Count Sergei Lvovich LEVITSKY (Серге́й Львович Львов-Левицкий, 1819 – 1898), is considered one of the patriarchs of Russian photography and one of Europe's most important early photographic pioneers, inventors and innovators. In 1845, LEVITSKY travelled to Rome and Venice in Italy before undertaking a course in physics and chemistry at the Sorbonne in Paris but is not listed as working as a professional photographer. He had returned to Russia by 1849 when he opened a studio in St Petersburg. It is in Paris in the 1840s that Sergei LEVITSKY would study photography, meet with DAGUERRE personally and distinguish himself in the technical sphere of photographic development. DAGUERRE who had heard about the talented Russian photographer met with LEVITSKY cordially and with great interest. One of the first major photographic studios in Russia was owned and operated by Sergei LEVITSKY, who on his return from Paris in autumn 1849, opened a daguerreotype photo studio called "Light painting" in St. Petersburg on October 22, 1849. Between 1859 and 1864 Sergei LEVITSKY operated a photographic studio at 22, rue de Choiseul in Paris formerly the address for American daguerreotypist Warren THOMPSON and joined the Société Française de Photographie (SPF).