Valery Jacobi

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Valery Jacobi (1834–1902) was a Russian painter known for historical scenes and for helping found the Peredvizhniki group. Born in the Kazan region, he left Kazan University to join the Crimean War, then chose art in 1856. He studied at the Imperial Academy of Arts, winning a small gold medal for Serene Holiday of a Beggar (1860). He painted The Prisoner's Rest (1861) and traveled in Europe from 1861 to 1869.

In 1870 he helped create the Peredvizhniki, but was expelled in 1872 for not taking part in exhibitions and for disagreements, and he later leaned toward more conservative views. He was elected Imperial Academician in 1868, became a professor in 1871, and taught at the Academy from 1878 to 1889. His Saint Petersburg works, including Jesters at the Court of Anna Ioanovna (1872) and Ice Palace (1878), were sometimes criticized as decorative and lacking substance. He retired before the academy reform of 1893 and spent much of his later life abroad, in Algeria and France. He died in Nice, France, in 1902 and is buried in Caucade Cemetery. He was the elder brother of Pavel Jacobi and his partner from 1861 to 1872 was Alexandra Peshkova-Toliverova.