Throughout the life of the younger brother of Ivan Nikitin, who is considered the founder of secular art in Russia, Roman Nikitich was near my brother. From its heritage we know only a few works significantly he owned. Among them — "Portrait of Grigory Dmitrievich Stroganov", clearly inferior to the known portraits of Ivan Nikitin. Clearly, what is known about the life and work of the brothers quite a bit, and information is sketchy. P. Nikitin was also in overseas, we can say that a pensioner's trip on the instructions of Peter I. Apparently, there he acquired some skills in Western painting, in Russia largely lost, for such a portrait probably made as a Parsuna (from the Latin persona — the person). So in the Russian art of the XVIII century was called the image of the real person, performed with the techniques of icon painting. However, such performance could be conscious; the brothers were independent-minded and spoke detractors insemina. And because when Anna Ivanovna both were beaten with whips and sent to Siberia. After the Empress ' death, the brothers were permitted to return to the metropolis. According to legend, I. N. Nikitin died on the way. Roman Nikitich's brother lived for a dozen years, although information about his work in the last years of life left.
