Happy Birthday, Vasily!

Born today in 1848 in Krasnoyarsk, Vasily Ivanovich Surikov (Василий Иванович Суриков).

He is probably the foremost Russian painter of large-scale historical subjects, which often focused on events that resonated with the ordinary person. His major pieces are among the best-known paintings in Russia.

Below is his portrait of the Bronze Horseman - Peter I (the Great) in St Petersburg - and depiction of the arrest of the Boyarina Feodosia Morozova, a prominent Old Believer (the sign she's making to the crowd is of the two fingers used to cross oneself in Old Believer fashion - notice the beggar responding in like fashion).