“a St: P: B:” og “A. P. B.” are abbreviations for “in Skt. Petersborg”.

Ivan Demenievich Ligotsky was a decorative painter and known for numerous overdoors, many ceiling paintings and a few portraits. He performed decorative assignments for the Imperial Russian family at Peterhof and in the Winter Palace, but also for the nobility and the upper classes in St. Petersburg and Moscow. I. D. Ligotsky's artistic education was typical for a Russian at the time. The Russian Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg was founded in 1757 and therefore not established when Ligotsky began his artistic career. Before the academy and also during its first year of existence, it was normal for Russians to be apprenticed to European artists, primarily Italians, who were active in Russia. When it came to decorative assignments, Europeans and Russians most often worked in groups, consisting of teachers, students and graduates, who made collective works of art and rarely individual pieces. I. D. Ligotsky's schooling may explain these two overdoors with Italian fantasy landscapes, which, incidentally, were quite the rage in Russia during the second half of the 18th century. That I. D. Ligotsky is also known under the Europeanized first name Johann and sometimes spelled his surname with Latin letters as well as using different spelling shows that he was part of both Russian and European art circles. Today, he is best known from written sources. This is due to the collective works of art, which makes it difficult to distinguish the works of I. D. Ligotsky. In addition, the major subsequent wars caused quite a lot of damage to castles and mansions, whereby many of his works may have been lost. Paintings with a clear connection to his name are therefore rare. In addition to these two overdoors, two of his works are known: a portrait dated 1754 of Colonel Ivan Ivanovich Glebev (Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow) and a posthumous portrait dated 1769 depicting Countess Anna Petrovna Sheremetyeva (The State Historical Museum, Moscow).

Provenance: The Norwegian family Mathiesen, Eidsvold Iron Works and Linderud Manor.