Early Life and Education Grigory Grigorievich Gagarin (1810 – 1893), a Russian painter, major general, and administrator, was born in Saint Petersburg to the noble Rurikid princely Gagarin family. His father, Prince Grigory Ivanovich Gagarin, served as a diplomat in France and later became the ambassador to Italy—a lineage steeped in aristocratic tradition and international engagement that would profoundly shape Gagarin’s own life tra…