Sokolov Alexander Petrovich

The youngest son of Sokolov Pyotr Fedorovich. He studied at the 2nd St. Petersburg Gymnasium, but left it without completing the course there, and in 1847 he entered the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, from which two years later he became a student of the Imperial Academy of Arts. After completing the course there, with the title of free artist, he devoted himself to watercolor painting, mainly portraiture, and soon gained honorable fame in this field. In 1859, for portraits of Mrs. von Kruse, her children and his brother, Pyotr Petrovich Sokolov, he received the title of academician of this painting. In 1881 he joined the Association of Traveling Art Exhibitions and from that time very often appeared at them with his new works. He was especially successful in portraits of ladies, examples of which can be seen in the Imperial Museum. Alexander III, in St. Petersburg, and the Tretyakov Gallery, in Moscow. Repeatedly painted portraits of the Dowager Empress. Maria Feodorovna and other female members of the imperial family. Since 1892 he served at the Academy of Arts as the curator of its Museum.