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Andrei Ryabushkin
Andrei Petrovich Ryabushkin was born in the Stanitsa Settlement of the Tambov Province on October 29, 1861. His father and his elder brother were engaged in iconography, and he assisted them with work. At the age of 14 Andrei Ryabushkin became an orphan. Fortunately, his talents were noticed by A. Kh. Preobrazhensky, a student of the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture who was staying in the village. 
He took Andrei Ryabushkin to Moscow and put him in a college.
The latter did not finish college; instead he moved to St. Petersburg and entered the Academy of Arts in 1882. During the studies, in particular in the life-study classes conducted by P. P. Chistyakov he showed himself as an independent and courageous artist. His graduation work was dedicated to the biblical plot Descent from the Cross (1890). When travelings across Russia the artist embraced Russian history and the national epos.
In the 1890s Andrei Ryabushkin painted on a by-order basis, created drawings and water colors for all sorts of periodicals and publications, as well as sketches for the would-be frescoes of St. Sophia Cathedral in Novgorod. Moscow Street of the 17th Century (1896) became his prominent historical painitng of that period.
The artist paid great attention to the Russian landscapes. His decorative manner was based on tradition of Russian iconography and fresco painting. In 1901 he created one of his best works, The Wedding Train in Moscow. It depicts Moscow of the 17th century. In 1913 the painting was sold by the collector S. A. Shcherbatov to the Tretyakov Gallery.
In the last years of his life Andrei Ryabushkin was fond of illustrating the Russian epics (bylinas) and peasant tales.
The artist died in the manor of his friend, the artist Vasily Belyaev in the Didvino Estate of the Novgorod Province and was buried in the nearby cemetery in Dobroye Selo. His ashes were reburied in the Lyubansky city cemetery in 1957, with a monument set up on his grave.
