Alexei Beketov

Alexei Nikolayevich Beketov (Russian: Алексей Николаевич Бекетов; 3 March 1862, Kharkov, Russian Empire — 23 November 1941, Kharkov, Ukrainian SSR) was a Russian Imperial and later a Soviet architect, in the Classical style. He was an honorary Professor at the St. Petersburg Imperial Academy of Arts from 1894.

Alexei Beketov (1890s)

Biography

Beketov was of Russian ancestry; on his father's side he came from a Russian noble family with roots from the Penza Governorate. His mother Elena Beketova was born in St. Petersburg. Alexei Beketov was the son of Nikolay Beketov,[1] a noted Professor of chemistry at the Imperial University of Kharkov. He studied at the local realschule and a private art school, operated by Maria Raevskaia-Ivanova. In 1882, he enrolled in the Imperial Academy of Arts, where he studied with David Grimm and Alexander Krakau; graduating in 1888 with a degree in architecture.

During that same period, he worked with Maximilian Messmacher on several projects, including the palace of Grand Duke Michael Mikhailovich. From 1890, he taught at the Kharkiv Practical Technological Institute.[2] In 1894, he was awarded the title of "Academician" for his work on what is now known as the Kharkiv Korolenko State Scientific Library.

He designed over one hundred buildings throughout the region, including approximately forty in Kharkhiv. Several large projects, including an opera house, were never realized due to World War I and the Russian Civil War. In addition to his architectural designs, he was an amateur artist. Many of his landscape paintings are in private collections. Alexey Dushkin, Yakov Lichtenberg, and Vasyl Krychevsky are some of his best-known students. He was married to Anna Alchevska (1868-1931), daughter of the industrialist, Aleksey Alchevsky and his wife, Khrystyna, an advocate for national education.

In 1939, he was named an Honored Artist of the Ukraine. He died in 1941, during the German occupation, aged seventy-nine. Streets in Kharkiv and Salavat have been named after him. In 1995, a new subway station on the Kharkiv Metro was named the Arkhitektora Beketova. Two monuments have been dedicated to him; at the Kharkiv National University of Construction and Architecture (2007), and at the Kharkiv National Academy of Urban Economy (2016). His dacha in Alushta is now a museum.

Selected buildings
  • Mechnikov Medical Institute [uk]
    Mechnikov Medical Institute
  • Kharkiv State Motor Transport College [uk]
    Kharkiv State Motor Transport College
  • Kharkhiv State Puppet Theatre [uk]
    Kharkhiv State Puppet Theatre
  • Women's Gymnasium
    Women's Gymnasium

References
  1. "БЕКЕТОВ ОЛЕКСІЙ МИКОЛАЙОВИЧ". resource.history.org.ua. Archived from the original on 29 August 2020. Retrieved 2019-09-28.
  2. T. F. Davidovich; "Архитектор А. Н. Бекетов. Жизнь и творчество" (Life and Works), In: Academia. Architecture and Construction, 2018

Further reading
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