The hardest and longest road is the one that leads to penal servitude. Children, old men and the sick often found it impossible to cover the thousands of miles to Siberia. Valery Jacoby s picture conveys the harsh sufferings of convicted people. The painting elicited a lively response from his contempo¬raries. The canvas won the artist fame, popularity and the official recognition of the Imperial Acade¬my of Arts, which awarded him a major gold medal.

Jacoby Valery

Jacoby, Valery Ivanovich
1830, Kudryakovo (Kazan Province) å 1902, Nice
Painter, genre artist, history painter. Studied at the Kazan Grammar School and Kazan University. JoinedtheSimbirskHomeGuardduringtheCrimean War (1854–1855). Studied under Alexei Markov at the Imperial Academy of Arts (1856–1861). First-class artist (1861), fellow of the Imperial Academy of Arts in Germany, Switzerland, France and Italy (1862–1868). Academician(1868), professor(1871). Founding member of the Society of Travelling Art Exhibitions (1870). Taught at the Imperial Acade¬my of Arts (1878–1889), headed the history paint-ing class (from 1883). Councillor of the Imperial Academy of Arts (1878). Worked at the World Ex¬ hibition in Paris (1878). Member of the Society of Exhibitions of Works of Art (1876–1890). Made al¬most annual visits to South Europe and North Africa (from 1880s). Contributed to exhibitions (from 1858).