Stanislav Dospevski

He is a notable representative of the Samokov artistic school and one of the most important painters and icon-painters of the Bulgarian Revival.

He began his training in his native town, Samokov, and then continued his education in Plovdiv.

In 1850 Dospevski went to Moscow, where he started his studies at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, and later from 1853 to 1856 he studied at the Imperial Academy of Arts in St Petersburg in Fyodor Bruni’s class.

After his return to Bulgaria he took on the name of Dospevski and became a pioneer of the secular realistic portrait in Bulgarian art.

One of the elementary schools in Samokov, NU “Stanislav Dospevski”, bears his name.