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Famous Russian artists

XIV (14th century) XV (15th century) XVII (17th century) XVIII (18th century) XIX (19th century) XX (20th century)

In the motley string of years of distant childhood, one wonderful summer day remained especially vivid in the memory of Vladimir Aleksandrovich Vasiliev. “I consider this day to be decisive in my life as an artist. For the first time I experienced that feeling of special happiness, the fullness of life, which so often overwhelmed me later, when I became an artist, in those moments when you are left alone with nature and you always comprehend it with some new and joyful amazement.

Korovin Konstantin Alekseevich, famous Russian painter and theater artist. He studied at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture - at the architectural department (1875), and then (since 1876) at the picturesque department of I. Pryanishnikov., V, Perov, L. Savrasov! and V. Polenov. For several months (1882-83) he studied at the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts. He completed his art education at the School (1883-1886).

Kramskoy Ivan Nikolaevich
(1837-1887)

Kramskoy Ivan Nikolaevich, an outstanding Russian painter and progressive artist. Born in Ostrogozhsk, Voronezh province, in a poor bourgeois family. He received his initial knowledge at the county school. I have been drawing since childhood on my own. At the age of sixteen, he entered a retoucher for a Kharkov photographer

Kuindzhi Arkhip Ivanovich
(1842-1910)

A.I. Kuindzhi was the son of a poor Greek shoemaker from Mariupol, he was orphaned early, and he had to achieve everything in his life himself. In the early 1860s, his passion for drawing brought him to St. Petersburg, where he twice tried to enter the Academy of Arts, but was unsuccessful. He lacked preparation, because he acquired all his painting experience as a retoucher in a photographic workshop.

Kustodiev Boris Mikhailovich
(1878 - 1927)

Kustodiev Boris Mikhailovich, an outstanding Russian Soviet painter, graphic artist, theater artist, sculptor. Born in Astrakhan, on the banks of the Volga he spent his childhood, adolescence and youth. Subsequently, being already a well-known painter, he lived for a long time in the Village near Kineshma, built a house-workshop there, which he called "terem". On the Volga, Kustodiev grew up and matured as an artist. Volga and the Volga people dedicated many of his paintings. Motherland gave him a deep knowledge of Russian life and folk life, a love for noisy crowded fairs, festivities, booths, those bright and joyful colors that entered Russian painting with him.

Lagorio Lev Feliksovich
(1827-1905)

Lagorio Lev Feliksovich - Russian landscape painter, marine painter. Born in the family of a Neapolitan consul in Feodosia. His teacher was I. K. Aivazovsky. Since 1843, Lagorio studied in St. Petersburg at the Academy of Arts with A. I. Sauerweid and M. N. Vorobyov.

Levitan Isaac Ilyich
(1861-1900)

Born in the town of Kybarty in Lithuania in the family of a railway employee. He studied at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture (1873-74) under A. Savrasov and V. Polenov. From 1884 he performed at exhibitions of the Association of the Wanderers; since 1891 - member of the Association. Since 1898 - academician of landscape painting. Levitan created many wonderful, soulful images of Russian nature. In his work, the lyrical beginning, which is inherent in the painting of his teacher and mentor A. Savrasov, was developed.

Malevich Kazimir Severinovich
(1878-1935)

The name of Kazimir Malevich rapidly gained its rightful place in the history of Russian art as soon as the official Soviet ideology collapsed. This happened with all the greater ease that the great artist had long won lasting fame outside the Fatherland. The bibliography dedicated to him should be published as a separate edition, and nine-tenths of it consists of books and articles on foreign languages: Numerous studies in Russian began to be published since the late 1980s, when the first major exhibition of Malevich took place in his homeland after decades of silence and blasphemy.

Malyutin Sergey Vasilievich
(1859-1937)

The future artist was born on September 22, 1859 in a Moscow merchant family. Left an orphan for three years, he was brought up in the house of an aunt, the wife of a petty official. The boy was sent to a commercial school, and then to an accounting course, after which he was assigned to serve as a clerk in Voronezh. Artistic inclinations manifested themselves early. But the environment was not conducive to their development. Only at the end of the 1870s, when he got to the traveling exhibition that opened in Voronezh, Malyutin saw real painting for the first time. Long-standing vague dreams have found concreteness: the decision has come, in spite of any difficulties, to become an artist.

Nesterov Mikhail Vasilievich
(1862- 1942)

Nesterov Mikhail Vasilyevich, an outstanding Russian Soviet artist. Born in Ufa in a merchant family. He studied at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture (1877-86) and at the Academy of Arts under V. Perov, I. Pryanishnikov and P. Chistyakov. Initially tried myself in domestic genre: "The Victim of Buddies" (1881), "Exam in rural school» (1884). In 1882 he married Maria Martynova, who died in 1885 from childbirth. This tragedy greatly influenced all the further work of the artist. He abandoned lightweight genres and turned to historical and religious topics.

Perov Vasily Grigorievich
(1834-1882)

One of the pioneers of realistic painting in the 60s was Vasily Grigorievich Perov- the successor of accusatory tendencies of Fedotov. In the unrest and anxieties of Russian life, he finds the ground for his creativity, that nutrient medium, without which an artist cannot exist. Perov boldly and openly rushes into battle, denouncing the falsity and hypocrisy of church rites ( "Rural procession at Easter", 1861), parasitism and depravity of priests and monks ( "Tea drinking in Mytishchi", 1862; both in the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow).

Polenov Vasily Dmitrievich
(1844- 1927)

Born in St. Petersburg in an artistic family. Mother is an artist, father is a famous archaeologist and bibliographer, a member of the Academy of Sciences, a connoisseur and lover of the arts. As a child, he studied music. He graduated from the gymnasium in Petrozavodsk and entered the Academy of Arts (1863) in the class history painting and at the same time at the Faculty of Law of St. Petersburg University. However, he did not give up his music lessons and sang for some time in the Academic Choir. While still a student, he visited Germany and France, admiring R. Wagner and J. Offenbach.

Repin Ilya Efimovich
(1844-1933)

Repin Ilya Efimovich, an outstanding Russian artist, representative of democratic realism. Born in Chuguev, Kharkov province, in the family of a military settler. At the age of thirteen, he began to study painting in Chuguev with the artist N. Bunakov. He worked in icon-painting artels. In 1863 he came to St. Petersburg and entered the Drawing School of the Society for the Encouragement of Arts. Met with I. Kramskoy, who became the young artist's mentor at long years.

Roerich Nicholas Konstantinovich
(1874- 1947)

Roerich Nicholas Konstantinovich, an outstanding Russian artist, art historian, archaeologist and public figure. Born in St. Petersburg. He studied in St. Petersburg at the Mey Gymnasium (1883-93). He took drawing lessons from M. Mikeshin. He graduated from the law faculty of St. Petersburg University (1893-96) and the painting department of the Academy of Arts (1893-97) in the class of A. Kuindzhi. The latter sought to develop in his students a sense of the decorativeness of color. Without refusing to work from nature, he insisted that the paintings be painted from memory. The artist had to bear the idea of ​​the picture.

Savitsky Konstantin Apollonovich
(1844-1905)

Savitsky Konstantin Apollonovich, Russian painter and genre painter. Born in Taganrog in the family of a military doctor. In 1862 he entered the Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg, but due to insufficient preparation he was forced to leave, and after two years of intensive independent work in 1864 he again entered the Academy. In 1871 he received a small gold medal for the painting Cain and Abel. Already in his academic years, he was close to the Artel of I. Kramskoy, and later to the Association of Traveling Art Exhibitions and exhibited at the 2nd Traveling Exhibition (1873). This aroused dissatisfaction with the administration of the Academy, which, finding fault with the first occasion that came across (an exam not passed on time due to marriage), expelled Savitsky from the Academy (1873).

Savrasov Alexey Kondratievich
(1830-1890)

There are paintings without which it is unthinkable to imagine Russian art, just as it is impossible to imagine Russian literature without Tolstoy's "War and Peace", Pushkin's "Eugene Onegin", And this does not have to be big and complex work. Such a true pearl of Russian landscape painting was a small modest painting by Alexei Kondratievich Savrasov (1830-1897) “The Rooks Have Arrived”. She appeared at the first exhibition of the Association of the Wanderers in 1871.

Serov Valentin Alexandrovich
(1865-1911)

Even during the life of V. A. Serov, and even more so after his death, art historians and artists argued about who Serov was: the last painter of the old school of the 19th century. or a representative of the new art? The correct answer to this question would be: both. Serov is traditional; in the history of Russian painting, he could be called the son of Repin. But the true successors of traditions do not stop at the same place, but go ahead and search. Serov searched more than others. He did not know the feeling of satisfaction. He was on the road all the time. Therefore, he became the artist who organically combined the art of the 19th and 20th centuries.

Surikov Vasily Ivanovich
(1848-1916)

Surikov Vasily Ivanovich, an outstanding Russian historical painter and genre painter. “Ideals of historical types were brought up in me by Siberia.” Born in Krasnoyarsk in the family of a Cossack officer. His father, a passionate lover of music, played the guitar superbly and was considered the best singer Krasnoyarsk. Mother was an excellent embroiderer.

Fedotov Pavel Andreevich
(1815-1852)

Pavel Andreevich Fedotov was born in Moscow on June 22, 1815. My father served as an official and went to work every morning. The Fedotov family was large, they did not live well, but they did not feel much need. The neighbors around were simple people - petty officials, retired military men, poor merchants. Pavlusha Fedotov was especially friendly with the sons of Captain Golovachev, who lived opposite, and his little sister, “sharp-eyed Lyubochka,” as he called her, was friends with Katenka Golovachev, her age.

Shishkin Ivan Ivanovich
(1832-1898)

Enter the hall of the Tretyakov Gallery, where paintings by Ivan Ivanovich Shishkin hang, and it will seem to you that the damp breath of the forest, the fresh wind of the fields have wafted in, it has become sunnier and brighter. In Shishkin's paintings, we see that early morning in the forest after a night storm, then the endless expanses of fields with a path running towards the horizon, then the mysterious twilight of the forest thicket.

Yuon Konstantin Fedorovich
(1875-1958)

Fate favored in every possible way K. F. Yuonu. He lived long life. He had an extremely happy marriage. The people around him loved him. He never had to struggle with need. Success came to him very early and always accompanied him. After the revolution, honors, high awards, titles, leadership positions, as it were, were looking for him. There were fewer adversities - this was a quarrel for several years with his father (a bank employee) due to Yuon's marriage to a peasant woman and the early death of one of his sons.

Russian artists

Akimov Nikolai Pavlovich
(1901-1968)

N. P. Akimov came to St. Petersburg quite young, and almost all his life was firmly connected with this city. He studied at the studio of S. M. Seidenberg (1915-18), a few years later he entered the Academy of Arts, but left it without finishing his studies. was engaged book graphics and managed to create a name for himself, but really found himself in scenography. Work in the theater fascinated him so much that in the late 1920s. he also turned to directing, making it his second, if not the first, profession: in 1933 he headed the Leningrad Music Hall, and in 1935 - the famous Leningrad Comedy Theater, artistic director which he remained until his death (except for 1949-55, when he was forced to move to another team).

Nissky Georgy Grigorievich
(1903-1987)

The artist spent his childhood at a small railway station near Gomel. The local painter V. Zorin, who saw the young man's drawings, advised him to continue his studies in fine arts. Heeding the advice, Nissky entered the Gomel Fine Arts Studio named after M. Vrubel. His abilities were noticed and in 1921 he was sent to Moscow for preparatory courses at the Higher Artistic and Technical Workshops. In 1923, Nissky moved to the painting department, where his teachers were A. D. Drevin and R. R. Falk.

Pakhomov Alexey Fyodorovich
(1900-1973)

In the Vologda region, near the city of Kadnikov, on the banks of the Kubena River, the village of Varlamov is located. There, on September 19 (October 2), 1900, a boy was born to a peasant woman, Efimiya Petrovna Pakhomova, who was named Alexei. His father, Fyodor Dmitrievich, came from "specific" farmers who did not know the horrors of serfdom in the past. This circumstance played an important role in the way of life and the prevailing character traits, developed the ability to behave simply, calmly, with dignity.

A visitor of the Russian Museum, passing from the exhibition of iconography to the hall of Peter I, experiences sensations similar to those experienced by Neo in the film The Matrix, who took a red pill from the hands of Morpheus. Just now we were surrounded by spiritualized images, bright colors and harmonic lines, which only remotely resembled what was visible around, but with their incorporeal beauty represented in our world the law and order established during the creation of the Universe. Welcome to reality - crossing the threshold, we descend into this world of dark colors and deliberate physicality, sculpted by the light of relief faces, as if peeling off from black backgrounds. We came to look, but we ourselves found ourselves under the crossfire of views: almost all the exhibits here are portraits. From now on, and for the entire coming century, the portrait will become synonymous with Russian painting.

The history of the Russian portrait of the 18th century is a picture of the visual self-consciousness of the nation, the process of acquiring a “face” by a Russian person unfolded in time. In the Petrine era, one becomes accustomed to the appearance of an individual built into the social hierarchy. From the class standard, fixed in a rather limited repertoire of poses and facial expressions, the portrait moves towards building more subtle relationships between the appearance and the inner world of the character. With the advent of sentimentalism, it is the life of the soul that becomes a value, a sign of a personality that harmoniously combines nature and civilization. Finally, romanticism and the era of 1812 will allow - probably for the first time in Russian art - the image of an internally free person to be born.

Speaking of the portrait, there are a few things to remember. First of all, in a class society, he is a privilege, a marker and at the same time a guarantor of the status of a model. In the overwhelming majority of cases, representatives of the highest social strata became the heroes of the portraits. A portrait in which the necessary conventions of the image (pose, costume, entourage and attributes) are observed and agreed upon will automatically confirm the high social status of its character. The portrait reflects and broadcasts the standards of social behavior. He seems to say: "Before you noble man. Be like him!" So, for centuries, a noble portrait has been representing not only a nobleman-figure, but also a person who is characterized by graceful ease, that is, a property that has long served as a bodily expression of nobility and upbringing, and therefore, belonging to the elite.

Portraiture is a kind of industry. The very nature of the portrait market suggests a high degree of unification. Portraits are quite clearly divided into solemn (ceremonial) and more intimate (private). They, in turn, imply a certain set of formats, poses and attributes, as well as a corresponding price list, which takes into account whether the artist himself executed the portrait from beginning to end or entrusted less important areas of work to apprentices.

From its first steps in the ancient world, the portrait played a magical role: it literally replaced the depicted and extended his life after death. The memory of these archaic functions accompanied the portrait even when it became one of the genres of painting and sculpture of modern times. It was transmitted, in particular, by literary works that described imaginary communication with a portrait: poetic “interviews” with him, stories about falling in love with portraits, and in the era of romanticism, terrible stories about images coming to life. They necessarily say that the portrait is “as if alive”, he “breathes”, he lacks only the gift of speech, etc. As a rule, the pictures described by the poets were the fruit of their imagination. However, the tradition itself, preserved by literature for centuries, set the way for the perception of the portrait and reminded that it belongs not only to the world of art, but is directly related to the problem of human existence.

The classical theory of art places little value on the portrait. This genre also occupies an appropriate place in the academic hierarchy. At the end of the 18th century, for example, it was believed that “in the portrait ... kind, only one figure is always made, and for the most part in the same position ... This kind cannot ... be compared with the historical ... ". At this time, portraiture, associated with the imitation of imperfect nature, should not have become a prestigious occupation. Meanwhile, a different situation has developed in Russia: the portrait, in demand by society, has become one of the artist's surest paths to success. Starting with Louis Caravaque, Ivan Nikitin or Georg Groot, the creation of portraits was one of the main tasks of court painters. But the artist of the first half - the middle of the 18th century is still a multi-station worker: the Sheremetev serf Ivan Argunov fulfilled the various whims of the owner and completed his career as a steward, leaving painting; Andrei Matveev and Ivan Vishnyakov supervised the architects and decorators of the Chancellery from the buildings; Alexei Antropov had similar duties in the Synod. However, for just one copy of his own coronation portrait of Peter III, commissioned by the Senate, the artist received 400 rubles - only a third less than his annual Synod salary.

Alexey Antropov. Portrait of Peter III. 1762

With the founding of the Academy of Arts in 1757, the situation began to change. Previously, the Russian portrait painter, like a Renaissance apprentice, learned his trade in the workshop of a practicing artist or took lessons from a visiting celebrity. Forty-year-old Antropov improved under the guidance of Pietro Rotari, a painter with a European reputation who moved to Russia. Argunov studied with Groot, and at the behest of the empress he himself instructed the painting of singers who “sleep from their voices”, among whom was the future historical painter Anton Losenko. Now the basis of the artist's education was a holistic method proven by generations. The portrait class at the Academy was founded in 1767.

Despite the seemingly low status of the genre, out of nine students of the first admission who graduated from the Academy, five graduated as portrait painters, and only two specialized in historical painting. Portraits occupied an important place in academic exhibitions and allowed the artist to make a full-fledged career - to become an "appointed" (that is, a corresponding member) or even an academician. Borovikovsky received the first title in 1794 for the image of Ekaterina II on a walk in the Tsarskoselsky park, and a year later - the second, for the portrait of Grand Duke Konstantin Pavlovich. The portrait of a person of a creative profession in itself could symbolically raise his status. Levitsky depicted the architect Kokorinov in 1769 according to the standard of a portrait of a statesman: the rector of the Academy of Arts with a sword and in a luxurious suit worth his annual salary with a noble gesture points to a secretary with an academic treasury, a seal Academy and its plan. Four years later, the artist will literally reproduce this scheme in a portrait of Vice-Chancellor Prince Golitsyn.

Vladimir Borovikovsky. Catherine II for a walk in Tsarskoye Selo park. 1794State Tretyakov Gallery

Vladimir Borovikovsky. Portrait of Grand Duke Konstantin Pavlovich. 1795Chuvash State Art Museum

Dmitry Levitsky. Portrait of A. F. Kokorinov. 1769

Dmitry Levitsky. Portrait of Vice-Chancellor Prince A. M. Golitsyn. 1772State Tretyakov Gallery

The second half of the century opens up an alternative for the portrait painter - work on private orders. Fyodor Rokotov came, most likely, from serfs, but he served the nobility in the military department. When his career at the Academy of Arts did not work out, he moved to Moscow in 1766-1767, and the well-born nobility of the old capital made up the artist's extensive clientele. On his example, we can get an idea of ​​the position of the demanded painter. For the royal portrait painted on her own initiative, Ekaterina awarded Rokotov 500 rubles. The first historiographer of Russian art of the 18th century, Jacob Shtelin, testifies that even in St. Petersburg the artist was “so skillful and famous that he could not cope with all the works ordered to him alone ... He had about 50 portraits in his apartment, very similar, nothing was finished on them, except for the head [this probably assumed the participation of apprentices].” If in the 1770s his standard portrait cost 50 rubles, then in the 1780s it was already estimated at a hundred. This allowed the artist to purchase a plot of land for 14,000 rubles, build a two-story stone house on it, become a member of the English Club and deserve the annoyed remark of a contemporary: “Rokotov became arrogant and important for fame.”

Fedor Rokotov. Coronation portrait of Catherine II. 1763 State Tretyakov Gallery

The contrast between the iconography and the portrait of the 18th century clearly shows the radical nature of the Petrine revolution. But the Europeanization of pictorial forms began earlier. In the 17th century, the masters of the Armory and other iconographers created a hybrid of an icon and a portrait - parsuna (from the word "person", which in the first half of the 18th century replaced the word "portrait" in Russia). By the end of the 17th century, the parsuna was already using with might and main the scheme of the European front port-tre-ta, borrowed through Poland and Ukraine. From the portrait came the task - the appearance of a person in his social role. But the pictorial means in many respects remain iconic: the flatness of form and space, the conventionality of the structure of the body, the explanatory text in the image, the ornamental interpretation of robes and attributes. These features in the 18th century were preserved for a long time in the provincial noble portrait, in the portraits of the merchants and the clergy.

Portrait of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich. Parsuna by an unknown Russian artist. Late 1670s - early 1680s State Historical Museum

Petrovsky pensioner Ivan Nikitin, who studied in Italy, is the first Russian master who “forgot” about the parsuna. His portraits are quite simple in composition, he uses only a few iconographic types, rarely paints by hand and prefers dark colors. His portraits are often marked by a special plausibility, the face is treated with emphatic relief, recognition prevails over idealization. Chancellor Gavriil Golovkin is an ideal image of the meritocratic monarchy of Peter: the elongated pyramid of the figure snatched by the light is crowned by an oval face framed by a wig. Calm dignity, pride and self-confidence are imparted to the hero by both a restrained, but natural pose, and a direct look that meets the viewer. The ceremonial camisole with orders and a ribbon almost merges with the background, allowing you to focus all attention on the face. The dark environment pushes Golovkin out, the brush of his left hand marks the border of the space of the canvas, and the filigree blue sash bow seems to break through it, entering our space. This painterly trick, forcing the illusion of presence, at the same time helps to reduce the psychological and social distance between the model and the viewer, which was insurmountable in the pre-Petrine parsun.

Ivan Nikitin. Portrait of the State Chancellor Count G. I. Golovkin. 1720s State Tretyakov Gallery

Returning from the Netherlands, Andrei Matveev created his portrait with his young wife around 1729. If we agree with this identification generally accepted today, then we have before us not just the first known self-portrait of a Russian painter. In this image of the raznochintsy, an unexpected balance of a man and a woman is presented for Russia at that time. With his left hand, the artist ceremoniously takes the hand of his companion; right, patronizingly embracing, directs her to the viewer. But all the formal meaning of these gestures of dominance and appropriation is suddenly erased. In a very uncomplicatedly organized canvas, the female figure is not only located to the right hand of the man, but also occupies exactly the same picture space as he does, and the heads of the spouses are located strictly in one line, as if frozen at the same level of the scales.

Andrey Matveev. Self-portrait with his wife. Presumably 1729 State Russian Museum

The mid-century portrait is, for the most part, a depiction not of personality but of status. A typical example is the Lobanov-Rostov spouses of Ivan Argunov (1750 and 1754). Despite the recognizability of the characters in front of the viewer, first of all, the “noble nobleman” and the “amiable beauty”, whose position is once and for all fixed by a uniform uniform, an ermine mantle and a dress with silver embroidery. An artist of the middle of the 18th century - Russian and foreign - extremely carefully conveys the costume and its elements: fabric, embroidery, lace; writes out jewelry and awards in detail. In these portraits of Argunov, the body of the character is constrained by space, deployed along the plane of the canvas, and the fabrics and decorations are painted with such detail that they make one recall the parsuna with its decorative effect and special, superficial vision. human body.

Ivan Argunov. Portrait of Prince I. I. Lobanov-Rostovsky. 1750State Russian Museum

Ivan Argunov. Portrait of Princess E. A. Lobanova-Rostovskaya. 1754State Russian Museum

Today we appreciate more those works of the Russian portrait of the XVIII century, in which the conventional image seems to have lost its integrity, and the decorum (the balance of the ideal and the real in the portrait) is violated in favor of plausibility. Obviously, this is where the charm comes from, which the image of the ten-year-old Sarah Fermor (1749) is endowed with for the modern viewer. Ivan Vishnyakov, her father's subordinate in Kancelaria from buildings, presented the child in the form of an adult girl, inscribing a fragile figure in a ceremonial composition with a column and a curtain in the background. Hence the attractiveness of such images, where a face devoid of outward beauty seems to be the key to a truthful transmission of character: such are the Anthropo portraits of the state lady Anastasia Izmailova (1759) or Anna Buturlina (1763).

Ivan Vishnyakov. Portrait of Sarah Eleonora Fermor. 1749State Russian Museum

Alexey Antropov. Portrait of a lady of state A. M. Izmailova. 1759State Tretyakov Gallery

Alexey Antropov. Portrait of A. V. Buturlina. 1763State Tretyakov Gallery

This row also includes portraits of the Khripunovs by Argunov (1757). Kozma Khripunov, an elderly man with a massive nose, clutches a sheet of folded paper in his hands and, as if looking up from reading, stops the viewer with a sharp look. His young wife holds an open book in her hands and looks at us with calm dignity (according to confession books, Feodosia Khripunova is hardly more than twenty years old: the characters in portraits of the 18th century often look older than their age). Unlike modern France, where in the era of the Encyclopedia the book was not uncommon even in an aristocratic portrait, the characters of Russian paintings of the 18th century are very rarely presented reading. The portraits of the Khripunovs in Europe, not rich in attributes and restrained in manner, would be classified as portraits of the third estate, reflecting the values ​​of the Enlightenment. In them - as, for example, in the portrait of the doctor Leroy by Jacques Louis David (1783) - it is not the status that matters, but the activity of the hero, not the good looks, but the honestly presented character.

Ivan Argunov. Portrait of K. A. Khripunov. 1757

Ivan Argunov. Portrait of Kh. M. Khripunova. 1757Moscow Museum-Estate "Ostankino"

Jacques Louis David. Portrait of Dr. Alphonse Leroy. 1783 Musee Fabre

The names of Rokotov and Levitsky, for the first time in Russia of the New Age, are associated with the idea of ​​a strictly individual manner, which seems to subjugate models: now we can safely talk about a lady “descended from Rokotov’s canvas”, about a gentleman “from a portrait of Levitsky”. Different in style and spirit, both painters make us see in their portraits not only images of specific people, but also feel painting as such, which affects the stroke, texture, color - regardless of the plot. Obviously, this is evidence of a gradual change in the status of the artist, his self-esteem and the emerging public interest in art.

Rokotov is the first master of emotional portrait in Russia. The formation of his manner is associated with the influence of the Italian Rotary, whose girlish "heads" are considered to be piquant rococo trinkets. But Rokotov could see in them an example of diverse, subtle, elusive intonations - what distinguishes the images of the Russian artist himself. From the dark background of his predecessors, Roko-tov goes to an indefinite background, like a haze, not so much bringing the figure closer to the viewer, but absorbing it. Dressed in a uniform or dress, the body acquires a subordinate meaning, the face now completely dominates. It is worth taking a closer look at how Rokotov paints the eyes: in such things as the famous portrait of Alexandra Struyskaya (1772), the pupil is painted with fused strokes of close colors with a bright glare - the look loses its clarity, but acquires depth. The indistinctness of the surroundings, the smoothness of the contour, along with the hazy but rich gaze of the characters, create a feeling of multidimensionality of character that has no analogies in Russian portraiture, in which, especially for women, emotions play a decisive role. In this regard, Rokotov's characters are people of sentimentalism, in which the priority is not social roles and ambitions, but the emotional depth and mental mobility of a person.

Fedor Rokotov. Portrait of A. P. Struiskaya. 1772 State Tretyakov Gallery

It seems no coincidence that Rokotov's sophisticated, but devoid of external effects, style took shape in Moscow with the tradition she cherished privacy, family and friendship. At the same time, in the aristocratic and courtly capital of Catherine, following the world's artistic fashions, the most brilliant painter flourished Russia XVIII century - Dmitry Levitsky. In the work of this native of the family of a Ukrainian priest, who graduated from the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts, Russian painting for the first time reached the European level. He was endowed with the gift to create full-blooded and noble images, the ability to bewitchingly accurate transfer of various textures - fabrics, stone, metal, the human body. At the same time, a number of his works introduced Russian art into the context of the advanced mental movements of the era.

Thus, the ideas of subordinating autocracy to law, which were relevant to the Russian Enlightenment, were embodied by Levitsky in the painting “Catherine II — Legislator in the Temple of the Goddess of Justice” (1783). The ceremonial portrait of the ruler always embodies his official image. Levitsky's canvas is a unique case when the image of the monarch, fully meeting the canons of the genre, is a message from society to the sovereign, conveys the aspirations of the enlightened nobility.

Dmitry Levitsky. Portrait of Catherine the Legislator in the Temple of the Goddess of Justice. 1783 State Russian Museum

The empress, wearing a laurel wreath and civil crown, sacrificing her peace, burns poppies on an altar standing under the statue of Themis with the inscription "for the common good." On the pedestal of the sculpture, the profile of Solon, the Athenian legislator, is carved. The imperial eagle sits on tomes of laws, and in the sea opening behind the queen, the Russian fleet under the St. Andrew's flag with the rod of Mercury, a sign of protected trade, that is, peace and prosperity, is visible. In addition to the enlightenment idea of ​​the rule of law, other political overtones are also possible here. It has been suggested that the canvas was to become the center of the ensemble of portraits of the Duma of Knights of the Order of St. Vladimir and be located in Tsarskoye Selo Sofia, thus entering the ideological apparatus of Catherine.

This portrait, the program of which belongs to Nikolai Lvov, and the commission - to Alexander Bezborodko, was probably the first work of Russian painting, which turned out to be a social event. It is consonant with the ode of Derzhavin "" that appeared in the same 1783. Then Ippolit Bogdanovich printed a stanza to the artist, on which Levitsky, having deployed the ideological program of the portrait, is the first case of a direct appeal of a Russian painter to the public. Thus, the portrait took on the functions of a narrative historical canvas, which forms the ideas that excite society and becomes an event for a relatively wide audience. This is one of the first signs of a new process for Russia: fine art ceases to serve the utilitarian needs of the elite (representation of political and personal ambitions, decoration of life, visualization of knowledge, etc.) and gradually becomes an important element of national culture, organizing a dialogue between different parts of society.

Seven canvases of the "Smolyanki" series, painted in 1772-1776, depict nine pupils of the Smolny Institute for Noble Maidens of different "ages" (periods of study). This is a monument to an experiment that reflected the key ideas of the European Enlightenment: the upbringing of a new person, advanced education for women. They also clearly indicate a gradual change in attitudes towards periods. human life: if before a child in a Russian portrait, as a rule, was presented as a small adult, then Smolyanki demonstrate steps on the way to adolescence, which in this portrait series for the first time acts as a separate, independent stage. The girls dance, perform theatrical roles, but the two images of the “older students” Glafira Alymova and Ekaterina Molchanova that close the series seem to sum up, embodying the two hypostases of an enlightened woman. Alymova plays the ar-fe, representing the arts that are associated with the sensual nature of man. Mol-cha-nova represents the intellectual principle. She poses with a book and a vacuum pump - a modern tool that allows you to explore the material nature of the world. From a portrait attribute, it turns here into a sign of advanced knowledge based on a scientific experiment.

Dmitry Levitsky. Portrait of Feodosia Rzhevskaya and Nastasya Davydova. 1771–1772State Russian Museum

Dmitry Levitsky. Portrait of Ekaterina Nelidova. 1773State Russian Museum

Dmitry Levitsky. Portrait of Ekaterina Khrushcheva and Ekaterina Khovanskaya. 1773State Russian Museum

Dmitry Levitsky. Portrait of Alexandra Levshina. 1775State Russian Museum

Dmitry Levitsky. Portrait of Ekaterina Molchanova. 1776State Russian Museum

Dmitry Levitsky. Portrait of Glafira Alymova. 1776State Russian Museum

Dmitry Levitsky. Portrait of Natalia Borshchova. 1776State Russian Museum

The works of Vladimir Borovikovsky, Levitsky's student and countryman, clearly show that sentimentalist values ​​in the last decades of the 18th century became the basis for the representation of a private person. Now the portrait is distinctly stratified into front and private. Deliberate luxury shines with the image of the "diamond prince" Kurakin (1801-1802), nicknamed so for his love of jewelry and ostentatious splendor. Like a number of paintings by Goya, it shows that the splendor of painting becomes one of the last arguments in favor of the greatness of the aristocracy: the models themselves are no longer always able to withstand the pathos that is dictated by the genre.

Vladimir Borovikovsky. Portrait of Prince A. B. Kurakin. 1801-1802 State Tretyakov Gallery

A hybrid characteristic of the “epoch of sensitivity” is an image of Catherine II in Tsarskoye Selo (see above). The full-length portrait against the background of the monument of military glory is sustained in an emphatically chamber mode: it represents the Empress in a dressing gown at the moment of a solitary walk in the alleys of the park. Catherine did not like the portrait, but most likely suggested to Pushkin the mise en scene of Masha Mironova's meeting with the Empress in The Captain's Daughter. It is with Borovikovsky that the landscape for the first time among Russian artists becomes the permanent background of the portrait, denoting a whole range of ideas associated with the ideas of naturalness, sensitivity, privacy and the unity of kindred souls.

Nature as a projection of spiritual experiences - characteristic culture of sentimentalism, which says that the inner world of a person becomes an unconditional value. True, in many of Borovikovsky's works, the "involvement in nature" of the character acquires the character of a cliché, indicating that sensitivity and naturalness have turned into fashion. This is especially noticeable in the masterfully executed female portraits, following the ideal of young "natural" beauty and tracing the poses and attributes of the model. On the other hand, this pastoral portrait frame made it possible to include serfs among the characters. Such, for example, are “Lizinka and Dashinka” (1794) - yard girls of Lvov, who patronized the painter, almost indistinguishable in appearance from young noblewomen.

Vladimir Borovikovsky. Lizynka and Dashinka. 1794 State Tretyakov Gallery

If in the person of Levitsky and Borovikovsky Russian painting became in line with contemporary artistic trends, then the next generation of Russian port-treatists solved a new problem: their art finally built a dialogue with great painting Europe of the XVI-XVII centuries, the tradition of which was absent in pre-Petrine Russia. The prerequisites for it were the formation of the Hermitage collection of unique quality back in the Catherine era, as well as long trips abroad for those who successfully graduated from the Academy of Young Artists. Karl Bryullov designed his own image according to the patterns of the "old master" and at the same time recreated on Russian soil the splendor of the Vandijk ceremonial portrait with its symphonic luxury of color ("Horsewoman", 1831; portrait of the Shishmaryov sisters, 1839).

Orest Kiprensky. Portrait of the artist's father Adam Karlovich Schwalbe. 1804 State Russian Museum

In the portrait of Pushkin (1827), the dialogue with tradition is built at the level of iconography, which is still understandable to Europeans at the turn of the 18th-19th centuries. The arms crossed on the chest and the gaze of the poet directed into space are an echo of the personifications of melancholy - a temperament that, since the Renaissance, was considered as a sign of genius.

Orest Kiprensky. Portrait of A. S. Pushkin. 1827 State Tretyakov Gallery

The collective hero of Kiprensky's works was the generation of 1812. These portraits are distinguished by the uninhibited nature of the “behavior” of the characters, unprecedented in Russian art. It is significant to compare the "formal" portrait of Colonel Evgraf Davydov (1809) and a series of graphic portraits of the participants Patriotic War 1812-1814 (Alexey Lansky, Mikhail Lansky, Alexei Tomilov, Yefim Chaplits, Pyotr Olenin and others, all - 1813). The first varies the type of noble portrait, characteristic of Europe in the 18th and early 19th centuries. Davydov’s pose not only demonstrates detached ease, it iconographically ennobles the character, since it goes back to the famous “Resting Satyr” by Praxiteles: the perfection of the classical statue guarantees the dignity of the hero of the canvas. But the sensual bodily peace of the satire is only the reverse side of his animal nature, and Kiprensky perfectly uses this memory of the prototype (both symbolic and plastic), creating the image of a hero who is in a relaxed state of peace, but capable of straightening out like a spring. Each of the pencil portraits of young “veterans” is also to some extent subordinated to some portrait cliché, but together they demonstrate unprecedented graphic freedom and a variety of formal solutions: body turns, head tilts, gestures, and glances. In each individual case, the artist did not proceed from predetermined roles, but from the personality that unfolded before him. This ease of characters, together with the demonstrative ease of performance, act as a visible embodiment of the inner "self-standing" of the generation - a feeling of freedom unprecedented in Russian history until then.

07/6/2019 at 15:34 · VeraSchegoleva · 11 620

Top 10 most famous portrait painters whose names everyone should know

A portrait is an image of a group of persons or one person with absolute accuracy. Usually this is a drawing made in a certain style.

A portrait artist reproduces an image from memory or draws a person from nature. Through their paintings, portrait painters convey not only the appearance of people, but also their unique features, character traits.

A portrait is an individual attitude of the artist to a particular person. Such an interpretation of a person is elitist, exclusive and not accessible to everyone, therefore it is valuable and very attractive.

Consider the most famous portrait painters who best revealed the spiritual essence of people through paintings.

10. Anthony Van Dyck

Anthony Van Dyck- graphic artist and master of religious subjects and court portraits. His homeland is Belgium.

This artist was a child prodigy, he created his self-portrait at the age of fourteen. When Van Dyck was eighteen, he was accepted into the Guild of St. Luke, which united printers, sculptors and artists.

At the age of twenty, Van Dyck had already begun to create portraits of aristocrats, who were distinguished by incredible skill. Typically, portrait painters reached this level by the age of forty.

The master always paid a lot of attention to his hands: they were beautiful, graceful, relaxed, with long fingers. The work of Van Dyck can be recognized precisely by the manner of drawing hands.

Van Dyck lived in Italy, was a court painter in England.

Notable portraits: "Heads of an Elder", "Family Portrait", "Portrait of Cardinal Guido Bentivoglio", "Portrait of Charles I on the Hunt".

9. Hans Holbein

Hans Holbein the Younger- one of the most famous German artists. He learned to draw from Holbein the Elder, his father, who specialized in altar painting.

The master became famous at the age of twenty-one. He was a painter at the court of Henry VIII.

The portraits created by Hans Holbein are very accurate, he conveyed the images and characters of the people depicted with maximum clarity. The artist confidently played with chiaroscuro, he liked to highlight various small details that emphasize his idea.

Many portraits of the master are not devoid of sarcasm and irony: they betrayed his true attitude towards the persons depicted.

Notable portraits: "Portrait of Thomas More", "Portrait of Erasmus of Rotterdam", "Portrait of Henry VIII".

8. Diego Velasquez

Diego Velazquez- painter from Spain, court painter of Philip IV. Velázquez began studying painting when he was ten years old.

Already at the age of eighteen, the artist managed to open his own workshop: Francisco Pacheco, his teacher, helped him in this.

At first creative way Velasquez depicted still lifes, various kitchen scenes. Color and shade, color saturation became the features of these paintings.

Then the master moved to the capital and became a court painter. He not only painted custom ceremonial portraits, but also tried to capture the most unfortunate, humiliated people: freaks, jesters, dwarfs.

Famous portraits: "The Innkeeper", "The Old Cook", "Portrait of King Philip IV of Spain in Armor", "Portrait of a Lady with a Fan", "Jester Juan of Austria".

7. Ilya Efimovich Repin

Ilya Efimovich Repin- Russian artist, professor, teacher, member of the Imperial Academy of Arts. One of the main representatives of Russian realism.

In his youth, the artist lived in poverty. He tried to make money by selling his paintings.

Then, for a good study at, Repin got the opportunity to go to Europe to study foreign art. By that time, he had already gained quite a lot of fame and began to receive large orders.

Distinctive features of Repin's work are frequent appeals to emotional peaks, the display of social anxieties and tasks, and subtle psychologism.

Famous portraits: "Portrait of Leo Tolstoy", "Portrait of Mussorgsky", "Portrait of Mother", "Portrait of Konstantin Petrovich Pobedonostsev".

6. Rembrandt Van Rijn

Rembrandt- artist from Holland, master of chiaroscuro, engraver. He was one of the largest representatives of the golden age of Dutch painting.

His paintings embodied the whole spectrum of human experiences. Rembrandt preferred to omit minor details and reveal as much as possible state of mind the person being portrayed.

The future master began to learn to draw when he was thirteen years old. He was constantly in creative search and created paintings in various genres: portraits, genre scenes, landscapes, still lifes and so on.

Notable portraits: "Young Saskia", "Portrait of Jan Utenbogart", "Flora", "Portrait of Maria Trip".

5. Peter Paul Rubens

Rubens- Flemish painter, collector, diplomat. He became one of the main representatives of baroque art. In portraiture, the talent of the master was fully revealed. For him, gesticulation, look, turn of the head, pose of the model have always been very important.

Depicting the fair sex, Rubens, as it were, enjoyed their sensuality, femininity, and splendor of bodies.

The artist had a very high ability to work: he could create paintings from morning to evening. While working, Rubens was very fond of talking with students and visitors.

Famous portraits: "Portrait of the Marquise Brigitta Spinola Doria", "Portrait of the maid Infanta Isabella", "Portrait of Helena Fourman with two children".

4. Albrecht Dürer

Durer- graphic artist and painter from Germany, one of the most famous representatives of the Western European Renaissance. He left behind not only paintings, but also treatises and engravings.

Albrecht Dürer perfected the art of woodcutting. He lived in Italy, studied creative methods Italian artists.

Dürer created many self-portraits, he especially liked to draw himself in his youth. His work is permeated by the desire to know the laws of nature, as well as the attraction to the ideal, harmonious beauty. It is imbued with a high intensity of feelings, a rebellious spirit.

Notable portraits: "Portrait of Erasmus of Rotterdam", "Portrait of Bernard von Riesen", "Emperor Maximilian I".

3. Titian

Titian Vecellio- a famous painter from Italy. His work is associated with eternity and immortality. The brushes of this artist were credited with magical properties during his lifetime.

Titian created wonderful portraits: it seemed that the souls of the people depicted were hidden in them. He painted many epic paintings on mythological and religious themes.

Titian's path in creativity was fruitful and long: the artist lived to almost a hundred years. His paintings have been repeatedly copied, but no one has ever been able to achieve the same level of skill.

Notable portraits: "Portrait of Petro Aretino", "Portrait of Charles V", "Portrait of a Young Woman".

2. Raphael Santi

Raphael- Italian graphic artist and painter. His paintings reflected the ideals of the Renaissance.

The world became cleaner and kinder when the eyes of the Madonnas depicted by Raphael began to look at it: Pasadena, Sistine, Orleans, Conestabile.

He skillfully embodied in the paintings a variety of emotional shades. Raphael was considered one of the most "balanced" artists. The master died very early, at the age of 37, but left behind a colossal artistic legacy.

Notable portraits: "Donna Velata", "Portrait of Castiglione", "Portrait of Julius II", "Portrait of Pope Leo X with two cardinals".

1. Leonardo da Vinci

Leonardo da Vinci – italian artist, architect, sculptor, scientist, musician, . He was a unique "universal man".

Research, discoveries, creations of da Vinci were ahead of time by more than one era. He helped in the development of urban planning, anatomy.

Da Vinci's appearance was also striking: angelic appearance, tall stature and incredible strength.

For this artist, painting was an adjunct to science: he was always focused on capturing reality.

Notable portraits: "Mona Lisa", "Lady with an Ermine", "Portrait of Ginerva de Benci", "Portrait of a Musician".

Readers' Choice:

Introduction

I. Russian portrait painters of the first half of XIX century

1.3 Alexey Gavrilovich Venetsianov (1780-1847)

II. Association of Traveling Art Exhibitions

Chapter IV. Art portrait painting

Conclusion

The purpose of this work is to tell about the importance of the portrait as one of the main genres of art, about its role in the culture and art of that time, to get acquainted with the main works of artists, to learn about Russian portrait painters of the 19th century, about their life and work.

In this work, we will consider the art of portraiture in the 19th century:

The greatest masters of Russian art of the 19th century

Association of Traveling Art Exhibitions.

What is a portrait?

The history of the appearance of the portrait.

First half of the 19th century - the time of addition in Russian painting of the system of genres. In painting of the second half of the 19th century. the realist direction prevailed. The nature of Russian realism was determined by young painters who left the Academy of Arts in 1863 and rebelled against the classical style and historical and mythological themes that had been implanted in the academy. These artists organized in 1870

Partnership traveling exhibitions, whose task was to provide members of the partnership with the opportunity to exhibit their work. Thanks to his activities, works of art became available to a wider range of people. Pavel Mikhailovich Tretyakov (1832–1898) from 1856 collected works by Russian artists, mainly the Wanderers, and in 1892 he donated his collection of paintings, along with the collection of his brother S.M. Tretyakov, to Moscow. In the portrait genre, the Wanderers created a gallery of images of prominent cultural figures of their time: a portrait of Fyodor Dostoevsky (1872) by Vasily Perov (1833–1882), a portrait of Nikolai Nekrasov (1877–1878) by Ivan Kramskoy (1837–1887), a portrait of Modest Mussorgsky (1881) , made by Ilya Repin (1844–1930), a portrait of Leo Tolstoy (1884) by Nikolai Ge (1831–1894) and a number of others. Being in opposition to the Academy and its artistic policy, the Wanderers turned to the so-called. "low" topics; images of peasants and workers appear in their works.

The growth and expansion of artistic understanding and needs is reflected in the emergence of many art societies, schools, a number of private galleries (the Tretyakov Gallery) and museums not only in the capitals, but also in the provinces, in the introduction to school education in drawing.
All this, in connection with the appearance of a number of brilliant works by Russian artists, shows that art took root on Russian soil and became national. The new Russian national art differed sharply in that it clearly and strongly reflected the main currents of Russian art. public life.

I. Russian portrait painters of the first half of the 19th century.

1.1 Orest Adamovich Kiprensky (1782-1836)

Born at the Nezhinskaya manor (near Koporye, now in the Leningrad region) on March 13 (24), 1782. He was the natural son of the landowner A.S. Dyakonov, recorded in the family of his serf Adam Schwalbe. Having received his freedom, he studied at the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts (1788–1803) with G.I. Ugryumov and others. He lived in Moscow (1809), Tver (1811), St. Rome and Naples.

The very first portrait - of the adoptive father of A.K. Schwalbe (1804, Russian Museum, St. Petersburg) - stands out for its emotional coloring. Over the years, the skill of Kiprensky, manifested in the ability to create not only socio-spiritual types (which prevailed in Russian art of the Enlightenment), but also unique individual images, improved. It is natural that it is customary to begin the history of romanticism in Russian fine arts with the paintings of Kiprensky.

Russian artist, outstanding master of Russian visual arts Romanticism, known as a wonderful portrait painter. Portraits of Kiprensky are imbued with a special cordiality, a special simplicity, they are filled with his high and poetic love for a person. In the portraits of Kiprensky, the features of his era are always palpable. This is always invariably inherent in each of his portraits - and the romantic image of the young V.A. Zhukovsky, and wise E.P. Rostopchin (1809), portraits: D.N. Khvostov (1814 Tretyakov Gallery), the boy Chelishchev (1809 Tretyakov Gallery), E.V. Davydov (1809 GRM).

An invaluable part of Kiprensky's work is graphic portraits, made mainly in pencil with tinted pastels, watercolors, and colored pencils. He portrays General E.I. Chaplitsa (TG), P.A. Olenina (TG). In these images we have before us Russia, the Russian intelligentsia from the Patriotic War of 1812 to the December uprising.

Portraits of Kiprensky appear before us complex, thoughtful, changeable in mood. Revealing the various facets of human nature and spiritual world Kiprensky always used different possibilities of painting in his early romantic portraits. His masterpieces, as one of the best lifetime portraits of Pushkin (1827 State Tretyakov Gallery), a portrait of Avdulina (1822 Russian Museum). The sadness and thoughtfulness of Kiprensky's heroes is sublime and lyrical.

"Favorite of light-winged fashion,

Though not British, not French,

You created again, dear wizard,

Me, a pet of pure muses. -

And I laugh at the grave

Gone forever from the bonds of death.

I see myself as in a mirror

But this mirror flatters me.

It says that I will not humiliate

The passions of important aonids.

From now on, my appearance will be known, -

Pushkin wrote to Kiprensky in gratitude for his portrait. Pushkin valued his portrait and this portrait hung in his office.

A special section is made up of Kiprensky's self-portraits (with tassels behind his ear, c. 1808, Tretyakov Gallery; and others), imbued with the pathos of creativity. He also owns the soulful images of Russian poets: K.N. Batyushkov (1815, drawing, Museum of the Institute of Russian Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg; V.A. Zhukovsky (1816). a number of remarkable everyday characters (like the Blind Musician, 1809, Russian Museum) Kiprensky died in Rome on October 17, 1836.

1.2 Vasily Andreevich Tropinin (1776-1857)

A representative of romanticism in Russian fine arts, a master of portrait painting. Born in the village of Karpovka (Novgorod province) on March 19 (30), 1776 in the family of serfs Count A.S. Minikh; later he was sent to the disposal of Count I.I. Morkov as a dowry for the daughter of Minich. He showed the ability to draw as a boy, but the master sent him to St. Petersburg to study as a confectioner. He attended classes at the Academy of Arts, at first furtively, and from 1799 - with the permission of Morkov; during his studies, he met O.A. Kiprensky. In 1804, the owner summoned the young artist to his place, and from then on he alternately lived either in Ukraine, in the new Morkovo estate Kukavka, or in Moscow, in the position of a serf painter, who was obliged to simultaneously carry out the household tasks of the landowner. In 1823 he received his freedom and the title of academician, but, having abandoned his career in St. Petersburg, he remained in Moscow.

An artist from serfs who, with his work, brought a lot of new things to Russian painting in the first half of the 19th century. Received the title of academician and became the most famous artist Moscow portrait school of the 20-30s. Later, the color of Tropinin's painting becomes more interesting, the volumes are usually molded more clearly and sculpturally, but most importantly, a purely romantic feeling of the moving elements of life insinuatingly grows, Tropinin is the creator of a special type of portrait - a painting. Portraits in which features of the genre are introduced, images with a certain plot plot: "Lacemaker", "Spinner", "Guitarist", "Golden Sewing".

The best of Tropinin's portraits, such as the portrait of Arseny's son (1818 Tretyakov Gallery), Bulakhov (1823 Tretyakov Gallery). Tropinin in his work follows the path of clarity, balance with simple portrait compositions. As a rule, the image is given on a neutral background with a minimum of accessories. This is exactly how Tropinin A.S. Pushkin (1827) - sitting at the table in a free position, dressed in a house dress, which emphasizes the natural appearance.

Early works Tropinina are restrained in color and classically static in composition ( family portraits Morkovyh, 1813 and 1815; both works are in the Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow). During this period, the master also creates expressive local, Little Russian images-types Ukrainian, (1810s, Russian Museum, St. Petersburg). Bulakov, 1823; K. G. Ravich, 1823; both portraits in the Tretyakov Gallery).

Over the years, the role of the spiritual atmosphere - expressed by the background, significant details - only increases. The best example is the 1846 Self-Portrait with Brushes and Palette, where the artist imagined himself in front of a window with a spectacular view of the Kremlin. Tropinin dedicates a number of works to fellow artists depicted in work or in contemplation (I.P. Vitali, ca. 1833; K.P. Bryullov, 1836; both portraits in the Tretyakov Gallery; and others). At the same time, a specifically intimate, homely flavor is invariably inherent in Tropinin's style. In the popular Woman in the Window (based on M.Yu. Lermontov's poem The Treasurer, 1841), this laid-back sincerity takes on an erotic flavor. The late works of the master (Servant with a damask, counting money, 1850s, ibid.) testify to the fading of color mastery, however, anticipating the keen interest in dramatic everyday life characteristic of the Wanderers. An important area of ​​Tropinin's work is also his sharp pencil sketches. Tropinin died in Moscow on May 3 (15), 1857.

Russian artist, representative of romanticism (known primarily for his rural genres). Born in Moscow on February 7 (18), 1780 in a merchant family. In his youth he served as an official. He studied art largely on his own, copying the paintings of the Hermitage. In 1807–1811 he took painting lessons from VL Borovikovsky. He is considered the founder of Russian printed cartoons. Surveyor by education, leaving the service for the sake of painting. In the portrait genre, he created with pastel, pencil, oil, amazingly poetic, lyrical, romantic images fanned by a romantic mood - a portrait of V.S. Putyatina (TG). Among his most beautiful works of this kind is his own portrait (Museum of Alexander III), painted richly and boldly, in pleasant, thick gray-yellow and yellow-black tones, as well as a portrait painted by him from the old painter Golovochy (Imperial Academy of Arts) .

Venetsianov is a first-class master and an extraordinary person; which Russia should be quite proud of. He zealously sought out young talents directly from the people, mainly among painters, attracted them to him. The number of his students was over 60 people.

During the Patriotic War of 1812 he created a series of agitational and satirical pictures on the themes of popular resistance to the French occupiers.

He painted portraits, usually small in size, marked by subtle lyrical inspiration (M.A. Venetsianova, the artist’s wife, late 1820s, Russian Museum, St. Petersburg; Self-Portrait, 1811, Tretyakov Gallery). In 1819 he left the capital and since then he lived in the village of Safonkovo ​​(Tver province) he bought, inspired by the motives of the surrounding landscape and rural life. The best of Venetsianov's paintings are classic in their own way, showing this nature in a state of idealized, enlightened harmony; on the other hand, a romantic element obviously prevails in them, the charm is not of ideals, but of simple natural feelings against the backdrop of native nature and life. His peasant portraits (Zakharka, 1825; or Peasant woman with cornflowers, 1839) appear as fragments of the same enlightened, natural, classic-romantic idyll.

New creative searches are interrupted by the death of the artist: Venetsianov died in the Tver village of Poddubie on December 4 (16), 1847 from injuries - he was thrown out of the wagon when the horses skidded on a slippery winter road. The pedagogical system of the master, cultivating love for simple nature (around 1824 he created his own art school), became the basis of a special Venetian school, the most characteristic and original of all the personal schools of Russian art of the 19th century.

1.4 Karl Pavlovich Bryullov (1799-1852)

Born November 29 (December 10), 1798 in the family of the artist P.I. Bryullov, brother of the painter K.P. Bryullov. He received his primary education from his father, a master of decorative carving, then studied at the Academy of Arts (1810-1821). In the summer of 1822 he and his brother were sent abroad at the expense of the Society for the Encouragement of the Arts. Having visited Germany, France, Italy, England and Switzerland, in 1830 he returned to St. Petersburg. Since 1831 - professor at the Academy of Arts. A man of remarkable destiny, instructive and peculiar. Since childhood, he has been surrounded by impressions of Russian reality. Only in Russia did he feel at home, he strove for her, he yearned for her in a foreign land. Bryullov worked with inspiration, success, and ardor. Within two or three months, such masterpieces of portraiture appeared in his studio, such as portraits of Semenova, Dr. Orlov, Nestor and Platon Kukolnik. In the portraits of Bryullov, executed with merciless truth and exceptionally high skill, one can see the era in which he lived, the desire for genuine realism, the diversity, naturalness and simplicity of the depicted person.

Departing from historical painting, Bryullov's interests lay in the direction of portrait painting, in which he showed all his creative temperament and brilliance of skill. His brilliant decorative painting "Horsewoman" (1832 Tretyakov Gallery), which depicts a pupil of Countess Yu.P. Samoilova Giovanina Pacchini. Portrait of Samoilova herself with another pupil - Amazilia (1839, Russian Museum). In the face of the writer Strugovshchikov (1840 Tretyakov Gallery), one can read the tension of inner life. Self-portrait (1848 Tretyakov Gallery) - a sadly thin face with a penetrating look. A very lifelike portrait of Prince Golitsin, resting on an armchair in his office.

Bryullov possessing a powerful imagination, a keen eye and a faithful hand. He gave birth to living creations, consistent with the canons of academism.

Departing relatively early practical work, the master was actively engaged in teaching at the Academy of Arts (from 1831 - professor). He also left a rich graphic legacy: numerous portraits (by E.P. Bakunina, 1830–1832; N.N. Pushkina, wife of the great poet; A.A. Perovsky, 1834; all in watercolor; etc.), illustrations, etc. .d.; here the romantic features of his talent manifested themselves even more directly than in architecture. He died on January 9 (21), 1887 in St. Petersburg.

An inspiring example for the partnership was the "St. Petersburg Artel of Artists", which was established in 1863 by participants in the "rebellion of fourteen" (I.N. Kramskoy, A.I. Korzukhin, K.E. Makovsky and others) - graduates of the Academy of Arts, defiantly left it after the Council of the Academy forbade writing a competition picture on a free plot instead of an officially proposed theme from Scandinavian mythology. Standing up for the ideological and economic freedom of creativity, the "artels" began to organize their own exhibitions, but by the turn of the 1860s and 1870s, their activities had practically come to naught. A new stimulus was the appeal to the "Artel" (in 1869). With due permission, traveling art exhibitions in all cities of the empire, in the form of: a) providing residents of the provinces with the opportunity to get acquainted with Russian art and follow its progress; b) development of love for art in society; and c) making it easier for artists to market their works.” Thus, for the first time in the visual arts of Russia (with the exception of Artel) a powerful art group arose, not just a friendly circle or a private school, but a large community of like-minded people, which assumed (despite the dictates of the Academy of Arts) not only to express, but also independently determine the development process artistic culture countrywide.

The theoretical source of the creative ideas of the "Wanderers" (expressed in their correspondence, as well as in the criticism of that time - primarily in the texts of Kramskoy and the speeches of V.V. Stasov) was the aesthetics of philosophical romanticism. New art, liberated from the canons of academic classics. In fact, to open the very course of history, thereby effectively preparing the future in their images. Among the “Wanderers”, modernity appeared as such an artistic and historical “mirror” in the first place: the central place at the exhibitions was occupied by genre and everyday motifs, Russia in its many-sided everyday life. Genre beginning set the tone for portraits, landscapes and even images of the past, as close as possible to the spiritual needs of society. In the later tradition, including the Soviet tradition, which tendentiously distorted the concept of "peredvizhniki realism", the matter was reduced to socially critical, revolutionary-democratic subjects, of which there really were quite a few. It is more important to keep in mind the unprecedented analytical and even visionary role that was given here not so much to the notorious social issues, but to art as such, creating its own sovereign judgment on society and thereby separating itself into its own ideally self-sufficient artistic realm. Such aesthetic sovereignty, which grew over the years, became the immediate threshold of Russian symbolism and modernity.

At regular exhibitions (there were 48 in total), which were shown first in St. Petersburg and Moscow, and then in many other cities of the empire, from Warsaw to Kazan and from Novgorod to Astrakhan, over the years one could see more and more examples of not only romantic-realistic, but also modernist style. Difficult relations with the Academy eventually ended in a compromise, since by the end of the 19th century. (following the wish of Alexander III “to stop the split between artists”), a significant part of the most authoritative Wanderers was included in the academic faculty. At the beginning of the 20th century in the Partnership, friction between innovators and traditionalists intensified; the Wanderers no longer represented, as they themselves used to consider, everything artistically advanced in Russia. Society was rapidly losing its influence. In 1909, his provincial exhibitions ceased. The last, significant burst of activity took place in 1922, when the society adopted a new declaration, expressing its desire to reflect the life of modern Russia.

Chapter III. Russian portrait painters of the second half of the 19th century

3.1 Nikolai Nikolaevich Ge (1831-1894)

Russian artist. Born in Voronezh on February 15 (27), 1831 in the family of a landowner. He studied at the mathematical departments of Kyiv and St. Petersburg Universities (1847-1850), then entered the Academy of Arts, from which he graduated in 1857. He was greatly influenced by K.P. Bryullov and A.A. Ivanov. Lived in Rome and Florence (1857-1869), in St. Petersburg, and since 1876 - on the Ivanovsky farm in the Chernihiv province. He was one of the founders of the Association of the Wanderers (1870). He did a lot of portrait painting. He began working on portraits while still studying at the Academy of Arts. For many years of creativity, he painted many of his contemporaries. Basically, these were advanced cultural figures. M.E. Saltykov - Shchedrin, M.M. Antokolsky, L.N. Tolstoy and others. Ge owns one of the best portraits of A.I. Herzen (1867, State Tretyakov Gallery) - the image of a Russian revolutionary, a fiery fighter against autocracy and serfdom. But the idea of ​​the painter is not limited to the transfer of external similarity. Herzen's face, as if snatched from the twilight, reflected his thoughts, the unbending determination of a fighter for social justice. Ge captured in this portrait the spiritual historical figure, embodied the experience of her whole life, full of struggle and anxiety.

His works differ from the works of Kramskoy in their emotionality and drama. Portrait of the historian N.I. Kostomarov (1870, State Tretyakov Gallery) is written in an unusually beautiful, temperamental, fresh, and free way. The self-portrait was painted shortly before his death (1892-1893, KMRI), the face of the master is lit up with creative inspiration. Portrait of N. I. Petrunkevich (1893) was painted by the artist at the end of his life. The girl is depicted in almost full height at the open window. She is immersed in reading. Her face in profile, tilt of the head, posture express a state of thought. As never before, Ge paid great attention to the background. Color harmony testifies to the unspent forces of the artist.

From the 1880s Ge became a close friend and follower of Leo Tolstoy. In an effort to emphasize the human content of the gospel sermon, Ge moves to an increasingly free manner of writing, sharpening color and light contrasts to the limit. The master painted wonderful portraits full of inner spirituality, including a portrait of Leo Tolstoy at his desk (1884). In the image of N.I. Petrunkevich against the background of a window open to the garden (1893; both portraits in the Tretyakov Gallery). Ge died on the Ivanovsky farm (Chernigov province) on June 1 (13), 1894.

3.2 Vasily Grigorievich Perov (1834-1882)

Born in Tobolsk on December 21 or 23, 1833 (January 2 or 4, 1834). He was the illegitimate son of a local prosecutor, Baron G.K. Kridener, but the surname "Perov" was given to the future artist in the form of a nickname by his literacy teacher, a provincial deacon. He studied at the Arzamas School of Painting (1846-1849) and the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture (1853-1861), where one of his mentors was S.K. Zaryanko. He was particularly influenced by P.A. Fedotov, the master of satirical magazine graphics, and from foreign masters - by W. Hogarth and genre painters of the Düsseldorf school. Lived in Moscow. He was one of the founding members of the Association of the Wanderers (1870).

The best portrait works of the master belong to the turn of the 60-70s: F.M. Dostoevsky (1872, Tretyakov Gallery) A.N. Ostrovsky (1871, Tretyakov Gallery), I.S. Turgenev (1872, Russian Museum). Dostoevsky is especially expressive, completely lost in painful thoughts, nervously clasping his hands on his knee, an image of the highest intellect and spirituality. Sincere genre romance turns into symbolism, imbued with a mournful sense of frailty. Portraits by the master (V.I. Dal, A.N. Maikov, M.P. Pogodin, all portraits - 1872), reaching a spiritual tension unprecedented for Russian painting. No wonder the portrait of F. M. Dostoevsky (1872) is rightfully considered the best in the iconography of the great writer.

In the last decades of his life, the artist discovers an outstanding talent as an essay writer (stories Aunt Marya, 1875; Under the Cross, 1881; and others; last edition - Stories of the Artist, M., 1960). In 1871-1882 Perov taught at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, where among his students were N.A. Kasatkin, S.A. Korovin, M.V. Nesterov, A.P. Ryabushkin. Perov died in the village of Kuzminki (in those years - near Moscow) on May 29 (June 10), 1882.

3.3 Nikolai Alexandrovich Yaroshenko (1846-1898)

Born in Poltava on December 1 (13), 1846 in a military family. He graduated from the Mikhailovsky Artillery Academy in St. Petersburg (1870), served in the Arsenal, and in 1892 retired with the rank of major general. He studied painting at the Drawing School of the Society for the Encouragement of Arts under I.N. Kramskoy and at the Academy of Arts (1867–1874). He traveled a lot - in the countries of Western Europe, the Near and Middle East, the Urals, the Volga, the Caucasus and the Crimea. He was a member (since 1876) and one of the leaders of the Association of the Wanderers. He lived mainly in St. Petersburg and Kislovodsk.

His works can be called a portrait - such as "Stoker" and "Prisoner" (1878, State Tretyakov Gallery). "Stoker" - the first image of a worker in Russian painting. "Prisoner" - a relevant image in the years of the stormy populist revolutionary movement. “Cursist” (1880, Russian Museum) a young girl with books walks along the wet St. Petersburg pavement. In this image, the whole era of the struggle of women for the independence of spiritual life found expression.

Yaroshenko was a military engineer, highly educated with strong character. The Wanderer artist served revolutionary democratic ideals with his art. Master of the social genre and portrait in the spirit of the Wanderers. He won a name for himself with sharply expressive pictorial compositions that appeal to sympathy for the world of the socially outcast. A special kind of anxious, “conscientious” expression gives life to the best portraits by Yaroshenko (P.A. Strepetova, 1884, ibid; G.I. Uspensky, 1884, Art Gallery, Yekaterinburg; N.N. Ge, 1890, Russian Museum, St. Petersburg ). Yaroshenko died in Kislovodsk on June 25 (July 7), 1898.

3.4 Ivan Nikolaevich Kramskoy (1837-1887)

Born in the Voronezh province in the family of a petty official. From childhood he was fond of art and literature. After graduating from the district school in 1850, he served as a scribe, then as a retoucher for a photographer. In 1857 he ended up in St. Petersburg working in a photo studio. In the autumn of the same year he entered the Academy of Arts.

The predominant area of ​​artistic achievement remained for Kramskoy portrait. Kramskoy in the portrait genre is occupied by a sublime, highly spiritual personality. He created a whole gallery of images of the largest figures of Russian culture - portraits of Saltykov - Shchedrin (1879, State Tretyakov Gallery), N.A. Nekrasov (1877, Tretyakov Gallery), L.N. Tolstoy (1873, State Tretyakov Gallery), P.M. Tretyakov (1876, State Tretyakov Gallery), I.I. Shishkin (1880, Russian Museum), D.V. Grigorovich (1876, State Tretyakov Gallery).

Kramskoy's artistic manner is characterized by a certain protocol dryness, monotony of compositional forms, schemes, since the portrait shows the features of work as a retoucher in his youth. The portrait of A.G. Litovchenko (1878, State Tretyakov Gallery) with picturesque richness and beauty of brown, olive tones. Collective works of peasants were also created: "Woodsman" (1874, State Tretyakov Gallery), "Mina Moiseev" (1882, Russian Museum), "Peasant with a bridle" (1883, KMRI). Repeatedly Kramskoy turned to this form of painting, in which two genres came into contact - portrait and everyday life. For example, works of the 80s: "Unknown" (1883, State Tretyakov Gallery), "Inconsolable grief" (1884, State Tretyakov Gallery). One of the peaks of Kramskoy's work is the portrait of Nekrasov, Self-portrait (1867, State Tretyakov Gallery) and the portrait of the agronomist Vyunnikov (1868, Museum of the BSSR).

In 1863-1868 Kramskoy taught at the Drawing School of the Society for the Encouragement of Artists. In 1870, Kramskoy became one of the founders of the TPHV. When writing a portrait, Kramskoy often resorted to graphic techniques (the use of must, whitewash and pencil). This is how the portraits of artists A.I. Morozov (1868), G.G. Myasoedov (1861) - State Russian Museum. Kramskoy is an artist of great creative temperament, a deep and original thinker. He always fought for advanced realistic art, for its ideological and democratic content. He fruitfully worked as a teacher (at the Drawing School of the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, 1863-1868). Kramskoy died in St. Petersburg on March 24 (April 5), 1887.

3.5 Ilya Efimovich Repin (1844-1930)

Born in Chuguev in the Kharkov province in the family of a military settler. He received his initial artistic training at the school of typographers and from local artists I.M. Bunakov and L.I. Persanova. In 1863 he came to St. Petersburg, studied at the Drawing School of the Society for the Encouragement of Artists under R.K. Zhukovsky and I.N. Kramskoy, then was admitted to the Academy of Arts in 1864.

Repin is one of the best portrait painters of the era. A whole gallery of images of his contemporaries was created by him. With what skill and power they are captured on his canvases. In Repin's portraits, everything is thought out to the last fold, every feature is expressive. Repin possessed the greatest ability of the artist's flair to penetrate the very essence of psychological characteristics, continuing the traditions of Perov, Kramskoy, and Ge, he left images of famous writers, composers, actors who glorified Russian culture. In each individual case, he found different compositional and coloristic solutions, with which he could most expressively reveal the image of the person depicted in the portrait. How sharply the surgeon Pirogov squints. The mournfully beautiful eyes of the artist Strepetova (1882, State Tretyakov Gallery) are darting about, and the sharp, intelligent face of the artist Myasoedov, the thoughtful Tretyakov, are painted. With merciless truth, he wrote "Protodeacon" (church minister 1877, Russian Museum). Patient M.P. was written with warmth. Mussorgsky (1881, Tretyakov Gallery), a few days before the death of the composer. The portraits of the young Gorky, the wise Stasov (1883, Russian Museum) and others are penetratingly executed. “Autumn Bouquet” (1892, State Tretyakov Gallery) is a portrait of Vera’s daughter, how sunny the face of the artist’s daughter shines in the warm shade of a straw hat. With great love, Repin conveyed an attractive face with his youth, cheerfulness, and health. The expanses of fields, still blooming, but touched by the yellowness of the grass, green trees, and the transparency of the air bring an invigorating mood to the work.

The portrait was not only the leading genre, but also the basis of Repin's work in general. When working on large canvases, he systematically turned to portrait studies to clarify the appearance and characteristics of the characters. Such is the portrait of the Hunchback associated with the painting "The procession in the Kursk province" (1880-1883, State Tretyakov Gallery). From the hunchback, Repin persistently emphasized the prosaic, squalor of the hunchback's clothes and his whole appearance, the ordinariness of the figure more than its tragedy and loneliness.

The significance of Repin in the history of Russian Art is enormous. In his portraits, in particular, his closeness to the great masters of the past affected. In portraits, Repin reached the highest point of his pictorial power.

Repin's portraits are surprisingly lyrically attractive. He creates sharply characteristic folk characters, numerous perfect images of cultural figures, graceful secular portraits (Baroness V.I. Ikskul von Hildebrandt, 1889). The images of the artist's relatives are especially colorful and sincere: a number of paintings with Repin's wife N.I. Nordman-Severova. His purely graphic portraits, executed with graphite pencil or charcoal, are also virtuosic (E.Duse, 1891; Princess M.K.Tenisheva, 1898; V.A.Serov, 1901). Repin also proved to be an outstanding teacher: he was a professor-head of the workshop (1894-1907) and rector (1898-1899) of the Academy of Arts, at the same time he taught at the school-workshop of Tenisheva.

After the October Revolution of 1917, the artist was separated from Russia, when Finland gained independence, he never moved to his homeland, although he maintained contact with friends living there (in particular, with K.I. Chukovsky). Repin died on September 29, 1930. In 1937, Chukovsky published a collection of his memoirs and articles about art (Far Close), which was later reprinted several times.

3.6 Valentin Alexandrovich Serov (1865-1911)

Born in St. Petersburg in the family of the composer A.N. Serov. Since childhood, V.A. Serov was surrounded by art. Repin was the teacher. Serov worked near Repin with early childhood and very soon discovered talent and independence. Repin sends him to the Academy of Arts to P.P. Chistyakov. The young artist won respect, and his talent aroused admiration. Serov wrote "The Girl with Peaches". Serov's first major work. Despite the small size, the picture seems very simple. It is written in pink and gold tones. He received an award from the Moscow Society of Art Lovers for this painting. The following year, Serov painted a portrait of his sister, Maria Simonovich, and later called it "The Girl Illuminated by the Sun" (1888). The girl is sitting in the shade, and the glade in the background is illuminated by the rays of the morning sun.

Serov became a fashionable portrait painter. Posed in front of him famous writers, aristocrats, artists, artists, entrepreneurs and even kings. In adulthood, Serov continued to write relatives, friends: Mamontov, Levitan, Ostroukhov, Chaliapin, Stanislavsky, Moskvin, Lensky. Serov carried out the orders of the crowned - Alexander III and Nicholas II. The emperor is depicted in a simple jacket of the Preobrazhensky regiment; this painting (destroyed in 1917, but preserved in the author's replica of the same year; Tretyakov Gallery) is often considered the best portrait of the last Romanov. The master painted both titled officials and merchants. Serov worked on each portrait to the point of exhaustion, with complete dedication, as if the work he had started was his last work. , minimizing or even eliminating the difference between a study and a painting. The black-and-white drawing was also an equal form of creativity (the latter's self-worth was fixed in his work from 1895, when Serov performed a cycle of animal sketches, working on illustrating the fables of I.A. Krylov).

At the turn of the 19th-20th centuries. Serov becomes perhaps the first portrait painter in Russia, if someone in this regard is inferior, then only one Repin. It seems that best of all he succeeds in intimate lyrical images, female and childish (N.Ya. Derviz with a child, 1888–1889; Mika Morozov, 1901; both portraits are from the Tretyakov Gallery) or images of creative people (A. Mazini, 1890; K.A. Korovin, 1891; F. Tamagno, 1891; N.A. Leskov, 1894; all - in the same place), where the colorful impression, free stroke reflect the state of mind of the model. But even more official, secular portraits organically combine subtle artistry with the no less subtle gift of an artist-psychologist. Among the masterpieces of the "secular" Serov - Count F.F. Sumarokov-Elston (later - Prince Yusupov), 1903, Russian Museum; G. L. Girshman, 1907; V.O. Girshman, 1911; I.A. Morozov, 1910; Princess O.K. Orlova, 1911; everything is there).

In the portraits of the master in these years, Art Nouveau completely dominates with its cult of a strong and flexible line, monumental catchy gesture and pose (M. Gorky, 1904, A. M. Gorky Museum, Moscow; M. N. Ermolova, 1905; F.I. .Chaliapin, charcoal, chalk, 1905; both portraits are in the Tretyakov Gallery; Ida Rubinstein, tempera, charcoal, 1910, Russian Museum). Serov left a grateful memory of himself as a teacher (in 1897–1909 he taught at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, where among his students were K.F. Yuon, N.N. Sapunov, P.V. Kuznetsov, M. S. Saryan, K.S. Petrov-Vodkin). Serov died in Moscow on November 22 (December 5), 1911.

chapter. The Art of Portraiture

The portrait is a significant and important genre in art. The very word "portrait" goes back to the old French word "pourtrait", which means: the image of the devil in the devil; it also goes back to the Latin verb "protrahere" - that is, "extract out", "discover"; later - "depict", "portrait". In Russian, the word "portrait" corresponds to the word "like".

In the visual arts, to which this term originally belongs, a portrait means the image of a certain specific person or group of people, in which the individual appearance of a person is conveyed, reproduced, his inner world, the essence of his character are revealed.

The image of a person is the main theme of painting. Its study begins with sketches of the head. All formal pictures are subordinated to the creation of an image, the transfer of the psychological state of a person. In painting, the image of a human head from nature should correspond to our usual three-dimensional vision and understanding of the world around us.

The methods of head painting in the Russian academic school of the first half of the 19th century continue the tradition of sculpting the form with the help of strong and hot shadows. We can judge academic methods by considering the works of O. Kiprensky, K. Bryullov, A. Ivanov. It is impossible to consider academic methods as something the same for all artists, but what is common for the students of the academy is the discipline of form.

A portrait can be considered quite satisfactory when the intimate and personal features of the depicted person are conveyed, when the original is reproduced exactly, with all the features of his appearance and inner individual character, in his most familiar pose, with his most characteristic expression. Satisfying this requirement is part of the scope of the tasks of art and can lead to highly artistic results if performed by gifted masters who put their personal taste and sense of nature into the reproduction of reality.

Painting is primarily an image of form, volume. Therefore, the form is often pre-worked out in one color exactly with all the details. Then the lights were painted cold, thick, textured; shadows hot, transparent, using varnishes, oils, resins. All this applies to oil painting. Watercolors of that time are only tinted drawings, and tempera was used for church paintings, far from works from nature.

Great importance in academic painting had a sequence of work, a system. Dry and wet glazing gave the head its final shape, color and expression. But probably some heads of K.P. Bryullov painted immediately, while maintaining strict modeling, cold lights and hot shadows. The same hot shadows lie on the portraits of I. N. Kramskoy. Their redness is softened by the usually diffused museum light. But if a ray of the sun falls on the portrait, you are amazed at the conditional brightness of the red shadows.

The Impressionists paid the most attention to the importance of warm and cold light in sculpting a living head. Either the lights are cold and the shadows are warm, or vice versa. In each model, the conditions of the situation are selected, based on the complexion, clothes of the general appearance. To create interesting lighting, screens are used - cardboard, canvas, paper. The screen can darken part of the background or clothes, which makes the face stand out better.

Keeping the preparatory sketch of M. A. Vrubel for the portrait of N. I. Zabela - Vrubel, where the boundaries of all color changes are drawn in pencil. The surface of the face is divided into very small areas, like a mosaic. If you fill each of them with the appropriate color, the portrait will be ready.

The portrait image reflects not only the model, but also the artist himself. Therefore, the author is recognized by his works. The same person looks completely different in the portraits of different artists. After all, each of them contributes to the portrait their attitude to the model, to the world, their feelings and thoughts, their way of seeing and feeling, their mental warehouse, their worldview. The artist does not just copy the model, not only reproduces its appearance - he communicates his impressions of her, conveys, expresses his idea of ​​​​her.

The portrait genre occupied a large place in the system of academic education, since teachers of the early 19th century saw it in the depiction of a person as a way for the artist to directly address nature.

With the development and establishment of democratic tendencies in Russian art in the process of solving common creative problems, there is a convergence of searches in different genres, and especially in portraiture.

Working on a portrait brings the artist into close contact with representatives of various social strata. modern society, and work from nature significantly expands and deepens the understanding of the psychology of the embodied images in the picture. Portraiture is enriched with typical folk images. The psychological characteristics of the person depicted in the portrait, his moral, social understanding are deepened. In the portrait, one can especially feel not only a critical attitude to life, but also the search for positive image, with the greatest force manifested in the images of representatives of the intelligentsia.

Russian art has a rich tradition of realistic portraiture dating back to the 18th century, which left a significant legacy. They fruitfully developed in the first half of the 19th century. In these eras, it was the portrait, relatively free from the power of the canons, in the realistic completeness of its images, that went ahead of both the plot - historical, and everyday painting, which took only the first steps in Russian art.

The best portrait painters of the 18th century and the first half of the 19th century convey to us the typical features of their contemporaries. But the tasks of typification while preserving the individual in the human image came into conflict in these portraits with the dominant classical concept, in which the typical was understood as abstract from the individual. In the Wanderer’s portrait, however, we encounter a reverse understanding of the typical: the deeper the penetration into the individuality of a person, the more concrete and brighter his image is recreated, the more clearly the common features that have developed under the influence of certain living conditions appear in his portrait.

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