Haghpat Monastery (study), collection of the National Gallery of Armenia

Yeghishe Martirosi Tadevosyan was born on 24 September 1870 in Etchmiadzin, Russian Empire (now Vagharshapat, Armenia).

He studied at the Lazarian School, then entered the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. Vasily Polenov was his teacher and friend.He graduated in 1894 and participated in an exhibition of the Peredvizhniki in the same year.

In 1898, he travelled to Palestine with Polenov and would revisit the Middle East several times. In 1901, he moved from Moscow to Tbilisi and became an art teacher.

His early work had been influenced by Vardges Sureniants but, after this time, he began to employ impressionistic and pointillistic techniques. In 1916, he became one of the four founders and the elected head of the Union of Armenian Artists.