A small portrait from the museum’s collection shows Pavel Nikolayevich Demidov (1798–1840) at a young age. This representative of a famous industrial dynasty was known as a philanthropist, patron of sciences and arts, State Counselor, and governor of the Kursk Governorate from 1831 to 1834.
Throughout his life, he considered it his duty to make numerous donations. In 1830, Pavel Nikolayevich established annual Demidov Prizes in the amount of 25 thousand rubles, which were awarded to scientists for the best research papers published in Russian. The laureates included famous researchers Dmitry Ivanovich Mendeleev, Ivan Fyodorovich Kruzenstern, Boris Semyonovich Jacobi, and Nikolay Ivanovich Pirogov. The prizes raised the prestige of Russian scientific works in society and encouraged young and talented scientists.
Pavel Demidov was elected an honorary member of the St. Petersburg Imperial and Russian Academies of Sciences, the Moscow and Kharkov Universities, and the Free Economic Society. Together with his brother Anatoly Demidov, he patronized the construction of the Nikolayevsky Children’s Hospital in St. Petersburg. In Kursk, he built four hospitals for cholera patients.
As a child, Pavel Demidov lived with his father first in Vienna at the Russian Embassy, then in Paris, where he studied at the prestigious Napoleon Lyceum. At the age of 14, in 1812, he began serving the Fatherland as a member of the Demidov Regiment, which was equipped by his father. For his participation in the Battle of Borodino, Pavel Demidov was promoted to ensign and transferred to the Pernovsky Grenadier Regiment.
The portrait was probably painted around that period. The fact that it was created on iron and appeared in the collection of the Nizhny Tagil Museum-Reserve suggests that the work was painted in Nizhny Tagil. At the same time, Pavel Demidov did not visit his Nizhny Tagil estate, especially at such a young age. Most likely, it is a copy, which was made from a painting by one of the Nizhny Tagil artists. However, it is unknown under what circumstances and upon whose commission it was created. Pavel Demidov died in Mainz of heart failure. He was buried in the Tikhvin cemetery of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra in St. Petersburg.
