Ivan Porfirievich Olovyanishnikov, depicted in the painting by Sergey Vasilyevich Tomilov, was a merchant of the first guild with a privileged title of Manufactory Councilor, and Mayor of Yaroslavl in 1819–1820 and 1833–1835. Ivan Olovyanishnikov was one of the first in Russia to be granted the title of Hereditary Honorary Citizen.
In the second quarter of the 19th century, the Olovyanishnikovs’ foundry cast bells for St. Petersburg’s Trinity Cathedral, for the court churches in Peterhof and Tsarskoye Selo, for the belfries of the Petrovsky and Abrahamiev monasteries in Rostov, and for numerous village churches in Yaroslavl Governorate. In 1856, the craftsman S. D. Charyshnikov cast the famous bell “Golodar” for the belfry of Rostov Assumption Cathedral. Under Ivan Olovyanishnikov, the Olovyanishnikovs’ silk factory became a landmark of Yaroslavl, and many members of the royal family, including Nicholas I, visited it. The factory was an enterprise, where serfs worked.
In 1838, Count Kiselyov, Minister of State Property, while visiting Yaroslavl, had a conversation with Ivan Olovyanishnikov and noted in his diary that the latter considered free labor more productive and therefore was in favor of the abolition of serfdom. Ivan Olovyanishnikov served as a housekeeper at an alms-house from 1825 to 1832. He rebuilt and renovated the Vlasyevskaya Church. Ivan Olovyanishnikov was married to Olga Ivanovna Korovainikova, with whom he had sons Arseny, Alexander, Porfiry, Ivan and daughters Elizaveta and Glafira. One of his sons, Porfiry, modernized the bell foundry, upgrading it from a manufactory to a modern enterprise. For the now non-existent Vlasyevskaya Church in Yaroslavl he cast a 1000-pood bell with the inscription “In memory of the deceased father and mother”. In 1861, Porfiry Olovyanishnikov moved to Moscow and registered as a Moscow merchant. In Moscow he opened a store selling household chemical goods and bells. During his time, the Olovyanishnikov bells began to be exported abroad.
The portrait presented in the exhibition was painted by Sergey Vasilyevich Tomilov, a St. Petersburg artist and icon painter who graduated from the Academy of Arts.
