Russian painting of the second half of the 18th century is a completely new phenomenon, independent of Western European trends in painting from classicism to romanticism, it is early Renaissance realism, Renaissance classics, which becomes especially obvious when high classics in painting, architecture, and literature are not slow to appear in the first half of the 19th century.
There is an explanation for all this. Since the artist turned his gaze from the face of the Savior and the Mother of God to the face of man - the most characteristic Renaissance worldview and art, then naturally the leading genre, during the XVIII century, almost the only one, becomes a portrait and the highest artistic achievements are associated with it.
Man in all his quivering vitality - that's what excites and occupies the artist, either as a model of civic virtues, or in itself, a person's personality is valuable in itself, it is worthy of all respect, attention and admiration. This humanity of feelings and self-awareness of the individual comes through already in Matveev's "Self-portrait with his wife" and becomes a hallmark of the Russian portrait in the works of F.S. Rokotov, D.G. Levitsky and V.L. Borovikovsky.
The Renaissance, as it was in the Renaissance in Italy, is an appeal to antiquity and to man as he is, outside of religious reflection.
And such an atmosphere arose in Russia for the first time, perhaps even at the time of Peter's childhood, and his games with the "amusing", his teaching and work were fanned by this presentiment and a sense of a new life. No wonder Peter, having built a ship, launched it, called on artists to capture it on paper, canvas or copper in order to print engravings. So it is with the city as it grows, so it is with the people.
The Renaissance is culture, its creation, the study of nature and human nature through anatomy and the art of portraiture. Until now, the relationship of man to another was mediated by God, the presence of the sacred, now man himself mediates this relationship to the other and the world, which is humanism in its most general and direct form. A person appears before himself - through another, as if looking into a mirror, in our case, an artist. The novelty of this situation is one of the phenomena of the new life, the Renaissance.
And we see this, we feel it, we feel it in the portraits of Rokotov, who, at the same time, masterfully masters the brush and has a unique sense of color. This is a rare master even in the series the greatest artists Renaissance in Italy. 
Gorgeous and male portraits of Rokotov. “Portrait of A.M. Rimsky-Korsakov” (Late 1760s.) The artist does not just capture the appearance of the model, his lively appearance is revealed in all the novelty of his impression and life itself, as it happens in spring, while both the hairstyle and a caftan with subtle finishing touches - everything is new too, and novelty creates a feeling of lightness. This is the youth of the model and the amazing skill of the artist, who effortlessly wields the brush of a genius.
 |  |  |
| "Portrait of Count A.I. Vorontsov." (About 1765.) Here the distinctive feature of Rokotov's portraits comes through even more clearly - this is the artistry inherent in both the artist and his models. With regard to the creations of Raphael, they speak of "grace", it is undoubtedly present in Rokotov. We know about Count AI Vorontsov as Pushkin's godfather in the future. This means that Pushkin as a child could see a portrait of his godfather in his youth and even its author. | "Portrait of V.I. Maikov" (Between 1775 and 1778). It is known that Vasily Ivanovich Maykov served in the Semyonovsky regiment, and a military career was natural for him, as was writing poetry, because Derzhavin also began this way. But the young officer or poet showed "laziness" and retired in 1761. He settled in Moscow, where he probably came from, and, in his words, "with the warmth of my own attraction, I recognized Apollo and became familiar with the Muses." In 1763 he published the heroic-comic poem The Ombre Player. He wrote fables, satires, his tragedies were staged. | "Portrait of N.E. Struysky" (1772). This is another poet from the circle of families in which Rokotov was obviously appreciated. Nikolai Eremeevich served in the Preobrazhensky Regiment; having retired in 1771, he lived in his estate Ruzaevka, Penza province. He started his own printing house to print his poems on expensive paper, and, they say, with the same decisiveness punished the peasants in the hall of arts called "Parnassus", where there were portraits of Rokotov, whom the poet highly revered, addressed him in verse and prose as to friend. |
 |  | |
| "Portrait of A.P. Struyskaya" (1772). Disharmony in the guise of a husband appears in the guise of his wife as concentrated harmony. You can not know anything about this woman, the artist captured her image with captivating fullness, this is the embodiment of grace and female beauty. The muted precious radiance of the dress on the shoulders, as if tiredly lowered. In large eyes with bulging pupils there is no openness, as if the inner veil is lowered, with a veil of tears guessed by the artist. | "Portrait of an unknown man in a cocked hat" (Early 1770s). It hung in the house of the Struyskys. This is a young man or a young woman in a fancy dress, because a female portrait appears in the X-rays, that is, a high hairstyle, earrings, a low-cut dress, while the face remains unchanged. Here is a mystery, but most likely just a masquerade game of the artist and his friends. |
But the work of Dmitry Grigorievich Levitsky (1735-1822) is especially significant in this regard. He was born in Ukraine in the family of a priest, who at the same time was a famous engraver. He studied in St. Petersburg with A.P. Antropov from 1758 to 1762, and in his team he was engaged in decorating the Triumphal Gates, built in Moscow on the occasion of the coronation of Empress Catherine II.
 |  |  |
| Portrait of the architect Alexander Filippovich Kokorinov (1769) It is very significant that in the first of famous works Levitsky, "Portrait of A.F. Kokorinov" (1769-1770), we see the architect, builder of the building of the Academy of Arts and its rector. “Kokorinov stands at a bronze-trimmed, dark lacquered bureau, on which there are drawings of the building of the Academy of Arts, books, papers,” the researcher writes. “Kokorinov is wearing a light brown uniform, thickly embroidered with gold braid, over it is a silk caftan, lowered with light brown fur ". | Portrait of Prince Alexander Mikhailovich Golitsyn (1772) | Portrait of the aide-de-camp Alexander Dmitrievich Lansky (1782) |
 |  |  |
| "Portrait of P.A. Demidov" (1773), a famous mining worker. He stands at the table on the terrace, leaning his left elbow on the watering can; at the base of the columns, behind which the Orphanage is visible in the distance, pots with plants - their owner, apparently, watered them when he came out in the morning, dressed, but in a dressing gown and a nightcap. Satin clothes, scarlet and silver, sparkle. A large figure, a large face - the energy and strength are only guessed, and the gesture of the hand towards the drawings on the table and the expression of the eyes show hidden fatigue or sadness. And the ceremonial portrait with developed techniques and necessary accessories reveals the personality in all its life immediacy. | "Portrait of N.A. Sezemov" (1770), "the village of Vyzhigin villager", reads the inscription on the back of the canvas. Bearded, portly, in a long, fur-lined caftan, belted below a protruding belly, a man? This is the serf of Count P.B. Sheremetev, a farmer who has made a huge fortune, that is, a merchant of a new formation. He donated twenty thousand rubles in favor of the Moscow Orphanage, and on this occasion Levitsky was commissioned for his portrait, formal, but with a dark background, without any special accessories, only paper on his lowered hand, and the other hand points to it, paper with a plan of the Orphanage , with a picture of a baby and text from Holy Scripture. This is a sign of the times. Two portraits, two heroes - already their neighborhood is unique, but it is characteristic of the Renaissance era. | "Portrait of D. Diderot" (1773). The philosopher, at the urgent invitation of Catherine II, visited Russia in 1773-1774. Head without wig, with remnants of hair at the back of the head, clean sloping forehead; the head is not thrown back, and yet the impression is that Diderot is looking not just to the side, but to the height, that is, apparently, the inner striving of thought into the distance makes itself felt. |
| Three portraits of everything - and a whole era of transformations of Peter the Great at a new stage of social development rises with one's own eyes. |
Contents: 20 slides, manual
The slide set tells about the work of the first Russian portrait painters F.S. Rokotova, D.G. Levitsky and V.L. Borovikovsky. Images of portraits of A.P. Struyskaya, Khrushcheva and Khovanskaya, P.A. Demidova, M.I. Lopukhina, Catherine II on a walk in Tsarskoye Selo park and others carry objective and accurate psychological characteristics, express advanced views on the individual, his human and social value.
The visual series of the manual includes the following slides
Click on the picture to enlarge
1. F. Rokotov. Portrait of Prince Grigory Volkonsky. 1780
2. F. Rokotov. Portrait of Varvara Surovtseva. 1780
3. F. Rokotov. Portrait of an unknown woman in a pink dress. 1770s
4. F. Rokotov. Portrait of Countess Elizabeth Santi. 1785
5. F. Rokotov. Portrait of Alexandra Petrovna Struiskaya. 1772
6. F. Rokotov. Portrait of a naked girl. 1780s
7. D. Levitsky. Portrait of Khrushcheva and Khovanskaya. 1773
8. D. Levitsky. Portrait of Ekaterina Molchanova. 1776
9. D. Levitsky. Alexander Kokorinov, director and first rector of the Academy of Arts. 1769
10. D. Levitsky. Portrait of Princess Praskovya Repnina. 1781
11. D. Levitsky. Portrait of the adjutant of the Empress Alexander Lanskoy. 1782
12. D. Levitsky. Portrait of Prokofy Akinfievich Demidov. 1773
13. D. Levitsky. Portrait of Maria Alekseevna Dyakova. 1778
14. V. Borovikovsky. Portrait of the sisters of the princesses A.G. and V.G. Gagarins. 1802
15. V. Borovikovsky. Portrait of Ekaterina Arsenyeva. 1790
16. V. Borovikovsky. Portrait of Skobeeva. 1790
17. V. Borovikovsky. Portrait of Major General Fyodor Borovsky. 1799
18. V. Borovikovsky. Countess Anna Bezborodko with her daughters Luba and Cleopatra 1803
19. V. Borovikovsky. Portrait of Maria Ivanovna Lopukhina
20. V. Borovikovsky. Catherine II for a walk in Tsarskoye Selo park. 1794
35. Art of Russia of the 18th century. painting (Lomonosov, Nikitin, Matveev, Vishnyakov, Antropov, Argunov, Rokotov, Levitsky, Borovikovsky, Losenko).
Russian painters of the 18th century gradually mastered linear perspective, which made it possible to convey the depth of space and plane, and chiaroscuro, which helped to create volumetric image. Artists studied anatomy to more accurately reproduce the human body and oil painting techniques.
From the beginning of the 18th century, the main place in easel painting in oil on canvas began to be occupied by a portrait: chamber, front, bust, in full height, double. It was preceded by the parsoons of the 17th century. Interest in a person is very characteristic of Russian art. In the first half and the middle of the 18th century, such famous portrait painters as I. Nikitin, A. Matveev, I.Ya. Vishnyakov, A.P. Antropov and I.P. Argunov.
An exceptional contribution to Russian culture of the mid-18th century was made by Mikhail Vasilyevich Lomonosov (1711-1765). He contributed to the development visual arts, referring to the area forgotten at that time - the mosaic. Lomonosov himself developed the technique of making smalt - colored vitreous masses of bright shades, since it was kept in strict confidence by Western European masters. He created over 40 mosaics, including portraits of Peter 1, Elizabeth Petrovna and a grandiose mosaic painting "The Battle of Poltava".
In the second half of the 18th century, the activity of the Academy of Arts, which opened in 1757 in St. Petersburg, became decisive for the development of Russian art. Here they systematically trained professional artists, primarily on the basis of the Greek classics. copied artistic images, plots, laws of mise-en-scenes construction, poses, types of faces, adopted ideas, interpretation of nudity, accessories and symbols.
One of the first Russian artists of the New Age was a "master of personal affairs" (i.e., a portrait painter) Ivan Nikitich Nikitin (c. 1680 - not earlier than 1742). We know four portraits signed by him: the nieces of Peter Praskovya Ioannovna (1714), Count Sergei Strogonov (1726) and two ceremonial portraits of Peter 1 and Catherine (1717) recently found in Italy.
In the 20s of the 18th century, after returning from Italy, Nikitin painted "Portrait of the Outdoor Hetman" and "Portrait of S.G. Strogonov." It is assumed that the manner of the artist could be very different. Easily and naturally, he sculpts the shape, freely and confidently creates the illusion of space.
The painting "Peter 1 on his deathbed" is permeated with deep, personal sorrow of the artist and majestically solemn. It is written with virtuoso light strokes through which the red-brown ground shines through. Under the master's brush painting sounds like a requiem.
Nikitin in the portraits of his contemporaries showed representatives of different Peter's times, accurately conveyed their characters, thereby creating the image of this turbulent era.
Artist Andrey Matveevich (or Merkurievich) Matveev (1701/1702-1739) enriched domestic art with the achievements of the European school of painting Several of his paintings have come down to us: "Allegory of Painting" - the first Russian work easel character on an allegorical plot, portraits of Peter 1, Princess A.P. Golitsyna, "Self-portrait with his wife", etc.
The most famous picture Matveev "Self-portrait with his wife" - the first poetic image of the marital union in Russian easel painting. Sincerity and simplicity, gullibility and openness, extraordinary chastity are his main features. Matveev's painting is transparent, rich in glazing, with the finest transitions from the image to the background, fuzzy chiaroscuro gradations, as if dissolving contours in this work reaches perfection and testifies to the flowering of the artist's creative powers.
Nikitin and Matveev managed to reveal in their portraits the uniqueness of human individuality and did it each in their own way: Nikitin - more courageous and sharp, Matveev - softer and more poetic. Matveev created an art school that had an impact on all the national art of that time and prepared the appearance of such painters as I.Ya Vishnyakov and A.P. Antropov, whose work falls mainly in the middle of the 18th century.
Ivan Yakovlevich Vishnyakov (1699-1761) possessed not only a picturesque, but also organizational talent. He actually supervised all pictorial works related to the construction in St. Petersburg and in the country residences of the nobles. He painted huge plafonds, wall panels, portraits, painted banners and decorations.
Appeal to private individuals is one of the features of the portraiture of Vishnyakov and, in general, artists of the middle of the century.
Vishnyakov was the first to sensitively capture the features of the emerging rococo in Russia and gave it a national identity. Vishnyakov's work is most reminiscent of Watteau, since both of them are characterized by slight irony. Vishnyakov brilliantly conveys the decorative luxury of the ceremonial costumes of his era, but he somewhat ironically emphasizes their bulkiness, which hinders movement. Instead of the light range inherent in Rococo works, the artist uses bright and sonorous colors, closer to ancient Russian art. He lacks fragmentation of forms, sharp angles, asymmetry, mobility, and the illusion of space.
Like the old Russian masters, Vishnyakov paid the main attention to the face, in which the spiritual world of a person is expressed, and the body was painted in a flat and schematic way. Portraits of Vishnyakov are imbued with high spirituality, warmth, sincerity.
The best works of Vishnyakov are ceremonial portraits of Fermor's children, of which the "Portrait of S.E. Fermor" is especially significant. Sarah Fermor seems to embody the ephemeral 18th century best expressed in the sounds of the minuet. She, under the brush of Vishnyakov, becomes the embodiment of a dream.
One of Vishnyakov's last works is a portrait of Prince Fyodor Nikolaevich Golitsyn "in the ninth year of his age." In this portrait lives one face, painted with love, with a deep insight into child psychology. Vishnyakov, more than ever, demonstrates his attraction to the traditions of Russian painting.
Alexey Petrovich Antropov (1716-1795) He painted mainly chamber chest or half-length images. The characteristic features of his painting are: the stiffness of the pose, the three-dimensional modeling of the head, the proximity of the entire figure to the foreground, the deaf neutral background, and the careful rendering of details. The artist primarily emphasized the class origin of the model. Dignity, corpulence, strengthening the solemn static posture are visible in all the portraits. The color scheme is based on contrast big spots. The form is also molded with the help of contrasts of light and shadow.
The best portraits of Antropov: ladies of state A.M. Izmailova, ladies of state Countess M.A. Rumyantseva, A. V. Buturlina, field ataman of the Don army F. I. Krasnoshchekov. The artist was remarkably successful in the faces of elderly people, on which he showed traces of a lived life, Antropov was able to capture the most significant features in the model, so his portraits have a convincing vitality. Portraits of church persons (F.Ya. Dubyansky and others) are solved in a solemn manner. In the portraits of royal persons, Antropov was connected by a certain scheme, but, despite this, they testify to the ability not only to compose a full-length figure among accessories, but also to give an accurate description of the model (Peter 3, Catherine 2).
Ceremonial portraits of Antropov are always decorative and fit perfectly into the baroque interior of the 18th century.
Ivan Petrovich Argunov (1729-1802) was closest to Antropov both in time and in creative views. The serf painter of Count P.B. Sheremetyev, he wrote many times to his masters: Pyotr Borisovich, Varvara Alekseev and their children.
In the portraits of husband and wife K.A. and H.M. Khripunov Argunov showed people not very distinguished, but undoubtedly worthy. Emphasizing the intellectual principle in a female portrait is quite unusual for this genre in the 18th century.
Argunov's self-portrait, dating back to the end of the 1750s, is distinguished by the immediacy and perfection of the pictorial performance.
Argunov did not have the merciless objectivity that is characteristic of Antropov, but V. A. Sheremetyeva’s wipe (1760s) is very close to Antropov’s in image. Her luxurious outfit does not hide the waywardness and swagger of this proudly seated lady.
Following Vishnyakov, Argunov painted children's and youth models with warmth. Argunov's portraits, especially the ceremonial ones, are always dated, just like those of Antropov. However, Antropov painted in the Baroque style, while Argunov gravitated towards the lightness and elegance of the Rococo, enriching it with national features and developing a purely national concept of the portrait.
One of Argunov's best and most poetic works is the portrait of "Unknown Peasant Woman in Russian Costume" (1784). The artist conveyed not only the external, but also inner beauty simple Russian woman. She looks majestic, looks with great dignity. Her festive attire is also masterfully written.
Fedor Stepanovich Rokotov (1735/36-1808) was a renowned portrait painter. The only non-portrait work of the artist is "I. I. Shuvalov's Study" (c. 1757) - the first image of a Russian interior.
Portrait of Ivan Orlov - Rokotov's first attempt to give a subtle description of the "movement of the soul" - a natural development of the interest of Russian artists in the psychologization of the image, starting with Nikitin's "Floor Hetman". The staging of the figure, which occupied almost the entire space of the picture, the lack of airiness, the neutral background testifies to the connection with the art of the middle of the century.
For Rokotov of the late 1760s and especially the 1770s, a breast image is usually characteristic. He develops a certain type of chamber (and its varieties - intimate) portrait and a peculiar manner of painting, an individual choice of artistic means. With picturesque means, Rokotov conveys various character traits and states of mind: the mockery of the skeptic V.I. Maykov, the lazy smile and thoughtfulness of "The Unknown Man in the Cocked Hat", sadness, the insecurity of the inner world on the beautiful face of A.P. Struyskaya, some uncertainty of the smile "Unknown in a pink dress." Spirituality and fragility of images, understatement of feelings, changeability of moods - all these are features of a chamber portrait.
Coloring is one of Rokotov's most important means in characterizing the model. To achieve color unity, the artist uses a warm tone primer. The image is built in a certain tonal key on the harmonic fusion of close color shades, light, transparent strokes, the finest glazing. The dynamism of the movement of the brush gives the impression of a shimmering paint layer, enhanced by a transparent haze, a kind of Rokotov's "sfumato" that creates an airy environment around the model's head. Rokotov, as it were, snatches his face out of the darkness, leaving everything else in shadow or partial shade. As a result, the corresponding moral ideals and the master himself and his era.
In the portrait of Alexandra Petrovna Struyskaya, the complexity mental life and grace of the model are conveyed by subtle combinations of ash-pink, pearl and lemon-yellow tones. The oval of the face is echoed by the oval neckline and the lines of the folds of clothing (just like Ingres in the portrait of Mademoiselle Riviere, only more than 30 years earlier).
At the turn of the 1770s-1780s, changes took place in the Rokotov manner. The openness and directness of the faces of the portrayed is replaced by an expression of impenetrability and restraint, a consciousness of the ownership of spiritual exclusivity. Models are distinguished by a proud posture and static posture. In place of Struyskaya and "Unknown in a pink dress" with a quivering and chilly spiritual worlds, the image of a more resolutely woman comes.
Since the 1780s, one can speak of the "Rokotov female type": a proudly planted head, an elongated slit of slightly narrowed eyes, an absent-minded half-smile. The figures are mostly inscribed in an oval. These features are already observed in the portraits of E. N. Orlova and Countess E.V. Santi. The face is still placed against a dark background, its contours are melting, as if snatched out of the darkness.
Of particular importance is the decorative side of painting, while the artist uses mainly local colors, smoothes the texture, bringing the skill to perfection.
Rokotov's great merit to Russian art lies in the fact that he created a portrait built on the play of feelings and instantaneous moods, a special spirituality of images, and a painting exquisite in color.
Dmitry Grigorievich Levitsky (1735-1822)- the great master of ceremonial and chamber portraits - was an artist who was unusually sensitive to the features of his models.
The portrait of "P.A. Demidov" depicts a rich man caring for flowers. According to the composition, this is a ceremonial classical portrait, but Demidov with a majestic gesture points to a pot of flowers. His whole appearance does not correspond to the tradition of a representative portrait, and most importantly, his facial expression does not correspond to it: he has neither secular arrogance, nor class pride. Levitsky showed Demidov against the backdrop of the Orphanage he founded in Moscow. In this portrait, the artist showed an amazing sense of form, the ability to build space. The painting is juicy, material, dense, the color is close to the local one - these are large color spots of a greenish-brown tone. In the portrait of Demidov, Levitsky expanded the possibilities of the ceremonial portrait.
Between 1772 and 1776, Levitsky painted portraits of pupils of the Smolny Institute for Noble Maidens - Smolyanka. (At the institute, the girls studied music, languages, dances, singing, secular manners. They were mostly children of the middle and small nobility.)
The painter tried to depict his models in the most characteristic poses, roles and images for them. As a result, it turned out to be a single artistic ensemble, united by one bright feeling of the joy of being and a common decorative system. Some models are placed against a neutral background, others against the background of a theatrical backdrop, a conditional theatrical landscape depicting park nature. Portraits of smolyankas are colorful canvases, the decorativeness of which is made up of a certain plastic and linear rhythm, compositional and coloristic solution.
Levitsky reached his greatest fame in the 1780s. It was during this decade that he painted portraits of almost the entire St. Petersburg high society. In his chamber portraits, the attitude towards the model is noticeable. The characteristic of individuality becomes more generalized, typical features are emphasized in it. Levitsky remains a great psychologist and a brilliant painter, but does not show his attitude towards the model. The monotony of artistic means of expression appears: the same type of smiles, too bright blush on the cheeks, one method of arranging folds. Therefore, the cheerful lady E.A. becomes subtly similar to each other. Bakunin (1782) and the prim and dry German Dorothea Schmidt (early 1780s).
Levitsky worked a lot on portraits of the Empress. The most famous is considered to be her image as a legislator: "Catherine 2 in the Temple of the Goddess of Justice" (1783). The allegorical language of the portrait is a tribute to classicism. Catherine points to the altar, where poppies are smoked, a symbol of sleep and peace. This means that she, sacrificing her own peace, gives herself to the altar of serving the fatherland in the name of the well-being of her subjects. Above the empress is a statue of justice, at her feet is an eagle, a symbol of wisdom and divine power, in the opening of the columns is a ship as a symbol of sea power. The intensity of color with a predominance of local tones, sculptural forms, emphasized plasticity, a clear division into plans - all these are features of mature classicism.
At the same time, Levitsky, as an artist, is very sensitive to the demands of his era in his latest works, reflecting the tendencies of the nascent Empire portrait and pre-romantic trends.
Vladimir Lukich Borovikovsky (1757-1825)- an outstanding portrait painter of the late 18th - early 19th centuries. Gradually, he developed his own compositional canon of female portraits: a half-length (rarely generational) section of a figure leaning on a tree, a curbstone, etc., portraying a flower or fruit in her hand, she was always depicted against the backdrop of nature. The figure is placed, as it were, at the junction of light (sky) and dark (bales of trees). Sometimes not only the staging, but even the dress and decorations were repeated from portrait to portrait, as in the images of E.N. Arsenyeva and Skobeeva. Both are wearing white dresses, pearl bracelets, an apple in their hand, but the samples are completely different. Both portraits are distinguished by pictorial qualities: a clear plasticity of form, a beautifully developed air environment.
In the 1790s, in accordance with the ideas of sentimentalism, popular at the turn of the century, Borovikov was fascinated by the state of mind of a person, his subtle feelings.
Borovikovsky, unlike the masters of the first half and the middle of the century, always painted on white grounds, which made it possible to achieve a special sonority of color.
Sentimental moods manifested themselves in the depiction of the monarch. The portrait of Catherine 2 on a walk in Tsarsky Park (two options: against the backdrop of the Chesme Column and against the backdrop of the Rumyantsev obelisk) was not painted by order of the Empress. It is also known that she did not approve of Borovikovsky's work. The artist created an image unusual for that time. Ekaterina is shown in a dressing gown (robe) and a cap with her favorite Italian Greyhound at her feet. She appears before the viewer as a simple Kazan landowner, whom she liked to appear in last years life. Recall that this is exactly how Pushkin remembered her in " Captain's daughter". The image of Borovikovsky in no way resembles Catherine 2 - the legislator. This is how artistic tastes change over the decade - from a classic lofty ideal to an almost genre interpretation of the sentimental image of a rural woman.
The end of 1790 - the beginning of the 1800s - the heyday of Borovikovsky's work. He, like Levitsky, portrays the entire St. Petersburg nobility, even the kings. In portraits of politicians, military men, and Fathers of the Church, Borovikovsky is able to combine the truthful characterization of the model with the conventionality of the composition. Like Levitsky, he becomes truly a "historiographer of the era", striving to depict its types rather than bright personalities. The best of them are those that reflect the civic ideal, the high spirit of the first two decades of the 19th century.
At the beginning of the new century, the result of his previous work comes out from under the brush of Borovikovsky and opens up new paths: this is a double portrait of the sisters A.G. and V.G. Gagarins (1802), written against the backdrop of nature, but already in a certain everyday situation - with notes and a guitar.
Anton Pavlovich Losenko (1737-1773) due to his talent and high professionalism, he was destined to become the first Russian historical painter of the 18th century. Public recognition came to him starting with the painting "Vladimir and Rogneda" (1770). With all the declamation and pathos in Losenko's picture, there are many sincere feeling. He also strives for maximum reliability of details, studied the little that was known about the ancient Russian costume. The dress of one of the maids, the pearl embroidery of her headband, Vladimir's boots and shirt, the robes of the soldiers - all testify to the attention to the elements of the costume of the pre-Petrine era. At the same time, Vladimir's fantastic headdress, which combines a jagged crown with a hat trimmed with fur and ostrich feathers, is more reminiscent of a theatrical prop.
The color of the picture consists of combinations of warm red and golden hues with black and white-gray colors. Large local spots, a clearly defined center of the composition culminating in the counter gesture of the hands of the main characters, the statuary plasticity of the figures speak of the victory of classicistic features over baroque ones.
The increased decorativeness of the canvas "Death of Adonis" (1764) also corresponds to baroque principles.
The main expressive means of classic works are drawing and chiaroscuro. Color paints the form; it is not by chance that it is called local. The volume is molded not so much by color as by chiaroscuro.
On the example of Losenko's last work, "The Farewell of Hector and Andromache" (1773), which the artist did not have time to finish, one can trace how classic principles were introduced into Russian painting. Here everything already corresponds to the program of classicism: walking - patriotic service to the motherland, readiness for heroism and sacrifice; "Frieze" composition of a multi-figure mise-en-scene with a clearly defined center located at the intersection of the diagonals of the picture; coloring of local color spots.
Depth ideological content works and mastery of execution made Losenko a significant figure in Russian culture of the 18th century.
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 goes to building more subtle relationships between appearance and inner world 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.
Portrait painting 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 existence 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, literary works who described imaginary communication with a portrait: poetic "interviews" with him, stories about falling in love with portraits, and in the era of romanticism - scary 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. 1762With 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 just right hand from a 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 the scales are frozen at the same level.
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 portraits XVIII eyelids 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 of Russia of the 18th century, Dmitry Levitsky, flourished. 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 in 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 emotional experiences is a characteristic feature of the culture of sentimentalism, which indicates 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 the great painting of Europe of the 16th-17th centuries, the tradition of which in pre-Peter Russian Russia was absent. 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.
8
Russian painting of the second halfXVIIIcentury
The 18th century in Russia is not only the time of the rise of public self-consciousness, social and philosophical thought, but also the time of the flourishing of art. Next to the names of the luminaries of Russian science and literature - Lomonosov, Fonvizin, Radishchev, Derzhavin are the names of Russian artists - Rokotov, Levitsky, Borovikovsky, Losenko, Shibanov.
In the 18th century, the realistic direction began to prevail in painting. The hero of art, the bearer of social and aesthetic ideals becomes alive and thinking person. At this time, new genres of painting were formed: historical, landscape, everyday life. The diversity and completeness of the genre structure developed in the last decades of the 18th century. Painting is widely distributed: royal collections are enriched, family collections are formed in the capitals, provincial cities and estates. Receive public recognition of the role of the painter, poet, artist. The first art exhibitions and sale of works, the role of professional opinion on art, the first aesthetic treatises are associated with the same time.
The first and largest figure in the field history painting was Anton Pavlovich Losenko (1737-1773). He painted only a few paintings, including "Vladimir and Rogneda" on the subject of Russian history and "Farewell of Hector to Andromache on the theme of Homer's Iliad. Both paintings today seem archaic in many respects, but at one time they were very famous and became the first thematic compositions in Russian art.
Fyodor Stepanovich Rokotov (1735-1808) - an outstanding master of the chamber portrait, i.e. chest image of the model, where all the attention of the artist is focused on the face of the person being portrayed. The main thing for Rokotov is to show the inner experiences of a person, his spiritual exclusivity. Rokotov was an excellent master of the female portrait. The female images of the artist are filled with a sense of inner dignity and spiritual beauty, they are majestic and humane. His work was characterized by poetic images, the subtlety of pictorial relationships, the lightness and softness of the brushstroke. His brushes belong to the portraits of N.E. and A.P. Struisky (1772, Tretyakov Gallery), "Unknown in a cocked hat" (early 1770s, Tretyakov Gallery), "Unknown in a pink dress" (1770s, Tretyakov Gallery).
In the second half of the 18th century, artists began to pay attention to depicting the life and way of life of peasants. The serf artist of Count Potemkin, Mikhail Shibanov, devoted his works to the peasant theme.
Among other artists of the XVIII century, one can note the work of Vladimir Lukich Borovikovsky (1757-1825), who was the third of the leading portrait masters of the second half of the eighteenth century. His canvases stand out for their underlined lyricism, contemplation, and attention to the world of a person's personal experiences. He painted such paintings as "Catherine II for a walk in Tsarskoye Selo Park" (1794, Tretyakov Gallery) and "Portrait of D. A. Derzhavina" (1813, Tretyakov Gallery), as a domestic version of the English "portrait - walk". Sentimentalism imbued female images artist - portraits of M.I. Lopukhina (1797), E.A. Naryshkina (1799), E.G. Temkina (1798, all in the State Tretyakov Gallery). In the composition of the canvases, the artist assigned a large role to the landscape.
The portraiture of the eighteenth century was significantly influenced by the contemporary F.S. Rokotova Dmitry Grigorievich Levitsky (1735-1822). It was in the work of Levitsky that the very essence of the Russian Age of Enlightenment was embodied, whose heyday falls on Catherine's reign.
Creativity Levitsky demonstrates that Russia has finally entered the European circle. Enlightenment ideals of dignity, reason and naturalness, relevant to Western cultural consciousness, are very significant for him. In terms of painting skill, his portraits are not inferior to the works of the best French and English contemporaries. No one paints the material world so juicy and tactile, admiring its preciousness and diversity: the brilliance of bronze, the heaviness and iridescence of fabrics.
Coming from a family of Little Russian priests, Levitsky acquired a taste for drawing since childhood. His father, Grigory Kirillovich, in addition to the clergy, was the most famous engraver in Ukraine, "reference officer" of the printing house of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra. An enlightened man, an amateur poet, he received an art education in the West. According to family tradition, having graduated from the seminary and the Kyiv Theological Academy, the son helped his father in the performance of allegorical programs for theological debates. His training in the "arts" was destined to continue, when, to direct the paintings in the building under construction according to the project of F.B. Rastrelli St. Andrew's Cathedral in Kyiv in 1752 arrived Alexei Petrovich Antropov. Both Levitskys were "in the wings" with him. Appreciating their efforts, Antropov recommended the elder for the position of temple auditor - to seize icons of "unskillful carving", and in 1758 he invited the younger to be his student.
Antropov was a portrait painter - that's what he taught. Levitsky got the first orders: the craft not only gave pleasure, but also promised to feed, and this was important, since a daughter was growing up in the family. Subsequently, Levitsky will become the most "fashionable" artist - he will be literally inundated with private orders. Already on his own initiative, in order to "polish his style", he takes several lessons from skilled foreigners - J.-L. Lagrenet Sr. and J. Valeriani. And in 1770 real success came - for the "Portrait of A.F. Kokorinov" (1769), shown at the exhibition of the Academy of Arts, the artist who did not study there received the title of academician, and a year later he was invited to lead a portrait class.
Levitsky painted portraits in the manner required by the aesthetic and ethical standards of the era. Models were bound to be presented in a winning light. They do not hide the fact that they are posing for the artist. Hence their proud posture, conditional gestures, condescending glances. The portraits were usually depicted in luxurious clothes, ceremonial uniforms, stars and sashes. However, through this extravaganza of wealth and parade of ranks, an attentive viewer can see living and full-blooded images of outstanding people.
Takov A.M. Golitsyn, whose portrait was created by Levitsky in 1772. A statesman, a dignitary, he is depicted according to the laws of a ceremonial portrait. To do this, the artist chose a large canvas format and a point of view from below, gave a generational cut of the figure. With a broad gesture of vice-k, etc. ..................
