Until the 20th century, the Academy of Arts remained the only higher artistic educational institution in Russia. Its founders are considered to be Mikhail Lomonosov and Ivan Shuvalov. Currently, the building of the former Academy of Arts houses the Saint Petersburg State Academic Institute of Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture named after I.E. Repin.

The idea of creating the Academy belonged to Peter I, who, a year before his death, issued a decree to establish an academy for the study of languages and other significant sciences and arts. However, during his lifetime, the Academy was never founded. Later, during the reign of Elizabeth Petrovna, Mikhail Lomonosov and Ivan Shuvalov raised this issue again.

The Senate established the Academy of Arts on November 6, 1757, and classes began a year later. Since there was no separate building yet, students studied in Shuvalov's mansion on Sadovaya Street.

Shuvalov played a significant role in the development of the Academy, inviting teachers from France and Germany and donating his art collection to the institution, which became the foundation for the academic museum.

Construction of the New Building

In 1764, the construction of a special stone building for the Academy of Arts began on Vasilievsky Island, and its architectural ensemble changed over one and a half centuries.

The first project of the main building was developed by architect Jean-Baptiste Vallin de la Mothe. It was a rectangular structure with a round courtyard 55 meters in diameter, which is larger than the diameter of the Pantheon in Rome, which is 43 meters.

Jean-Baptiste also designed the Academy's educational and residential facilities, connected by straight corridors. The main facade of the building faced the Neva, and about ten architects worked on its interiors.

The Academy of Arts became one of the first buildings in Saint Petersburg built in the style of early Russian classicism.