Brief Biography-Bogdan Pavlovich Willewalde was born in Saint Petersburg to a noble family with royal connections. In 1838, the Imperial Academy of Arts admitted him; his masters were Alexander Sauerweid and Karl Bryullov. He spent several years in Dresden before being chosen to work on Sauerweid’s war paintings in Saint Petersburg when Sauerweid died in 1844. The artist Horace Vernet strongly influenced Willewalde. When in the Russian army, he travelled extensively, sketching numerous famous battle scenes. He gained the respect of the royal court and painted several royal events during the remainder of his career and became the principal of the military art section of the Imperial Academy of Arts until the 1890s. He received many awards and was a fellow of the Academic Council of the Imperial Academy of Arts in 1894. One of his better-known pupils was Lev Feliksovich Lagorio. Willewalde retired to Dresden, where his family originated and died in 1903.