Prayer

"Prayer" - Stepanov Daniil Klavdievich [1881-1937]
Little is known about Stepanov. Daniil Klavdievich Stepanov was the son of Claudius Petrovich Stepanov (1854-1910), a famous artist, academician of historical painting, who often visited Europe on business, mainly in France and Italy.
Daniil Stepanov began his studies in Paris, at the Sorbonne.
From 1902 he lived in Rome, where he married Roma Travaglino, from the Armoni Rafaelli family.
In 1902 Stepanov returned with his family to Russia; first he went to Moscow, where he helped his father in the restoration of the Kremlin, and then to St. Petersburg, where in 1911 he became the main medalist at the Imperial Mint.
After the October Revolution, Stepanov completed the decoration of the bridge and Chernyshev Square. The Lomonosov Bridge (from 1798 to 1948 - Chernyshev Bridge; until 1798 - Catherine Bridge) is a bridge across the Fontanka River in the Central District of St. Petersburg.
However, he was soon arrested by the Cheka on charges of treason; Stepanov was released thanks to A.V. Lunacharsky. He moved to Penza, where he taught at the Academy of Arts.
He spent his creative active period in Samarkand, where in the early 1920s he headed Samkomstaris - the commission for the preservation of monuments. He received guests-artists, arranged evenings with recitation of poetry, with disputes about art. In 1925 he traveled to Paris and Rome to get acquainted with the new technique of the mints. Stepanov never returned to Russia.
In June 1927, his personal exhibition was held in Rome in one of the halls of the Palazzo del Augusteo. Among the canvases presented are "Prayer" and the painting "Head of a Youth", painted clearly under the influence of the painting of the Italian Renaissance and recognized as the best work of the exhibition