Benjamin Patersen

Russian postage stamp with Patersen's view of the English Embankment.

Benjamin Patersen, or Patersson (Russian: Бенжамен Патерсен; 2 September 1748/50, in Varberg 1815, in Saint Petersburg) was a Swedish-born Russian painter and engraver; known primarily for his cityscapes.

Biography

His father was a customs clerk. He received his artistic education in Göteborg with Simon Fick, a local church painter, and became a member of the Society of Artists. From 1774 to 1786, he worked in Riga. In 1787, he went to Saint Petersburg and placed an advertisement in the newspaper, Vedomosti, offering his services as a painter. He was married there in 1791.

He established himself as a portrait and genre painter, but is best known for his views of Saint Petersburg. He created over 100 of them; 33 in oil, the rest watercolors or tinted engravings. Collectively, they represent an irreplaceable historical record of the city as it was at that time.

He never lost touch with Sweden, however. In 1790, he began sending his works to the annual exhibitions at the Royal Swedish Academy of Arts and, in 1798, he was named a member. Around 1800, on a commission by Tsar Paul I, he created a series of works depicting the banks of the Neva, which earned him an appointment as court painter. Most of his works are currently held by the Hermitage and the Pushkin Museum.

Selected works

• 
  Neva Gate,
  Peter and Paul Fortress
• 
  Senate Square
• 
  Green Bridge
• 
  Great Gostiny Dvor

Sources

• Komelova, G. N. (1984). Петербург конца XVIII – начала XIX века в акварелях и гравюрах Бенжамена Патерсена [Petersburg of the XVIII – XIX Centuries in Watercolours and Engravings by Benjamin Patersen] (in Russian). Moscow: ‘Izobrazitelynoe Iskusstvo’ Publishing House.
• Bengt, Jangfeldt (2010). От варягов до Нобеля. Шведы на берегах Невы [Since the Varangians to Nobel: the Swedes on the Banks of Neva] (in Russian). Moscow: ‘Lomonosov’ Publishing House. p. 392. ISBN 978-591678-041-3.

External links

Media related to Benjamin Patersen at Wikimedia Commons