Short answers, pulled from the story.
Ivan Argunov (1729-1802) was a Russian painter and teacher, born a serf of the Counts Sheremetev. He became one of the founders of the Russian school of portrait painting and trained all four of the future teachers of the Imperial Academy of Arts.
Portrait of an Unknown Woman in Peasant Dress, completed in 1784, is Argunov's most celebrated work. The identity of the sitter has never been confirmed. Scholars have proposed she was either Anna Kovalyova-Zhemchugova, a serf actress and singer of the Counts Sheremetev, or an unidentified wet nurse from the same household.
Yes. Argunov was born in 1729 as a serf of the Counts Sheremetev and remained in their service until his death in Moscow in 1802. He served the family as a painter and later as majordomo and estate steward.
Argunov studied with Georg Grooth, a German artist employed by Empress Elizabeth of Russia, from 1746 to 1749. He also received instruction from his cousins Fedor Leontyevich Argunov and Fedor Semenovich Argunov, both painters working on the imperial residences in Saint Petersburg.
Argunov began teaching painting in 1753, four years before the Imperial Academy of Arts opened in 1757. His students included Anton Losenko and Fyodor Rokotov, both of whom became Academy teachers, and all four of the Academy's future teachers had studied under him. He also trained his three sons: Nikolay, Yakov, and Pavel Argunov.
His earliest surviving works are icons for the New Jerusalem Monastery (1749) and for the church of the Catherine Palace in Tsarskoe Selo (1753). His only known historical painting, Dying Cleopatra, also dates from this period. His earliest surviving portraits depict Prince Ivan Ivanovich Lobanov-Rostovsky (1752) and Princess Ekaterina Alexandrovna Lobanova-Rostovskaya (1754).