87
Vasily Perov was born on January 2, 1834 (21 December 1833 Old Style) in Tobolsk, Tobolsk Governorate, Russian Empire, as Vasily Grigorevich Vasiliev ( ). Perov was an illegitimate son of the local procurator baron, Grigory Karlovich Kridener, who belonged to an old Russian-German noble family tree, and Akulina Ivanova, a native citizen of Tobolsk. Although Perovs parents married soon after his birth, there was no legal way to inherit his fathers name and baron title, so he was registered under his godfathers surname — Vasiliev. He later changed his surname to Perov — a nickname given to him by his teacher who taught him calligraphy as a child (the word pero means feather in Russian).
