Prakhov, Adrian

Prakhov, Adrian [Прахов, Адріян; Praxov, Adrian], b 16 March 1846 in Mstsislau, Belarus, d 14 May 1916 in Yalta, Crimea. Art scholar, archeologist, and critic. A graduate of Saint Petersburg University (1867), he taught art history and theory there (1873–87, 1897–1914) and at the Saint Petersburg Academy of Arts (1875–87) and Kyiv University (1887–97). He wrote studies on ancient Egyptian and Greek art, the artistic masterpieces of Kyivan Rus’, medieval church architecture in Volhynia (1886), and Taras Shevchenko’s artworks, and served as art editor for the journals Pchela (1875–8) and Khudozhestvennyia sokrovishcha Rossii (1904–7). Having discovered the 12th-century frescoes of Saint Cyril's Church at Saint Cyril's Monastery in Kyiv in 1881–2, he invited Mikhail Vrubel to restore them, and he oversaw the construction and interior decoration work of Saint Volodymyr's Cathedral in Kyiv (1895–6).

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 4 (1993).]