Alexander Sergeyevich Stroganov

Alexander Sergeyevich Stroganov (1733–1811) was a Russian baron and a member of the Stroganov family. He was a member of the Private Committee (Негласный комитет) of Alexander I and assistant to the Minister of the Interior, a longtime President of the Imperial Academy of Arts, director of the Russian Imperial Library and a member of the Russian Academy.

Life

Stroganov was born on January 3, 1733, in Saint Petersburg, a son of baron Sergey Grigoryevich Stroganow. During 1752–1757 he studied at the universities of Geneva, Bologna (art treasures), and Paris (chemistry, physics, and metallurgy). In Paris he was a Freemason and visited Voltaire.

After the death of his father in 1756, he completed the decoration of the Stroganov Palace in 1760. In 1780 he became a senator. In 1783 he became a member of the Russian Academy, and one of the editors of the Academic Dictionary.

Stroganov was a member of the commission on elaborating the new code of laws during the reign of Catherine the Great (1762–1796). From 1800 until his death he was a president of the Imperial Academy of Arts and director of the Imperial Public Library (1800–1811). He was the second director of the library (after Choiseul-Gouffier). He was also a member of the State Council.

From 1801 as chairman of a board of trustees, he was a supervisor of the Kazan Cathedral, St. Petersburg.

In 1805 he proposed to Alexander I the establishment of a special Manuscript Depository ("депо манускриптов") at the Imperial Library. Manuscripts taken from the collection of Peter P. Dubrovsky formed the basis of this depository.

Stroganov was also a collector of pictures of famous artists.

He died on September 27, 1811, in Saint Petersburg.