The artist is unknown
Betskoy Ivan Ivanovich (1704-1795) – prominent figure of Russian education, personal secretary of Empress Catherine II (1762-1779), president of the Imperial Academy of Arts (1763–1795), initiator of the creation of the Smolny Institute and the Educational House. He headed the Stone Structure Commission in St. Petersburg and Moscow. The illegitimate son of the prince and.YU. Trubetskoy. Born in Stockholm, where his father was captured, childhood passed there. He was educated in the cadet corps in Copenhagen, served in the Danish Cavalry Regiment. He traveled around Europe (1722-1726), was a secretary at Russian after. In Russia-the adjutant outbuilding, served in the College of Foreign Affairs (1729). Retired (1747) and went abroad. He returned to St. Petersburg (1762), appointed chief director of the office of the buildings and houses of His Majesty, president of the Academy of Arts (1763), the trustee and head of the “Educational Society of Noble Maidens” (Smolny Institute), the chief of the land gentry corps (1765), controlled the activities of educational and educational and activities educational institutions. Led the work related to the construction "Copper horseman" E. Falcone, the Granite Embankment of the Neva, the manufacture of the famous forged lattice of the summer garden and others. He was engaged in charity work, for the establishment of scholarships at his own expense received a large gold medal from the Senate (1772). Buried in the Alexander Nevsky Lavra. On his tombstone, a medallion with the image and the words: “For love for the Fatherland”, below, the inscription “What deserved in his useful days” is placed on his tombstone.
