Pyotr Zakharovich Zakharov-Chechenets was a Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

n painter of Chechen

Chechen people

Chechens constitute the largest native ethnic group originating in the North Caucasus region. They refer to themselves as Noxçi . Also known as Sadiks , Gargareans, Malkhs...

 origin. He is believed to be the only professional painter of Chechen origin in the 19th century and might be the first professional Chechen painter ever.

In 1819 during the Caucasian War

Caucasian War

The Caucasian War of 1817–1864, also known as the Russian conquest of the Caucasus was an invasion of the Caucasus by the Russian Empire which ended with the annexation of the areas of the North Caucasus to Russia...

 Russian troops found a dead woman and a dying wounded three-year old baby in the Chechen aul

Aul

An aul is a type of fortified village found throughout the Caucasus mountains, especially in Dagestan.The word itself is of Turkic origine and means simply village in many Turkic languages....

 Dady-Yurt. The commander-in-chief

Commander-in-Chief

A commander-in-chief is the commander of a nation's military forces or significant element of those forces. In the latter case, the force element may be defined as those forces within a particular region or those forces which are associated by function. As a practical term it refers to the military...

 of the Russian army Aleksey Petrovich Yermolov

Aleksey Petrovich Yermolov

Aleksey Petrovich Yermolov , or Ermolov , was a Russian Imperial general of the 19th century who commanded Russian troops in the Caucasus War.-Early life:...

 ordered military medics to do everything possible to save this baby despite all medical advice saying that it was impossible. Against all the odds the baby survived. The baby was given for nursing to Cossack

Cossack

Cossacks are a group of predominantly East Slavic people who originally were members of democratic, semi-military communities in what is today Ukraine and Southern Russia inhabiting sparsely populated areas and islands in the lower Dnieper and Don basins and who played an important role in the...

 Zakhar Nedonosov. From the name of this Cossack the baby got his surname and patronymic

Patronymic

A patronym, or patronymic, is a component of a personal name based on the name of one's father, grandfather or an even earlier male ancestor. A component of a name based on the name of one's mother or a female ancestor is a matronymic. Each is a means of conveying lineage.In many areas patronyms...

. Later Pyotr appended the word Chechenets to his surname in order to show his ethnic identity.

At the age of seven Pyotr was adopted by Major-General Pyotr Yermolov, Commanger of Georgia

Georgia (country)

Georgia is a sovereign state in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded to the west by the Black Sea, to the north by Russia, to the southwest by Turkey, to the south by Armenia, and to the southeast by Azerbaijan. The capital of...

n Grenadier regiment and a cousin of Aleksey Petrovich Yermolov. Despite having seven children of his own, Pyotr Yermolov liked Zakharov very much and treated him as his own son.

The boy showed talent in painting and Pyotr Yermolov tried to send him to the Imperial Academy of Arts

Imperial Academy of Arts

The Russian Academy of Arts, informally known as the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts, was founded in 1757 by Ivan Shuvalov under the name Academy of the Three Noblest Arts. Catherine the Great renamed it the Imperial Academy of Arts and commissioned a new building, completed 25 years later in 1789...

 in Saint Petersburg

Saint Petersburg

Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...

 but he was rejected. The president of the Academy, Aleksey Olenin, claimed that the 10-year old boy was too young to study at the Academy and recommended hiring a private teacher. The boy got his lessons from the portraitist Lev Volkov.

At the age of 17, he eventually entered the Academy and graduated in 1835 with a diploma of Free Artist. During his study at the Academy he got positive acclaims for his works and was recommended for a scholarship to study art in Italy. The trip might have been helpful both for Zakharov's artistic growth and for his health as he started to show signs of tuberculosis

Tuberculosis

Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...

.
Nevertheless Zakharov's name was withdrawn from the list for the scholarship by Emperor Nicholas I of Russia

Nicholas I of Russia

Nicholas I , was the Emperor of Russia from 1825 until 1855, known as one of the most reactionary of the Russian monarchs. On the eve of his death, the Russian Empire reached its historical zenith spanning over 20 million square kilometers...

 himself as he insisted that national minorities (inorodtsy

Inorodtsy

Inorodtsy , is a legal term used in the Russian Empire in reference to non-Slavic population of the Empire. Literally meaning "of different descent/nation", it is sometimes translated as allogeneous and sometimes as "aliens"...

) should not benefit from the Academy's scholarships. Another misfortune was soon to follow as Zakarov's first teacher, Lev Volkov, refused to allow his daughter to marry Zakharov despite the young people being madly in love. Instead Volkov had her sent to relatives in the Caucasus with an order to marry her off to any first-comer just to stop the affair.

Zakharov worked a lot and soon became a fashionable portraitist. His clients even included the favorite daughter of Nicholas I, Grand Duchess Maria Nikolayevna and her future husband Maximilian, Duke of Leuchtenberg

Maximilian, Duke of Leuchtenberg

Maximilian Joseph Eugene Auguste Napoleon de Beauharnais , 3rd Duke of Leuchtenberg, 3rd Prince of Venice Prince des Français and Hereditary Prince of the Kingdom of Italy and claimant to the Grand Duchy of Frankfurt was the husband of Grand Duchess Maria Nikolayevna of...

. In 1837 he was admitted to the state service as an Artist at the Military Department. In 1842 the Portrait of Aleksey Petrovich Yermolov caused him to become a member of the Academy of Arts.

On 14 January 1846 Zakharov married his beloved bride but their happiness was short. On June 13 his wife died from tuberculosis and a few months later Zakharov died from the same disease.

Many works of Zakharov-Chechenets are kept in the Tretyakov Gallery

Tretyakov Gallery

The State Tretyakov Gallery is an art gallery in Moscow, Russia, the foremost depository of Russian fine art in the world.The gallery's history starts in 1856 when the Moscow merchant Pavel Mikhailovich Tretyakov acquired works by Russian artists of his day with the aim of creating a collection,...

 and in the Russian Museum

Russian Museum

The State Russian Museum is the largest depository of Russian fine art in St Petersburg....

. The Art Museum in the capital of Chechnya

Chechnya

The Chechen Republic , commonly referred to as Chechnya , also spelled Chechnia or Chechenia, sometimes referred to as Ichkeria , is a federal subject of Russia . It is located in the southeastern part of Europe in the Northern Caucasus mountains. The capital of the republic is the city of Grozny...

, Grozny

Grozny

Grozny is the capital city of the Chechen Republic, Russia. The city lies on the Sunzha River. According to the preliminary results of the 2010 Census, the city had a population of 271,596; up from 210,720 recorded in the 2002 Census. but still only about two-thirds of 399,688 recorded in the 1989...

 also used to have many of his works including his Selfportrait, and Portrait of I.F. Ladygensky. In 1995 during the First Chechen War

First Chechen War

The First Chechen War, also known as the War in Chechnya, was a conflict between the Russian Federation and the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, fought from December 1994 to August 1996...

 the Grozny Museum was heavily damaged and the paintings were all but destroyed. Since 1995 they are being restored at the Grabar Restoration Center in Moscow

Moscow

Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...

.