Nikolay Samokish

Nikolay Semyonovich Samokish (Russian: Николай Семёнович Самокиш; translit.: Nikolay Semyonovich Samokish; 25 October 1860, Nezhin, Government of Chernigov, Russian Empire - 18 January 1944, Simferopol, Russian SFSR, USSR) was a Russian and Soviet painter and illustrator of Cossack descent who specialized in military art and animal painting. During the First World War Samokish was a correspondent of The Sun of Russia, one of the most popular patriotic journals of Imperial Russia. He was a recipient of the Stalin Prize in 1941.

Samokish is also known as the second husband and coauthor of the book illustrator Elena Sudkovskaya.

His father was a postman; probably of Hungarian ancestry. He spent his youth in Nosivka with the family of his maternal grandfather, who was a Cossack. Later, he graduated from Nezhin Lyceum of Prince Bezborodko. His first attempt to enroll at the St. Petersburg Academy of arts was unsuccessful, but he gained an endorsement from an associate of Professor Bogdan Willewalde, was admitted, and studied there from 1879 to 1885 with Mikhail Clodt and Valery Jacobi as well as Willewalde, and won several awards. His painting "Прогулка" (the Walk) was bought by Pavel Tretyakov.