Nikolay Petrovich Bogdanov-Belsky (Russian: Николай Петрович Богданов-Бельский; 20 December [O.S.

He studied at the elementary school where his teacher was Рачинский, Сергей Александрович [ru], then studied icon-painting at the Troitse-Sergiyeva Lavra in 1883, modern painting at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture in 1884 to 1889, and at the Imperial Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg from 1894 to 1895.

He worked and studied in private studios in Paris in the late 1890s.

Realist art was strongly disfavored by the Soviet Union, compelling the artist to relocate to Riga in 1921.

Due to illness, he was taken to a Berlin clinic and was killed on February 19, 1945 as a result of Allied bombing.