En
Ru
Statesman, patron of arts and sciences, General-Adjutant Ivan Ivanovich Shuvalov was born
On November 1 (12) 1727 in Moscow in the family of a nobleman, captain of the Guards, was born Ivan Ivanovich Shuvalov, General-Adjutant, statesman, first curator of the Moscow University, founder and the first president of the Academy of Fine Arts, founder of the Kazan gymnasium, the “Moscow Bulletin” newspaper, collector and philanthropist.
I.I. Shuvalov received home education and had quite a good command of French and German. In November 1741 Ivan’s cousins — gentlemen of the monarch’s bed chamber Pyotr and Alexander Shuvalov, who lived in Petersburg, played an important role in the palace revolution, which enabled the daughter of Peter I Elizabeth to mount the Russian throne. Due to their patronage in 1742 Shuvalov, who was notable not only for his “virtue and diligence in studying” but also for good looks, became a page at the royal court. Later he got the position of a gentleman of the monarch’s bed chamber and won the empress’s favor.
A brilliant position at the court opened up great opportunities for a young dignitary. However he displayed a keener interest in books and art — he was famous for being a patron and an admirer of sciences and arts, he read a lot, managed to collect a good library, conducted correspondence with world-famous western enlighteners like Claude Adrien Helvétius, François-Marie Arouet Voltaire, Denis Diderot, Jean-Baptiste le Rond d'Alembert. Shuvalov was a supporter of the plan on the Moscow University foundation, worked out by M.V. Lomonosov, and after its opening in 1755 he became its first curator (warden).
Following the initiative of Shuvalov in 1757 was founded the Academy of Fine Arts. Ivan Ivanovich invited best professors from abroad to deliver lectures at the academy, while in 1758 he initiated a museum collection, and donated a large collection of pictures and paintings by European masters, as well as a library to the Academy. Shuvalov was the one who worked out the project “Institutions of the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts”, as well as its regulations and staff, which remained practically untouched during the second Academy’s President I.I. Betskiy and was approved in 1764.
As Catherine II seized the throne Shuvalov’s position at court was shaken, and shortly thereafter the death of his brother Pyotr Ivanovich and his wife, and his own state of health forced him to leave homeland. He had been staying abroad for 14 years. When living in Italy Shuvalov continued patronizing Russian artists, and also ordered copies of famous antique statues for the Academy of Fine Arts. His return to Russia in autumn 1777 was welcomed with a number of poems of praise.
At Shuvalov’s house gathered highly-educated people of that time: Princess Ye.R. Dashkova, Count P.V. Zavadovsky, senator, state’s secretary of Empress Catherine II A.V. Khrapovitsky, A.N. Olenin, writers O.P. Kozodavlev, G.R. Derzhavin, D.I. Fonvizin, M.M. Kheraskov.
Ivan Ivanovich Shuvalov passed away on November 14 (25) 1797 and was buried in the Annunciation Church of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra in St. Petersburg.
Lit.: Анисимов Е. В. И. И. Шувалов — деятель российского просвещения // Вопросы истории. 1985. № 7; Анисимов Е. В. Иван Иванович Шувалов, или идеальный фаворит // Дело. 2002. 12 августа; И. И. Шувалов — de facto первый президент Академии [Электронный ресурс] // Российская Академия художеств. 2008-2018. URL: http://www.rah.ru/the_academy_today/the_members_of_the_academie/member.php?ID=17306.
Based on the Presidential Library’s materials: