Bogdan Pavlovich Willewalde (German: Gottfried Willewalde; January 12, 1819, Pavlovsk, Saint Petersburg - March 24, 1903, Dresden) was a Russian artist, academic, emeritus Professor of military art, and a fellow of the Imperial Academy of Arts.

Bogdan Willewalde was born in a noble family of Bavarian origin. From childhood, he was acquainted with and a playmate of the Russian Grand Dukes and intimately connected to the Imperial family and its official hierarchy.

His initial art studies were with Jungstedt, following which he was admitted to the St Petersburg Imperial Academy of Arts in 1838. He studied under Karl Bryullov and Alexander Sauerweid. In the 1840s, having achieved success in his academic studies, he was despatched abroad - to Dresden - to train in art of the war of 1813. In 1844, he was recalled to St Petersburg upon the death of Sauerweid, to finish the latter's cycle of the Russian war against Napoleon. In 1848, he was appointed as professor in the Imperial Academy of Arts, and chair of the military arts section.

Willewalde is one of the main representatives of the dominant type of battle painting of the 19th century, combining its strengths and weaknesses. He remained dependent on the academy which at the time supported and maintained the genre of military art. There were stringent requirements of the portrayer of war, given the development of realism in art in general: accurate representation especially in the form and presentation of the participating troops; it was to reflect the official position on that war, remaining reliant on the official dispatches. Willewalde's entire oeuvre was circumscribed by these demands: accuracy, depicting the truth as represented by the Russian authorities, finely finished, but never causing worry.

From Wikipedia

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