The edifice for the academy was built in 1764-89 to a design by Jean-Baptiste Vallin de la Mothe and Alexander F. Kokorinov.

The Imperial Academy of Arts, informally known as St Petersburg Academy of Arts, was opened by Count Ivan Shuvalov under the name of the Academy of Three Noblest Arts in 1757. The Academy of Arts on the bank of the Neva river (1905). ... The Academy of Arts on the bank of the Neva river (1905). ... Saint Petersburg (Russian: Санкт-Петербу́рг, English transliteration: Sankt-Peterburg), colloquially known as Питер (transliterated Piter), formerly known as Leningrad (Ленингра́д, 1924–1991) and Petrograd (Петрогра́д, 1914–1924), is a city located in Northwestern Russia on the delta of the river Neva at the east end of the Gulf of Finland... 1757 was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ...

The academy had been allocated in Shuvalov's house at Sadovaya Street until 1764, when Catherine the Great renamed it into the Imperial Academy of Arts and commissioned its first rector, Alexander Kokorinov, to design a new building for the academy. It took 25 years to construct the Neoclassical edifice, which faces the Winter Palace from the other bank of the Neva River. Konstantin Thon was responsible for the sumptuous decoration of the interiors. He also designed a quayside in front of the edifice and adorned it with 3000-year-old sphinxes and griffins, which had to be brought from Egypt. Portrait of Countess Catherine P. Shuvalova, 1770s, by Greuze. ... 1764 was a leap year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... Catherine II (Екатерина II Алексеевна: Yekaterína II Alekséyevna, April 21, 1729 - November 6, 1796), born Sophie Augusta Fredericka, known as Catherine the Great, reigned as empress of Russia from June 28, 1762, to her death on November 6, 1796. ... The word rector (ruler, from the Latin regere) has a number of different meanings. ... Kokorinovs portrait by Dmitry Levitsky. ... Neoclassicism (sometimes rendered as Neo-Classicism or Neo-classicism) is the name given to quite distinct movements in the visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture. ... Located between the bank of the Neva River and the Palace Square, the Winter Palace in St. ... River Neva (Нева́) is a 74 km long Russian river flowing from the Lake Ladoga (Ладожское Озеро - Ladozhskoye Ozero) through the Carelian Isthmus (Карельский Перешеек - Karelskii Peresheyek) and the city of Saint Petersburg (Санкт-Петербург - Sankt Peterburg) to the Gulf of Finland (Финский Залив - Finskii Zaliv). ... Annunciation church in St. ... A quay, pronounced key, is a wharf or bank where ships and other vessels are loaded. ... The Great Sphinx of Giza, with the Pyramid of Khafre in the background. ... The Griffin in (Persian شیردال‌ shir-dal meaning lion eagle) (also spelled gryphon and, less commonly, gryphen, griffon, griffen, or gryphin) is a legendary creature with the body of a lion and the head and wings of an eagle. ...

The Imperial Academy of Arts was actually a government department regulating art life in the country, distributing orders and awarding ranks to the artists. The academy vigorously promoted the principles of Neoclassicism by sending the most notable Russian painters abroad, in order to learn the ancient and Renaissance art of Italy and France. It also had its own sizable collection of choice artworks intended for study and copying. The Renaissance was a social, cultural and economic revolution which began a period of scientific revolution, religious reform, artistic and architectural development, and philosophical openness, and marks the beginning of modern European history. ...

Egyptian sphinxes lining Academy Quay (1835).

In the mid-19th-century the Academism of training staff, much influenced by the doctrines of Ingres, was challenged by a younger generation of Russian artists who asserted their freedom to paint realistic subjects. This movement, now known as Peredvizhniki, with Ivan Kramskoi as its leader, publicly broke up with the Academy and started its own exhibitions, moved from town to town across Russia. Ilya Repin, Mikhail Vrubel and some other painters, however, still regarded the academy training as indispensable for development of basic professional skills. Image File history File links Sphinxes. ... Image File history File links Sphinxes. ... Academic art was an art movement, and a style of painting that was in fashion in Europe from the 17th to the 19th century. ... This article is about a relational database system. ... Realism is commonly defined as a concern for fact or reality and rejection of the impractical and visionary. ... Peredvizhniki (Передвижники, in Russian) - the Russian artists-realists entering into Company of mobile art exhibitions (1870-1923). ... Ivan Nikolaevich Kramskoi (1837 - 1887) was a Russian painter and the art critic. ... Ilyá Yefímovich Répin (Илья́ Ефи́мович Ре́пин) (August 5, 1844 (Julian calendar: July 24) – September 29, 1930) was a leading Russian painter and sculptor of the Peredvizhniki artistic school. ... Self-portrait, 1885 Mikhail Aleksandrovich Vrubel (Russian: Михаил Александрович Врубель;March 17, 1856 - April 14, 1910, all n. ...

After the Russian Revolution of 1917 the academy passed through a series of transformations. It was successively renamed Russian Academy of Arts in 1933, the Academy of Arts of the USSR in 1947, and back the Russian Academy of Arts in 1991. The current Russian Academy of Arts is headquartered in Moscow (since 1947). Now the historical building on the Neva river is the home of the University with the official name Saint Petersburg Academic Institute for Painting, Sculpture and Architecture named after Ilya Repin, but that is still informally referred as the Saint Petersburg Academy of Arts. The Russian Revolution of 1917 was a series of political events in Russia, which, after the elimination of the Russian autocracy system, and the Provisional Government (Duma), resulted in the establishment of the Soviet power under the control of the Bolshevik party. ... Moscow (Russian: Москва́, Moskva, IPA: (help· info)) is the capital of Russia and the countrys principal political, economic, financial, educational and transportation center, located on the river Moskva. ... 1947 (MCMXLVII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ...

See also

• Academic art
• Peredvizhniki
• Alexander Kokorinov