Vladimir Lukich Borovikovsky (1757 – 1825)    

• Was a Russian artist of Ukrainian Cossack origin.
• Vladimir Borovikovsky was born in Mirgorod, Cossack Hetmanate, Russian Empire (now Ukraine).
• His father, Luka Borovik, was an icon-painter.
• Borovikovsky lived in Mirgorod until 1788, where he painted icons and portraits in the Cossack Baroque tradition.
• His friend Vasily Kapnist was preparing an accommodation for Empress Catherine II in Kremenchuk during her travel.
• Kapnist asked Borovikovsky to paint two allegoric paintings for her rooms.
• The paintings so pleased the Empress that she requested that the painter move to Saint Petersburg.
• After September 1788 Borovikovsky lived in Saint Petersburg where he changed his surname from the Cossack Borovik to the more aristocratic-sounding Borovikovsky.

• At the age of 30 years, he attended St. Petersburg Imperial Academy of Arts.

• He took private lessons from Dmitry Levitzky and later from Austrian painter Johann Baptist Lampi. 

• In 1795 he was appointed an academician.

• He became a popular portrait painter and created about 500 portraits during his lifetime.

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