Bidspirit auction | Konstantin Shapiro, Jewish photographer, Orig.

Konstantin Shapiro, Jewish photographer, Orig. Photograph /Carte de Visite of a Literary Figure, St. Petersburg, 1880’s - Konstantin Shapiro, Jewish photographer, Orig. Photograph /Carte de Visite of a Literary Figure, St. Petersburg, 1880’s Size: 11.3 x 6.8 cm. (4.4 x 2.6 inches) Light wear. (1840-1900); ”life photographer of Russian literature.” Konstantin Aleksandrovich Shapiro was born in 1840 in the city of Grodno into a poor Jewish family. Childhood and youth were spent in difficult material conditions. Since childhood, the boy was drawn to education and loved to write poetry and draw. Having reached adolescence, he left home and set off to wander the world on foot. In 1868, fate brought him to Vienna, which at that time was the “birthplace” of many innovations in photography. Here in Vienna, Konstantin Shapiro mastered the most advanced photography skills. At the end of 1868 - beginning of 1869, Shapiro appeared in St. Petersburg with the hope of opening his own photographic establishment. The laws and orders in Russia at that time were such that it was impossible for a young man of Jewish nationality to open his own business: he had to convert to Orthodoxy, after which he was allowed to open a photo studio on Nevsky Prospekt. The Viennese lessons were not in vain: “Light Painting and Painting by K. Shapiro” was awarded an honorary diploma at the All-Russian Manufacturing Exhibition of 1870 in St. Petersburg for photographic portraits. This was the photographer's first exhibition. By 1879, Konstantin Shapiro had hired almost the entire intelligentsia of St. Petersburg and Moscow, and he came up with the idea (in the likeness of A.E. Munster, who published a lithographed gallery of Russian figures in the 1860s) to release a photographic gallery. The newspaper “Moskovskie Vedomosti” wrote on January 13 and February 2, 1880: “Portrait gallery of Russian writers, scientists and artists, published by photographer Shapiro (St. Petersburg, Nevsky Prospekt No. 30).” The first issue contains portraits of I.A. Goncharov and F.M. Dostoevsky taken from life, in folio. N.A. Nekrasova, M.E. Saltykova (Shchedrin) and I.S. Turgeneva. Each portrait is surrounded by an artistically executed frame, the original for which was the border with the petition to Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich stored in the Imperial Public Library. Each portrait is accompanied by a sheet with a short biography in Russian and French. Sold in photographs by Shapiro and in Moscow from Mamontov, Gautier, Pushkarev (bookstore “Light and Shadows”), Glazunov, Avanzo and other famous booksellers... “These photographs were much larger than the so-called cabinet format.” For many years, Shapiro's photo studio was located on Nevsky Prospekt, house No. 30. At the end of 1881 - at the beginning of 1882, the studio moved to house No. 32 on Nevsky Prospect (to the house of the Roman Catholic Church). And at the same time, on the back of the form, along with the new address, the entry “Photographer of the Imperial Academy of Arts” appears. At the All-Russian Art and Industrial Exhibition of 1882 in Moscow, K. A. Shapiro presented an extensive exhibition of the “Portrait Gallery”. Here is what columnist Lev Vladimirov wrote about him on July 1, 1882 in the newspaper “Moskovskie Vedomosti”: “St. Petersburg photographer K. A. Shapiro, who undertook the publication of the “Portrait Gallery” of Russian writers, scientists and artists, has now placed at the Exhibition in the second group samples of portraits included in the specified “P. G.”. Mr. Shapiro's idea is undoubtedly a wonderful one, and one cannot help but wish further success to his enterprise. Each gallery issue contains five portraits... G. Shapiro is currently starting another cheaper People's edition of portraits of writers and scientists, called “Russian Pantheon, ” which will contain photographic portraits of both contemporary and deceased already famous figures in the field of literature and art. 138 portraits have already been prepared for the Pantheon.” For his work at the 1882 Art and Industrial Exhibition in Moscow, Shapiro received a bronze medal. For the publication of the cheap People's Pantheon, Shapiro was awarded a large silver medal (the highest honorary award for useful work) from Emperor Alexander 111 in 1883. In 1884, a message appeared on the back of the photographer’s forms that he was a participant in an exhibition in Madrid. Contemporaries appreciated the work of the photographer and artist. Already in 1884 in the album “Our Friends. Feuilleton dictionary of contemporaries. 1000 characteristics” Vl. Mikhnevich, one of the pages (248) was dedicated to the photographer: “Shapiro, a famous St. Petersburg photographer, as skillful as he was enterprising, did something more supernatural than the biblical Noah. Noah, with the help of God, collected all the clean and unclean creatures in his ark. It’s surprising, but Mr. Shapiro,