to her sex” (now lost). In the same year he was chosen to stay on at the Academy as a stipendiat (“pensionnaire”). His later life remains unknown. In an attempt to identify the author of the original, copied by Biriukov, this text suggests Michael Shibanov, the painter to Grigorii Potemkin, as a most likely candidate.