Rudolph Kesarev

225. Jesus Christ at the Temple 1997 egg tempera on board, 12 1/2 x 10 inches Orig. Price $1200 Sale Price $400 SOLD

Rudolph Alexandrovich Kesarev was born in St. Petersburg on November 30, 1941, while the city was under siege from the German army during World War II. Out of his childhood experiences was born the passion for preserving history and life through art. In 1963, he began work as an apprentice artist in an advertising agency, attending art classes at night.

From 1968 to 1971 he worked as a restorer of wooden artifacts at the Museum of the Academy of Arts of the USSR. After three years' experience he was selected to become a student at the Repin Art Institute. In 1977, Kesarev graduated from this prestigious art school, known as the Academy of Fine Arts before the Revolution. He received a high government honor for his restoration of famous Russian works of art from the seventeenth century. Kesarev currently works as an artist-restorer in the Russian Museum in St. Petersburg. He is a member of the Artists' Union of Russia.

Kesarev has perfected the traditional style of reproducing the works of the old masters. He ensures that he matches the original paint as closely as possible and employs the same type of brush as the old master might have used. He has been entrusted with some of the oldest and most valuable icons of the Russian Orthodox Church and is one of the most accomplished reproducers of art in Russia today. He has been working for Masterpiece Art since 1995.