Nikola Obrazopisov

Nikola Obrazopisov worked at the tail end of one of the great local traditions of Bulgarian art. He belonged to the third generation of the Samokov school, the icon-painting workshops of the mountain town of Samokov that produced Zahari Zograf and the other masters of the 19th-century National Revival.

Born around 1828 near Samokov, he spent his life filling churches across the region and beyond, from the Rila Monastery to villages in what is now North Macedonia and Serbia, with icons and murals. He also reached past sacred art into secular subjects, painting portraits, folk costumes, landscapes and village scenes such as a country horo, the Bulgarian round dance. He lived until 1915, long enough to watch photography and a secular modern art take hold and the old workshop world he had trained in fade away.