Born in 1868 on his family’s estate along the banks of the Donets River, a tributary of the mighty Don, Ivan Djeneeff’s lineage included his grandfather who had been governor of Kharkov Province, and his father who headed the Provincial Bank of the Nobility in Kharkov and served as a high court judge. From an early age, family and friends recognized Ivan Alexeyevich’s artistic talent. He delighted in sketching scenes from estate life as a boy, and soon developed the keen sense of detail that would characterize his artworks throughout his long life. Ivan’s curiosity about the world was first satisfied by home schooling and later through formal coursework at the Kharkov Gymnasium. Instructors in Kharkov fostered in the young man a love for Greco-Roman history and culture. His enthusiastic acceptance of ancient Mediterranean aesthetic canons would serve as a road map for his lifelong belief in classical principles of artistic proportion.