Peter
Mikhailovich Shamshin

Historical painter, the son of an academic painter, who taught drawing classes at the Imperial Academy of Arts, ten years of age was defined in its pupils and it was among the pupils of Professor P. basin.

Graduated from the Academy in 1833 with the title of artist XIV class and with a small gold medal received for the painting "Hector in lozhnitse Helena accuses Paris of inaction". In 1836, for the painting "the massacre of the children of Niobe," he was awarded a gold medal. Going in the same year to Italy, stayed there for seven years and on his return to St. Petersburg made an art teacher in the classrooms of the Academy.

In 1844, the paintings: "Hagar in the wilderness" and "Peter the Great in a storm at Lahti," received the title of academician in 1853, for a large image: "Resurrection" (located in the chapel of the Academy), increased from this title to the degree of Professor, in 1859, due to changes in the Charter Academy, renamed from teachers to associate professors, in 1863, produced in professors 1-St degree, in 1883 he was appointed rector of painting and sculpture and, finally, shortly before his death, with the introduction of the new Charter Academy, dismissed.

A skilled draftsman routine academic direction, cold in his compositions and unimportant colorist, Shamshin dealt almost exclusively ecclesiastical painting. His image and the wall paintings are in many churches of St. Petersburg, namely St. Isaac's Cathedral, Church of St. Mirone, life Jaeger regiment, the Annunciation of the life guards cavalry regiment, the Greek Embassy, Pavlovsk Institute, University, engineering schools, post office ("the Vision of St. Constantine"), as well as in the Moscow Cathedral of the Savior (paintings on the walls of the chapel of St. Nicholas and the big picture "Candlemas") in Gatchina city Council, in the Zion Cathedral in Tiflis, in the Church in Ivangorod Narva, Ujazdowski hospital in Warsaw, the Russian Embassy in Athens and some others. In the Imperial Hermitage hall Etrusca them painted vases. Of the few paintings Shamshina on subjects from Russian history, only two were on public exhibition: the above image is an episode from the life of Peter the Great (in 1844) and "the Calling of Mikhail Fedorovich to the Kingdom" (1876).