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First decades of the 19th century in Russia took place in an atmosphere of popular upsurge associated with the Patriotic War of 1812. The ideals of this time found expression in the poetry of the young Pushkin. The war of 1812 and the Decembrist uprising largely determined the character of Russian culture in the first third of the century.
The contradictions of the time became especially acute in the 1940s. That's when it started revolutionary activity A.I. Herzen, V. G. Belinsky spoke with brilliant critical articles, passionate disputes were waged by Westerners and Slavophiles.
Romantic motifs appear in literature and art, which is natural for Russia, which has been involved in the pan-European cultural process for more than a century. The path from classicism to critical realism through romanticism determined the conditional division of the history of Russian art in the first half of the 19th century. as if into two stages, the watershed of which was the 1930s.
Much has changed since the 18th century. in fine and plastic arts. The social role of the artist, the significance of his personality, his right to freedom of creativity, in which social and moral problems were now more and more acute, increased.
The growth of interest in the artistic life of Russia was expressed in the building of certain art societies and the publication of special journals: "The Free Society of Lovers of Literature, Sciences and Arts" (1801), "Journal of Fine Arts" first in Moscow (1807), and then in St. Petersburg (1823 and 1825), "Society for the Encouragement of Artists" (1820), "Russian Museum ..." P. Svinin (1810s) and the "Russian Gallery" in the Hermitage (1825), provincial art schools, such as the school of A.V. Stupina in Arzamas or A.G. Venetsianov in St. Petersburg and the village of Safonkovo.
The humanistic ideals of Russian society were reflected in the highly civic examples of architecture of that time and monumental and decorative sculpture, in the synthesis of which decorative painting and applied art which often ends up in the hands of the architects themselves. The dominant style of this time is mature, or high, classicism, in scientific literature, especially at the beginning of the 20th century, often referred to as Russian Empire.
Architecture
The architecture of the first third of the century is, first of all, the solution of large urban planning problems. In St. Petersburg, the layout of the main squares of the capital is being completed: the Palace and the Senate. The best ensembles of the city are being created. Moscow was built especially intensively after the fire of 1812. Antiquity in its Greek (and even archaic) form becomes the ideal; the civic heroism of antiquity inspires Russian architects. The Doric (or Tuscan) order is used, which attracts with its severity and conciseness. Some elements of the order are enlarged, especially colonnades and arches, the power of smooth walls is emphasized. The architectural image strikes with grandeur and monumentality. A huge role in the overall appearance of the building is played by sculpture, which has a certain semantic meaning. Color decides a lot, usually the architecture of high classicism is two-tone: columns and stucco statues are white, the background is yellow or gray. Among the buildings, the main place is occupied by public buildings: theaters, departments, educational institutions, palaces and temples are built much less often (with the exception of regimental cathedrals at the barracks).
“View of the Stroganovskaya dacha” (1797, Russian Museum, St. Petersburg)
Big office of S.V. Stroganova, watercolor from the Stroganov family album, 1830s.
The largest architect of this time, Andrei Nikiforovich Voronikhin (1759–1814), began his independent path back in the 1990s with perestroika, following F.I. Demertsov interiors of the Stroganov Palace F.-B. Rastrelli in Petersburg (1793, Mineral Cabinet, art gallery, corner room). Classical simplicity is also characteristic of the Stroganov dacha on the Black River (1795–1796, not preserved for oil landscape "Stroganoff's Dacha on the Black River" , 1797, Russian Museum, Voronikhin received the title of academician). In 1800, Voronikhin worked in Peterhof, completing the project of galleries near the bucket of the Samson fountain and taking part in the general reconstruction of the fountains of the Great Grotto, for which he was officially recognized as an architect by the Academy of Arts. Later, Voronikhin often worked in the suburbs of St. Petersburg: he designed a number of fountains for the Pulkovo road, finished the Flashlight office and the Egyptian vestibule in the Pavlovsk Palace,
Kazan Cathedral 
Mining Institute
Viskontiev Bridge and the Rose Pavilion in the park of Pavlovsk. The main brainchild of Voronikhin - Kazan Cathedral (1801–1811). The semicircular colonnade of the temple, which he erected not from the side of the main - western, but from the side - northern facade, formed a square in the center of the Nevsky prospect, turning the cathedral and the buildings around it into the most important town-planning node. Driveways, the colonnade ends second, connect the building with the surrounding streets. The proportionality of the side passages and the building of the cathedral, the design of the portico and the fluted Corinthian columns testify to the excellent knowledge of ancient traditions and their skillful modification in the language of modern architecture. In the remaining unfinished project of 1811, a second colonnade was proposed near the southern facade and a large semicircular square near the western one. Only a wonderful cast-iron grating in front of the western facade turned out to be made from this plan. In 1813 M.I. was buried in the cathedral. Kutuzov, and the building became a kind of monument to the victories of Russian weapons. Banners and other relics recaptured from the Napoleonic troops were kept here. Later, monuments to M.I. Kutuzov and M.B. Barclay de Tolly, executed by the sculptor B. I. Orlovsky.
Voronikhin gave the Mining Cadet Corps (1806-1811, now the Mining Institute) an even more strict, antiquity character, in which everything is subordinated to a powerful Doric portico of 12 columns facing the Neva. Equally severe is the image of the sculpture that adorns it, perfectly combined with the smoothness of the side walls and Doric columns. I.E. Grabar correctly noted that if the classicism of the Catherine's era proceeded from the ideal of Roman architecture (Quarenghi), then the "Alexander" one, as it were, resembles the majestic style of Paestum.
Voronikhin, the architect of classicism, devoted a lot of effort to creating an urban ensemble, to the synthesis of architecture and sculpture, to the organic combination of sculptural elements with architectural divisions both in large structures and in small ones. The mountain cadet corps, as it were, opened a view of Vasilsvsky Island from the sea. On the other side of the island, on its spit, during these years, Thomas de Thomon was building the Bourse Ensemble (1805–1810).
Thomas de Thomon(c. 1760–1813), a Swiss by birth, came to Russia at the end of the 18th century, having already worked in Italy, Austria, possibly having taken a course at the Paris Academy. He did not receive a completed architectural education, however, he was entrusted with the construction building
View of the stock exchange from the Bolshaya Neva
Exchanges , and he brilliantly coped with the task (1805-1810). Tomon changed the entire appearance of the spit of Vasilievsky Island, shaping the banks of the two channels of the Neva in a semicircle, placing along the edges rostral columns-lighthouses , thereby forming a square near the Exchange building. The Exchange itself looks like Greek temple– peripter on a high plinth designed for commercial warehouses. Decor is almost non-existent. Simplicity and clarity of forms and proportions give the building a majestic, monumental character, make it the main one not only in the ensemble of arrows, but also influencing the perception of both embankments, both Universitetskaya and Dvortsovaya. Decorative allegorical sculpture of the Stock Exchange building and rostral columns emphasizes the purpose of the buildings. The central hall of the Stock Exchange with a laconic Doric entablature is covered with a coffered semicircular vault.
The Stock Exchange Ensemble was not the only construction of Thomas de Thomon in St. Petersburg. He also built in the royal suburban residences, using here the Greek type of construction. The romantic mood of the artist was fully expressed in the mausoleum "To the Benefactor Spouse", erected by Empress Maria
Mausoleum to the spouse-benefactor in Pavlovsk
Fedorovna in memory of Pavel in the park of Pavlovsk (1805–1808, the memorial sculpture was made by Martos). The mausoleum resembles an archaic type of prostyle temple. Inside the hall is also covered with a coffered vault. Smooth walls are lined with artificial marble.
The new century was marked by the creation of the most important ensembles in St. Petersburg. A graduate of the St. Petersburg Academy and a student of the Parisian architect J.-F. Schalgrena Andreyan Dmitrievich Zakharov(1761–1811), since 1805 "the chief architect of the Admiralty", begins construction Admiralty (1806–1823). Having rebuilt the old Korobov building, he turned it into the main ensemble of St. Petersburg, which invariably rises in the imagination when talking about the city even today. Zakharov's compositional solution is extremely simple: the configuration of two volumes, and one volume is, as it were, nested in the other, of which the outer, U-shaped, is separated by a channel from two inner outbuildings, L-shaped in plan. The inner volume is ship and drawing workshops, warehouses, the outer one is departments, administrative institutions, a museum, a library, etc. The facade of the Admiralty stretches for 406 m. is the castle of the composition and through which
Alexander Garden and Admiralty
lies the main entrance inside. Zakharov retained Korobov's ingenious design for the spire, showing tact and respect for tradition and managing to transform it into a new classicist image of the building as a whole. The monotony of the almost half a kilometer facade is broken by evenly spaced porticos. In striking unity with the architecture is the decorative plasticity of the building, which has both architectonic and semantic significance: the Admiralty is the maritime department of Russia, a powerful maritime power. The whole system of sculptural decoration was developed by Zakharov himself and brilliantly embodied by the best sculptors of the beginning of the century. Allegories of the Winds, Shipbuilding, etc. are depicted above the parapet of the upper platform of the tower pavilion, crowned with a dome. At the corners of the attic are four seated warriors in armor, leaning on shields, executed by F. Shchedrin, below is a huge, up to 22 m long, relief frieze " The Establishment of the Fleet in Russia” by I. Terebenev, then in flat relief the image of Neptune, giving Peter the trident as a symbol of dominance over the sea, and in high relief - winged Glories with banners - symbols of the victories of the Russian fleet, even lower are the sculptural groups of “nymphs holding globes” , as Zakharov himself called them, also performed by F. Shchedrin. This combination of round sculpture with high and low relief, statuary sculpture with relief-ornamental compositions, this correlation of sculpture with a smooth massif of the wall was also used in other works of Russian classicism of the first third of the 19th century.
Zakharov died without seeing the Admiralty in its finished form. In the second half of the XIX century. the territory of the shipyard was built up with profitable houses, much of the sculptural decoration was destroyed, which distorted the original plan of the great architect.
The Zakharovsky Admiralty combines the best traditions of Russian architecture (it is no coincidence that its walls and the central tower remind many of the simple walls of ancient Russian monasteries with their gate bell towers) and the most modern urban planning tasks: the building is closely connected with the architecture of the city center. Three avenues originate from here: Voznesensky, Gorokhovaya st., Nevsky avenue (this ray system was conceived under Peter). The Admiralty needle echoes the high spiers of the Peter and Paul Cathedral and the Mikhailovsky Castle.
Leading Petersburg architect of the first third of the 19th century. ("Russian Empire") was Karl Ivanovich Rossi(1777–1849). Rossi received his initial architectural education in the workshop of Brenna, then
Mikhailovsky Palace (main building of the Russian Museum)
made a trip to Italy, where he studied the monuments of antiquity. His independent work begins in Moscow, continues in Tver. One of the first works in St. Petersburg - buildings on Elagin Island (1818). It can be said about Rossi that he “thought in ensembles”. A palace or a theater turned into a town-planning hub of squares and new streets. So, creating Mikhailovsky Palace (1819–1825, now the Russian Museum), he organizes the square in front of the palace and paves the street on Nevsky Prospekt, while balancing his plan with other nearby buildings - the Mikhailovsky Castle and the space of the Field of Mars. The main entrance of the building, located in the depths of the front courtyard behind a cast-iron grate, looks solemn, monumental, which is facilitated by the Corinthian portico, to which a wide staircase and two ramps lead.
The building of the General Staff on Palace Square
Rossi did much of the decoration of the palace himself, and with impeccable taste - the drawing of the fence, the interiors of the vestibule and the White Hall, the color of which was dominated by white and gold, characteristic of the Empire, as well as grisaille painting.
In design Palace Square (1819-1829) Rossi faced the most difficult task - to combine the baroque Rastrelli Palace and the monotonous classicist facade of the building of the General Staff and ministries into a single whole. The architect broke the dullness of the latter with the Arc de Triomphe, which opens the exit to Bolshaya Morskaya Street, to Nevsky Prospekt, and gave the square the correct shape - one of the largest among the squares of European capitals. The triumphal arch, crowned with the chariot of Glory, gives the entire ensemble a highly solemn character.
One of the most remarkable ensembles of Rossi was started by him at the end of the 10s and completed only in the 30s and included the building Alexandria Theater , built according to the latest technology of that time and with rare artistic perfection, Alexandria Square adjacent to it, Theater
Facade of the Alexandrinsky Theater
the street behind the facade of the theater, which today has received the name of its architect, and the five-sided Chernyshev Square near the Fontanka embankment that completes it. In addition, the ensemble included the Sokolovsky building of the Public Library, modified by Rossi, and the pavilions of the Anichkov Palace, built by Rossi back in 1817–1818.
The last creation of Rossi in St. Petersburg - Senate building and the Synod (1829–1834) on the famous Senate Square. Although it still amazes with the impudent scope of the architect’s creative thought, who connected two buildings separated by Galernaya Street with a triumphal arch, one cannot fail to note the appearance of new features characteristic of the late work of the architect and the last period of the Empire as a whole: some fragmentation of architectural forms,
Senate and Synod, St. Petersburg
congestion with sculptural elements, rigidity, coldness and pomposity.
In general, Rossi's work is a true example of urban planning. Like Rastrelli once, he himself composed the decor system, designing furniture, creating wallpaper patterns, and also led a huge team of wood and metal craftsmen, painters and sculptors. The integrity of his plans, a single will helped create immortal ensembles. Rossi constantly collaborated with sculptors S.S. Pimenov Senior and V.I. Demut-Malinovsky, the authors of the famous chariots on the Arc de Triomphe of the General Staff and sculptures at the Alexandria Theater.
The "most rigorous" of all architects of late classicism was Vasily Petrovich Stasov (1769–
Moscow Triumphal Gates
Narva Gate
1848) - whether he built barracks (Pavlovsky barracks on the Field of Mars in St. Petersburg, 1817–1821), whether he rebuilt the Imperial stables (the Stable Department on the Moika Embankment near Konyushennaya Square, 1817–1823), whether he erected regimental cathedrals (the Cathedral of the Izmailovsky Regiment , 1828-1835) or triumphal arches (Narva and Moscow gates), or designed interiors (for example, the Winter Palace after the fire of 1837 or Catherine's Tsarskoye Selo after the fire of 1820). Everywhere Stasov emphasizes the mass, its plastic heaviness: his cathedrals, their domes are heavy and static, the columns, usually of the Doric order, are just as impressive and heavy, the general appearance is devoid of grace. If Stasov resorts to decor, then it is most often heavy ornamental friezes.
Voronikhin, Zakharov, Thomas de Thomon, Rossi and Stasov are Petersburg architects. No less remarkable architects worked in Moscow at that time. During the war of 1812, more than 70% of the entire urban housing stock was destroyed - thousands of houses and more than a hundred churches. Immediately after the expulsion of the French, intensive restoration and construction of new buildings began. It reflected all the innovations of the era, but the national tradition remained alive and fruitful. This was the originality of the Moscow construction school.
big theater
First of all, Red Square was cleared, and on it O.I. beauvais(1784–1834) were rebuilt, and in fact, rebuilt the Trade Rows, the dome over the central part of which was located opposite the dome of the Kazakov Senate in the Kremlin. A little later, a monument to Minin and Pozharsky was erected on this axis by Martos.
Beauvais was also engaged in the reconstruction of the entire territory adjacent to the Kremlin, including a large garden near its walls with a gate from the side of Mokhovaya Street, a grotto at the foot of the Kremlin wall and ramps at the Trinity Tower. Beauvais creates Theater Square Ensemble (1816–1825), building the Bolshoi Theater and linking the new architecture to the ancient Kitai-Gorod wall. Unlike St. Petersburg squares, it is closed. Osip Ivanovich also owns the buildings of the First City Hospital (1828–1833) and triumphal gate at the entrance to Moscow from St. Petersburg (1827–1834, now on Kutuzov Avenue), the Church of All Who Sorrow on Bolshaya Ordynka in
Triumphal Gates, O.I. beauvais
Zamoskvorechye, which Beauvais added to those built at the end of the 18th century. Bazhenov bell tower and refectory. This is a rotunda temple, the dome of which is supported by a colonnade inside the cathedral. The master worthily continued the work of his teacher Kazakov.
Almost always worked together fruitfully Domenico (Dementy Ivanovich) Gilardi(1788–1845) and Afanasy Grigorievich Grigoriev(1782–1868). Gilardi rebuilt the Kazakov Moscow University (1817–1819), which burned down during the war. As a result of reconstructions, the dome and the portico become more monumental, from Ionic to Doric. Gilardi and Grigoriev worked a lot and successfully in estate architecture ( Usachyov's estate on the Yauza, 1829–1831, with its finely molded scenery; the Golitsyn estate "Kuzminki", 1920s, with its famous horse yard).
Manor of the Usachovs-Naydenovs
Moscow residential buildings of the first third of the 19th century conveyed to us the special charm of the Russian Empire: solemn allegorical figures on the facades peacefully coexist with the motif of balconies and front gardens in the spirit of provincial estates. The end facade of the building is usually displayed on the red line, while the house itself is hidden in the depths of the courtyard or garden. In everything, compositional picturesqueness and dynamics reign, in contrast to the balance and orderliness of St. Petersburg (the Lunin house at the Nikitsky Gate, built by D. Gilardi, 1818–1823); Khrushchev's house, 1815–1817, now the museum of A.S. Pushkin, built by A. Grigoriev; his own house Stanitskaya, 1817–1822, now the museum of L.N. Tolstoy, both on Prechistenka.
Gilardi and Grigoriev greatly contributed to the spread of the Moscow Empire, mostly wooden, throughout Russia, from Vologda to Taganrog.
By the 40s of the XIX century. classicism lost its harmony, became heavier, more complicated, we see this in the example
Saint Isaac's Cathedral
St. Isaac's Cathedral Petersburg, built Auguste Montferrand forty years (1818–1858), one of the last outstanding monuments religious architecture in Europe in the 19th century, which brought together the best forces of architects, sculptors, painters, masons and foundry workers.
The paths of development of sculpture in the first half of the century are inseparable from the paths of development of architecture. In sculpture continue to work such masters as I.P. Martos(1752–1835), in the 80–90s of the 18th century. famous for its tombstones, marked by grandeur and silence, wise acceptance of death, “like the ancients” (“My sadness is bright ...”). By the 19th century there is a lot of change in his handwriting. Marble is replaced by bronze, the lyrical beginning - heroic, sensitive - strict (tombstone of E.I. Gagarina, 1803, GMGS). Greek antiquity becomes a direct role model.
Monument to Minin (standing) and Pozharsky (sitting)
In 1804–1818 Martos is working on monument to Minin and Pozharsky funded by a public subscription. The creation of the monument and its installation took place during the years of the highest public upsurge and reflected the mood of these years. Martos embodied the ideas of the highest civic duty and feat in the name of the Motherland in simple and clear images, in a laconic artistic form. Minin's hand is extended to the Kremlin - the greatest shrine of the people. His clothes are a Russian shirt, not an antique toga. Prince Pozharsky is wearing ancient Russian armor, a pointed helmet and a shield with the image of the Savior. The monument is revealed in different ways from different viewpoints: if you look to the right, it seems that, leaning on a shield, Pozharsky stands up to meet Minin; from a frontal position, from the Kremlin, it seems that Minin convinced Pozharsky to take on the high mission of defending the Fatherland, and the prince is already taking up the sword. The sword becomes a link
Moses spouting water from a rock
the whole composition.
Together with F. Shchedrin, Martos also works on sculptures for the Kazan Cathedral. They are filled with relief "The outflow of water by Moses" on the attic of the eastern wing of the colonnade. A clear articulation of figures against a smooth background of the wall, a strictly classical rhythm and harmony are characteristic of this work (the attic frieze of the western wing "The Copper Serpent", as mentioned above, was executed by Prokofiev).
The best creation was created in the first decades of the century F. Shchedrin- sculptures of the Admiralty, as mentioned above.
The next generation of sculptors is represented by the names Stepan Stepanovich Pimenov(1784–1833) and Vasily Ivanovich Demut-Malinovsky(1779–1846). They, like no one else in the 19th century, achieved in their works an organic synthesis of sculpture with architecture - in sculptural groups from
"The Abduction of Proserpina"
Apollo's chariot
Pudost stone for the Voronikhinsky Mining Institute (1809–1811, Demut-Malinovsky - "The Abduction of Proserpina by Pluto" , Pimenov - “The Battle of Hercules with Antey”), the character of overweight figures of which is in tune with the Doric portico, or in the chariot of Glory and the chariot of Apollo made of sheet copper for Russian creations - the Palace Arc de Triomphe and the Alexandria Theater.
Chariot of Glory Arc de Triomphe (or, as it is also called, the composition "Victory") is designed for the perception of silhouettes that are clearly drawn against the sky. If you look at them directly, it seems that the mighty six horses, where the foot warriors are led by the bridle, are presented in a calm and strict rhythm, reign over the entire square. On the side, the composition becomes more dynamic and compact.
Monument to Kutuzov
One of the last examples of the synthesis of sculpture and architecture can be considered the statues of Barclay de Tolly and Kutuzov (1829–1836, erected in 1837) at the Kazan Cathedral by B.I. Orlovsky(1793–1837), who did not live a few days before the discovery of these monuments. Although both statues were executed two decades after the construction of the cathedral, they brilliantly fit into the passages of the colonnade, which gave them a beautiful architectural frame. Pushkin succinctly and vividly expressed the idea of Orlovsky’s monuments: “Here is the initiator Barclay, and here the performer Kutuzov”, i.e. the figures personify the beginning and end of the Patriotic War of 1812. Hence the resilience, internal tension in the figure of Barclay are symbols of heroic resistance and a gesture calling forward Kutuzov's hands, Napoleonic banners and eagles under his feet.
Sculpture
Russian classicism also found expression in easel sculpture, in small-scale sculpture, in medal art, for example, in the famous medallion reliefs. Fyodor Tolstoy(1783-1873), dedicated to the war of 1812. A connoisseur of antiquity, especially Homeric Greece, the finest plastic, the most elegant
F. P. Tolstoy. People's militia in 1812. 1816. Medallion. Wax
draftsman. Tolstoy managed to combine the heroic, the sublime with the intimate, deeply personal and lyrical, sometimes even romantic mood, which is so characteristic of Russian classicism. Tolstoy's reliefs were executed in wax, and then in the "old manner", as Rastrelli the Elder did in the time of Peter the Great, they were cast by the master himself in metal, and numerous plaster versions have been preserved, either translated into porcelain, or executed in mastic ("People's Militia", "Battle Borodino”, “Battle of Leipzig”, “Peace to Europe”, etc.).
It is impossible not to mention F. Tolstoy's illustrations for the poem "Darling" by I.F.
Tolstoy F. P. Illustration for "Darling". 1820-1833
Bogdanovich, made with ink and pen and engraved with a chisel, is an excellent example of Russian sketch graphics based on the plot of Ovid's Metamorphoses about the love of Cupid and Psyche, where the artist expressed his understanding of the harmony of the ancient world.
Russian sculpture of the 30-40s of the XIX century. becoming more democratic. It is no coincidence that such works as “The Guy Playing Money” by N.S. Pimenov (Pimenov the Younger, 1836), "A guy playing pile" by A.V. Loganovsky, warmly welcomed by Pushkin, who wrote famous poems about their exhibition.
Interesting work of the sculptor I.P. Vitali(1794–1855), who performed sculpture among other works
Figures of angels at the lamps on the corners of St. Isaac's Cathedral
for the Triumphal Gate in memory of the Patriotic War of 1812 near the Tverskaya Zastava in Moscow (architect O.I. Bove, now on Kutuzova Avenue); a bust of Pushkin, made shortly after the death of the poet (marble, 1837, VMP); colossal figures of angels at the lamps on the corners of St. Isaac's Cathedral - perhaps the best and most expressive elements of the entire sculptural design of this gigantic architectural structure. As for the portraits of Vitali (with the exception of the bust of Pushkin) and especially the portraits of the sculptor S.I. Halberg, they bear the features of a direct stylization of ancient herms, which does not get along well, according to the right remark of the researchers, with an almost naturalistic elaboration of faces.
The genre stream can be clearly seen in the works of early deceased students of S.I. Galberg - P.A. Stavasser ("The Fisherman", 1839, marble, Russian Museum) and Anton Ivanov ("Young Lomonosov on the Seashore",
Stavasser. fisherman
1845, marble, RM).
In the sculpture of the middle of the century, there are two main directions: one, coming from the classics, but coming to dry academicism; the other reveals a desire for a more direct and multilateral reflection of reality, it becomes widespread in the second half of the century, but there is no doubt that both directions are gradually losing the features of the monumental style.
The sculptor who, during the years of the decline of monumental forms, managed to achieve significant success in this area, as well as in "small forms", was Petr Karlovich Klodt(1805–1867), author of horses for the Narva Triumphal Gates in St. Petersburg (architect V. Stasov), “Horse Tamers” for the Anichkov Bridge (1833–1850), a monument to Nicholas I on St. Isaac’s Square (1850–1859), I.A. . Krylov in the Summer Garden (1848–1855), as well as a large
One of Klodt's horses
amount of animalistic sculpture.
Decorative and applied art, which so powerfully expressed itself in the general single stream of interior decoration of the "Russian Empire" of the first third of the 19th century - the art of furniture, porcelain, fabric - also loses its integrity and purity of style by the middle of the century.
Painting
Classicism was the leading trend in architecture and sculpture in the first third of the 19th century. In painting, it was developed primarily by academic artists in the historical genre (A.E. Egorov - "Torture of the Savior", 1814, Russian Museum; V.K. Shebuev - "The Feat of the Merchant Igolkin", 1839, Russian Museum; F.A. Bruni - " Death of Camilla, Horace's sister", 1824, Russian Museum; "The Copper Serpent", 1826-1841, Russian Museum). But the true successes of painting lay, however, in a different direction - romanticism. The best aspirations of the human soul, ups and downs of the spirit were expressed by the romantic painting of that time, and above all by the portrait. In the portrait genre, the leading place should be given to Orest Kiprensky (1782–1836).
Kiprensky was born in the St. Petersburg province and was the son of a landowner A.S. Dyakonov and the fortress. From 1788 to 1803, he studied, starting with the Educational School, at the Academy of Arts, where he studied in the class of historical painting with Professor G.I. Ugryumov and the French painter G.-F. Doyen, in 1805 received the Great Gold Medal for the painting "Dmitry Donskoy on victory over Mamai" (GRM) and the right to a pensioner's trip abroad, which was carried out only in 1816. In 1809-1811. Kiprensky lived in Moscow, where he helped Martos to work on the monument to Minin and Pozharsky, then in Tver, and in 1812 he returned to St. Petersburg. The years after graduating from the Academy and before leaving abroad, fanned by romantic feelings, are the highest flowering of Kiprensky's work. During this period, he moved among the free-thinking Russian noble intelligentsia. He knew K. Batyushkov and P. Vyazemsky, V.A. posed for him. Zhukovsky, and in later years - Pushkin. His intellectual interests were also wide, not without reason that Goethe, whom Kiprensky portrayed already in his mature years, noted him not only as a talented artist, but also as an interestingly thinking person. Complicated, thoughtful, changeable in mood - such appear before us portrayed by Kiprensky E.P. Rostopchin (1809, State Tretyakov Gallery), D.N. Khvostov (1814, Tretyakov Gallery), boy Chelishchev (c. 1809, Tretyakov Gallery). In a free pose, looking thoughtfully to the side, casually leaning on a stone slab, stands Colonel of Life Caps E.B. Davydov (1809, Russian Museum). This portrait is perceived as collective image hero of the war of 1812, although he is quite specific. The romantic mood is enhanced by the depiction of a stormy landscape against which the figure is presented. The coloring is built on sonorous colors taken at full strength - red with gold and white with silver - in the clothes of a hussar - and on the contrast of these colors with the dark tones of the landscape. Opening various facets of the human character and the spiritual world of a person, Kiprensky each time used different possibilities of painting. Each portrait of these years is marked by a painting master. The painting is free, built, as in the portrait of Khvostova, on the subtlest transitions from one tone to another, on different color luminosities, then on the harmony of contrasting clean large light spots, as in the image of the boy Chelishchev. The artist uses bold color effects to model the form; impasto painting contributes to the expression of energy, enhances the emotionality of the image. According to the fair remark of D.V. Sarabyanov, Russian romanticism has never been such a powerful artistic movement as in France or Germany. There is neither extreme excitement nor tragic hopelessness in it. In the romanticism of Kiprensky, there is still much from the harmony of classicism, from a subtle analysis of the “windings” of the human soul, which is so characteristic of sentimentalism. “The current century and the past century”, colliding in the work of the early Kiprensky, who was formed as a creative person in the best years of military victories and bright hopes of Russian society, made up the originality and inexpressible charm of his early romantic portraits.
In the late Italian period, due to many circumstances of his personal fate, the artist rarely managed to create anything equal to his early works. But even here one can name such masterpieces as one of the best lifetime portraits of Pushkin (1827, Tretyakov Gallery), painted by the artist during the last period of his stay at home, or the portrait of Avdulina (c. 1822, Russian Museum), full of elegiac sadness.
An invaluable part of Kiprensky's work is graphic portraits, made mainly with a soft Italian pencil with pastel highlights, watercolors, and colored pencils. He portrays General E.I. Chaplitsa (TG), A.R. Tomilova (RM), P.A. Olenina (TG). The appearance of quick pencil portraits-sketches is in itself significant, characteristic of the new time: any fleeting change in the face, any spiritual movement is easily recorded in them. But Kiprensky's graphics are also undergoing a certain evolution: in his later works there is no spontaneity and warmth, but they are more virtuosic and refined in execution (portrait of S.S. Shcherbatova, it. car., State Tretyakov Gallery).
A Pole can be called a consistent romantic A.O. Orlovsky(1777–1832), who lived in Russia for 30 years and brought to Russian culture the themes characteristic of Western romantics (bivouacs, horsemen, shipwrecks. “Take your quick pencil, draw, Orlovsky, sword and battle,” Pushkin wrote). He quickly assimilated on Russian soil, which is especially noticeable in graphic portraits. In them, through all the external attributes of European romanticism, with its rebelliousness and tension, something deeply personal, hidden, secret lurks (Self-portrait, 1809, State Tretyakov Gallery). Orlovsky, on the other hand, played a certain role in “breaking through” the paths to realism thanks to his genre sketches, drawings and lithographs depicting St. Petersburg street scenes and types, which brought to life the famous quatrain of P.A. Vyazemsky:
Russia of the past, removed
You pass on to offspring
You grabbed her alive
Under the folk pencil.
Finally, romanticism finds its expression in the landscape. Sylvester Shchedrin (1791–1830) began his career as a student of his uncle Semyon Shchedrin with classic compositions: a clear division into three plans (the third plan is always architecture), on the sides of the wings. But in Italy, where he left the St. Petersburg Academy, these features were not consolidated, they did not turn into a scheme. It was in Italy, where Shchedrin lived for more than 10 years and died in the prime of his talent, that he revealed himself as a romantic artist, became one of the best painters in Europe along with Constable and Corot. He was the first to open plein air painting for Russia. True, like the Barbizons, Shchedrin painted only sketches in the open air, and completed the picture (“decorated”, as he defined it) in the studio. However, the motive itself changes emphasis. So, Rome in his canvases is not the majestic ruins of ancient times, but a living modern city of ordinary people - fishermen, merchants, sailors. But this ordinary life under Shchedrin's brush acquired a sublime sound. The harbors of Sorrento, the embankments of Naples, the Tiber at the castle of St. Angels, people fishing, just talking on the terrace or resting in the shade of trees - everything is conveyed in the complex interaction of the light and air environment, in a delightful fusion of silver-gray tones, usually united by a touch of red - in clothes, and a headdress, in the rusty foliage of trees , where any one red branch was lost. In Shchedrin's latest works, an interest in chiaroscuro effects was increasingly evident, heralding a wave of new romanticism by Maxim Vorobyov and his students (for example, “View of Naples in moonlit night"). Like the portrait painter Kiprensky and the battle painter Orlovsky, the landscape painter Shchedrin often paints genre scenes.
Strange as it may sound, the everyday genre found a certain refraction in the portrait, and above all in the portrait of Vasily Andreevich Tropinin (1776 - 1857), an artist who freed himself from serfdom only at the age of 45. Tropinin lived a long life, and he was destined to know true recognition, even fame, to receive the title of academician and become the most famous artist of the Moscow portrait school of the 1920s and 1930s. Starting with sentimentalism, however, more didactically sensitive than Borovikovsky's sentimentalism, Tropinin acquires his own style of depiction. In his models there is no romantic impulse of Kiprensky, but simplicity, artlessness, sincerity of expression, truthfulness of characters, authenticity of household details captivate in them. The best of Tropinin's portraits, such as the portrait of his son (c. 1818, Tretyakov Gallery), the portrait of Bulakhov (1823, Tretyakov Gallery), are marked by high artistic perfection. This is especially evident in the portrait of Arseny's son, an unusually sincere image, the liveliness and immediacy of which is emphasized by skillful lighting: the right side of the figure, the hair is pierced, flooded with sunlight, skillfully rendered by the master. The range of colors from golden-ocher to pink-brown is unusually rich, the widespread use of glazing still reminds of the painting traditions of the 18th century.
Tropinin in his work follows the path of giving naturalness, clarity, balance to simple compositions of a bust portrait image. 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.
Tropinin is the creator of a special type of portrait-painting, that is, a portrait in which features of the genre are introduced. "Lacemaker", "Spinner", "Guitarist", "Golden Sewing" are typified images with a certain plot plot, which, however, have not lost their specific features.
With his work, the artist contributed to the strengthening of realism in Russian painting and had a great influence on the Moscow school, according to D.V. Sarabyanov, a kind of "Moscow Biedermeier".
Tropinin only introduced a genre element into the portrait. Alexei Gavrilovich Venetsianov (1780–1847) was the real founder of the everyday genre. A land surveyor by education, Venetsianov left the service for the sake of painting, moved from Moscow to St. Petersburg and became a student of Borovikovsky. He made his first steps in the "arts" in the genre of portraiture, creating amazingly poetic, lyrical, sometimes fanned with romantic mood images in pastel, pencil, oil (portrait of V.C. Putyatina, State Tretyakov Gallery). But soon the artist left portraiture for the sake of caricature, and for one action-packed caricature "The Nobleman", the very first issue of the "Magazine of Caricatures for 1808 in Faces" he had conceived was closed. The etching by Venetsianov was, in fact, an illustration to Derzhavin's ode and depicted petitioners crowding in the waiting room, while a nobleman was visible in the mirror, being in the arms of a beauty (it is assumed that this is a caricature of Count Bezborodko).
At the turn of the 10-20s, Venetsianov left St. Petersburg for the Tver province, where he bought a small estate. Here he found his main theme, devoting himself to depicting peasant life. In the painting The Barn (1821–1822, Russian Museum), he showed a labor scene in the interior. In an effort to accurately reproduce not only the poses of the workers, but also the lighting, he even ordered to saw out one wall of the threshing floor. Life as it is - that's what Venetsianov wanted to portray, drawing peasants peeling beets; a landowner giving a task to a courtyard girl; sleeping shepherdess; a girl with a beetroot in her hand; peasant children admiring a butterfly; scenes of harvest, haymaking, etc. Of course, Venetsianov did not reveal the most acute conflicts in the life of the Russian peasant, did not raise the "sore questions" of our time. This is a patriarchal, idyllic way of life. But the artist did not introduce poetry into it from the outside, did not invent it, but scooped it up in the very image he portrayed with such love folk life. In the paintings of Venetsianov there are no dramatic plots, a dynamic plot, they, on the contrary, are static, “nothing happens” in them. But man is always in unity with nature, in eternal labor, and this makes the images of Venetsianov truly monumental. Is he a realist? In the understanding of this word by artists of the second half of the 19th century - hardly. In his concept, there is a lot of classicistic ideas (it is worth remembering his "Spring. On Plowed Field", State Tretyakov Gallery), and especially from sentimental ones ("On the Harvest. Summer", State Tretyakov Gallery), and in his understanding of space - also from romantic ones. And, nevertheless, the work of Venetsianov is a certain stage on the way of the formation of Russian critical realism XIX century, and this is also the enduring significance of his painting. This determines his place in Russian art as a whole.
Venetsianov was an excellent teacher. The Venetsianov school, the Venetians, is a whole galaxy of artists of the 1920s and 1940s who worked with him both in St. Petersburg and on his Safonkovo estate. This is A.V. Tyranov, E.F. Krendovsky, K.A. Zelentsov, A.A. Alekseev, S.K. Zaryanko, L.K. Plakhov, N.S. Krylov and many others. Among the students of Venetsianov there are many peasants. Under the brush of the Venetians, not only scenes of peasant life were born, but also urban ones: St. Petersburg streets, folk types, landscapes. A.V. Tyranov also painted interior scenes, portraits, landscapes, and still lifes. The Venetians were especially fond of "family portraits in the interior" - they combined the concreteness of the images with the detail of the narrative, conveying the atmosphere of the environment (for example, Tyranov's painting "The Chernetsov Brothers Artists' Workshop", 1828, which combines a portrait, a genre, and a still life).
The most talented student of Venetsianov is undoubtedly Grigory Soroka (1813–1864), an artist of tragic fate. (Magpie was freed from serfdom only by the reform of 1861, but as a result of a lawsuit with a former landowner he was sentenced to corporal punishment, could not bear the thought of it and committed suicide.) Under the brush of Soroka and the landscape of his native lake Moldino, and all the objects in the office of the estate in Ostrovki, and the figures of the fishermen frozen over the surface of the lake are transformed, filled with the highest poetry, blissful silence, but also aching sadness. This is a world of real objects, but also an ideal world imagined by the artist.
Russian historical painting of the 1930s and 1940s developed under the sign of romanticism. Karl Pavlovich Bryullov (1799–1852) was called a “genius of compromise” between the ideals of classicism and the innovations of romanticism. Fame came to Bryullov while still at the Academy: even then Bryullov’s ordinary studies turned into finished paintings, as was the case, for example, with his Narcissus (1819, Russian Museum). After completing the course with a gold medal, the artist left for Italy. In his pre-Italian works, Bryullov turns to biblical subjects (“The Appearance of Three Angels to Abraham at the Oak of Mamre”, 1821, Russian Museum) and antique (“Oedipus and Antigone”, 1821, Tyumen Regional local history museum), is engaged in lithography, sculpture, writes theatrical scenery, draws costumes for productions. The paintings “Italian Morning” (1823, location unknown) and “Italian Noon” (1827, Russian Museum), especially the first, show how close the painter came to the problems of the open air. Bryullov himself defined his task as follows: “I illuminated the model in the sun, assuming backlighting, so that the face and chest are in shadow and reflected from the fountain illuminated by the sun, which makes all the shadows much more pleasant compared to simple lighting from the window.”
The tasks of plein air painting thus interested Bryullov, but the artist's path, however, lay in a different direction. Since 1828, after a trip to Pompeii, Bryullov has been working on his equal work, The Last Day of Pompeii (1830–1833). The real event of ancient history is the death of the city during the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD. e. - gave the artist the opportunity to show the greatness and dignity of man in the face of death. Fiery lava is approaching the city, buildings and statues are collapsing, but children do not leave their parents; the mother covers the child, the young man saves his beloved; the artist (in which Bryullov portrayed himself) takes away the colors, but, leaving the city, he looks with wide eyes, trying to capture a terrible sight. Even in death, a person remains beautiful, like a woman thrown from a chariot by crazed horses is in the center of the composition. One of the essential features of his painting was clearly manifested in Bryullov's painting: the connection between the classicist style of his works and the features of romanticism, with which Bryullov's classicism is united by faith in the nobility and beauty of human nature. Hence the amazing "accommodation" of the plastic form that preserves the clarity, the drawing of the highest professionalism, prevailing over other expressive means, with romantic effects of pictorial lighting. Yes, and the very theme of inevitable death, inexorable fate is so characteristic of romanticism.
As a certain standard, a well-established artistic scheme, classicism in many ways limited the romantic artist. The conventions of the academic language, the language of the “School”, as the Academies were called in Europe, were fully manifested in Pompeii: theatrical poses, gestures, facial expressions, lighting effects. But it must be admitted that Bryullov strove for historical truth, trying as accurately as possible to reproduce specific monuments discovered by archaeologists and astonished the whole world, to visually fill in the scenes described by Pliny the Younger in a letter to Tacitus. Exhibited first in Milan, then in Paris, the painting was brought to Russia in 1834 and was a resounding success. Gogol spoke enthusiastically about her. The significance of Bryullov’s work for Russian painting is determined by the well-known words of the poet: “And the “Last Day of Pompeii” became the first day for the Russian brush.”
In 1835, Bryullov returned to Russia, where he was greeted as a victor. But he no longer dealt with the historical genre itself, because “The Siege of Pskov by the Polish King Stefan Batory in 1581” was not completed. His interests lay in a different direction - portraiture, to which he turned, leaving historical painting, like his great contemporary Kiprensky, and in which he showed all his creative temperament and brilliance of skill. One can trace a certain evolution of Bryullov in this genre: from the ceremonial portrait of the 30s, the model of which can serve not so much as a portrait as a generalized image, for example, the brilliant decorative canvas “Horsewoman” (1832, State Tretyakov Gallery), which depicts a pupil of Countess Yu. P. Samoilova Giovanina Pacchini, it is no coincidence that it has a generalized name; or a portrait of Yu.P. Samoilova with another pupil - Amatsily (circa 1839, Russian Museum), to portraits of the 40s - more chamber, gravitating towards subtle, multifaceted psychological characteristics (portrait of AN. Strugovshchikov, 1840, Russian Museum; Self-portrait, 1848, State Tretyakov Gallery). In the face of the writer Strugovshchikov, the tension of inner life is read. Fatigue and bitterness of disappointment emanates from the appearance of the artist in a self-portrait. A sadly thin face with penetrating eyes, an aristocratically thin hand hung helplessly. In these images there is a lot of romantic language, while in one of the last works - a deep and penetrating portrait of the archaeologist Michelangelo Lanci (1851) - we see that Bryullov is not alien to the realistic concept in interpreting the image.
After the death of Bryullov, his students often used only the formal, purely academic principles of writing that he carefully developed, and Bryullov's name had to endure a lot of blasphemy from critics of the democratic, realistic school of the second half of the 19th century, primarily V.V. Stasov.
The central figure in the painting of the middle of the century was undoubtedly Alexander Andreevich Ivanov (1806-1858). Ivanov graduated from the St. Petersburg Academy with two medals. He received a small gold medal for the painting "Priam asking Achilles for the body of Hector" (1824, State Tretyakov Gallery), in connection with which criticism noted the artist's careful reading of Homer, and a large gold medal for the work "Joseph interpreting the dreams of those imprisoned with him in prison butler and baker” (1827, Russian Museum), full of expression, expressed, however, simply and clearly. In 1830, Ivanov leaves through Dresden and Vienna to Italy, in 1831 he ends up in Rome, and only a month and a half before his death (he died of cholera) returns to his homeland.
The path of A. Ivanov has never been easy, winged fame did not fly behind him, as for the “great Karl”. During his lifetime, Gogol, Herzen, Sechenov appreciated his talent, but there were no painters among them. Ivanov's life in Italy was filled with work and reflections on painting. He did not seek wealth or secular entertainment, spending his days in the walls of the studio and on sketches. Ivanov's worldview was influenced to a certain extent by German philosophy, primarily Schellingism with its idea of the artist's prophetic destiny in this world, then by the philosophy of the historian of religion D. Strauss. Passion for the history of religion led to an almost scientific study of sacred texts, which resulted in the creation of famous biblical sketches and an appeal to the image of the Messiah. Researchers of Ivanov's work (D.V. Sarabyanov) rightly call his principle the "principle of ethical romanticism", i.e. romanticism, in which the main emphasis is shifted from the aesthetic to the moral. The artist's passionate faith in the moral transformation of people, in the perfection of a person who seeks freedom and truth, led Ivanov to the main theme of his work - to the painting, to which he devoted 20 years (1837 - 1857), "The Appearance of Christ to the People" (TG, author's version - timing).
Ivanov went to this work for a long time. He studied the painting of Giotto, the Venetians, especially Titian, Veronese and Tintoretto, wrote a two-figure composition "The Appearance of Christ to Mary Magdalene after the Resurrection" (1835, Russian Museum), for which the St. Petersburg Academy gave him the title of academician and extended the term of retirement in Italy for three years.
The first sketches of "The Appearance of the Messiah" date back to 1833, in 1837 the composition was transferred to a large canvas. Then the work went on, as can be judged by the numerous remaining sketches, sketches, drawings, along the line of specifying the characters and the landscape, and searching for the general tone of the picture.
By 1845, "The Appearance of Christ to the People" was, in essence, over. The composition of this monumental, programmatic work is based on a classicistic basis (symmetry, the placement of the expressive main figure of the foreground - John the Baptist - in the center, the bas-relief arrangement of the entire group as a whole), but the traditional scheme is uniquely rethought by the artist. The painter sought to convey the dynamism of construction, the depth of space. Ivanov searched for this solution for a long time and achieved it thanks to the fact that the figure of Christ appears and approaches people who are being baptized by John in the waters of the Jordan, from the depths. But the main thing that strikes in the picture is the extraordinary truthfulness of various characters, their psychological characteristics, reporting stunning authenticity to the entire scene. Hence the persuasiveness of the spiritual rebirth of the heroes.
Ivanov's evolution in his work on "The Phenomenon ..." can be defined as a path from a concrete-realistic scene to a monumental-epic canvas.
Changes in the worldview of Ivanov the thinker, which occurred over many years of work on the painting, led to the fact that the artist did not finish his main work. But he did the main thing, as Kramskoy said, “he woke up the inner work in the minds of Russian artists.” And in this sense, the researchers are right when they say that Ivanov's painting was "a harbinger of hidden processes" then taking place in art. Ivanov's finds were so new that the viewer was simply not able to appreciate them. No wonder N.G. Chernyshevsky called Alexander Ivanov one of those geniuses “who decisively become people of the future, sacrifice ... to the truth and, having approached it already in their mature years, are not afraid to start their activities again with the dedication of youth” ( Chernyshevsky N.G. Notes on the previous article//Contemporary. 1858. T. XXI. November. S. 178). Until now, the picture remains a real academy for generations of masters, like Raphael's "Athenian school" or Michelangelo's Sistine ceiling.
Ivanov had his say in mastering the principles of the plein air. In landscapes painted in the open air, he managed to show all the strength, beauty and intensity of the colors of nature. And the main thing is not to break up the image in pursuit of an instant impression, for striving for the accuracy of a detail, but to preserve its synthetic character, so characteristic of classical art. Harmonious clarity emanates from each of his landscapes, whether it depicts a solitary pine tree, a separate branch, the expanses of the sea or the Pontic swamps. This is a majestic world, conveyed, however, in all the real richness of the light-air environment, as if you feel the smell of grass, the fluctuation of hot air. In the same complex interaction with the environment, he depicts the human figure in his famous sketches of naked boys.
In the last decade of his life, Ivanov came up with the idea of creating a cycle of biblical gospel paintings for some public building, which should depict the plots of Holy Scripture in ancient Eastern color, but not ethnographically straightforward, but sublimely generalized. The unfinished watercolor sketches of the Bible (TG) occupy a special place in Ivanov's work and, at the same time, organically complete it. These sketches provide us with new opportunities for this technique, its plastic and linear rhythm, watercolor spot, not to mention the extraordinary creative freedom in interpreting the plots themselves, showing the depth of Ivanov the philosopher, and his greatest gift as a muralist ("Zachariah in front of an angel", "Joseph's Dream", "Prayer for the Chalice", etc.). Ivanov's cycle is proof that a brilliant work in sketches can be a new word in art. “In the 19th century, the century of the deepening analytical splitting of the former integrity of art into separate genres and separate pictorial problems, Ivanov is a great genius of synthesis, committed to the idea of universal art, interpreted as a kind of encyclopedia of spiritual quests, collisions and stages of growth of the historical self-knowledge of man and mankind” (Allenov M.M. Art of the first half of the XIX century//Allenov M.M., Evangulova O.S., Lifshits L.I. Russian art X - early XX century. M., 1989. S. 335). A monumentalist by vocation, Ivanov lived, however, at a time when monumental art was rapidly declining. The realism of Ivanov's forms did not correspond much to the art of a critical nature that was being established.
The socio-critical trend, which became the main trend in the art of the second half of the 19th century, made itself known in graphics as early as the 1940s and 1950s. An undoubted role here was played by the “natural school” in literature, associated (very conditionally) with the name of N.V. Gogol.
The album of lithographed caricatures "Yeralash" by N.M. Nevakhovich, which, like the Venetian "Journal of Caricatures", was devoted to the satire of morals. Several subjects could be placed on one page of a large format, often the faces were portraits, quite recognizable. "Yeralash" was closed on the 16th issue.
In the 40s, the publication of V.F. Timm, illustrator and lithographer. “Ours, written off from nature by Russians” (1841–1842) - an image of the types of a St. Petersburg street from dandy flaners to janitors, cabmen, etc. Timm also illustrated “Pictures of Russian Morals” (1842–1843) and executed drawings for the poem by I.I. . Myatlev about Mrs. Kurdyukova, a provincial widow, traveling around Europe out of boredom.
The book of this time becomes more accessible and cheaper: illustrations began to be printed from a wooden board in large numbers, sometimes with the help of polytypes - metal castings. The first illustrations for Gogol's works appeared - “One Hundred Drawings from N.M. Gogol "Dead Souls" A.A. Agina, engraved by E.E. Vernadsky; The 50s were marked by the activities of T. G. Shevchenko as a draftsman (“The Parable of the Prodigal Son”, exposing cruel morals in the army). Cartoons and illustrations for books and magazines by Timm and his associates Agin and Shevchenko contributed to the development of Russian genre painting in the second half of the 19th century.
But the main source for genre painting in the second half of the century was the work of Pavel Andreevich Fedotov (1815–1852). Just a few years of his short tragic life he dedicated to painting, but managed to express the very spirit of Russia in the 40s. The son of a Suvorov soldier, admitted to the Moscow Cadet Corps for his father's merits, Fedotov served in the Finnish Guards Regiment for 10 years. After retiring, he is engaged in the battle class of A.I. Sauerweid. Fedotov began with everyday drawings and caricatures, with a series of sepia from the life of Fidelka, the lady's dog, who died in a bose and mourned by the mistress, with a series in which he declared himself as a satirical writer of everyday life - the Russian Daumier of the period of his Caricatures (in addition to the series about Fidelka - sepia "Fashion Shop", 1844-1846, State Tretyakov Gallery; "An Artist Who Married Without a Dowry in the Hope of His Talent", 1844, State Tretyakov Gallery, etc.). He studied both on the engravings of Hogarth and the Dutch, but most of all - on Russian life itself, open to the gaze of a talented artist in all its disharmony and inconsistency.
The main thing in his work - household painting. Even when he paints portraits, it is easy to detect genre elements in them (for example, in the watercolor portrait "Players", State Tretyakov Gallery). His evolution in genre painting - from the image of the caricature to the tragic, from congestion in detail, as in "The Fresh Cavalier" (1846, State Tretyakov Gallery), where everything is "discussed": a guitar, bottles, a mocking maid, even papillottes on the head of an unlucky hero - to extreme laconism, as in The Widow (1851, Ivanovo Regional Art Museum, variant - State Tretyakov Gallery, State Russian Museum), to a tragic sense of the meaninglessness of existence, as in his last film "Anchor, more anchor!" (about 1851, State Tretyakov Gallery). The same evolution in the understanding of color: from a color that sounds at half strength, through pure, bright, intense, saturated colors, as in the "Major's Matchmaking" (1848, State Tretyakov Gallery, version - State Russian Museum) or "Aristocrat's Breakfast" (1849-1851, State Tretyakov Gallery ), to exquisite colors"Widow", betraying the objective world, as if dissolving in the diffused light of the day, and the integrity of the single tone of his last canvas ("Anchor ..."). It was a path from simple everyday writing to the implementation in clear, restrained images of the most important problems of Russian life, for what, for example, is the "Major's Matchmaking" if not a denunciation of one of the social facts of the life of his time - the marriages of impoverished nobles with merchant "money bags"? And "The Picky Bride", written on a plot borrowed from I.A. Krylova (who, by the way, greatly appreciated the artist), if not a satire on marriage of convenience? Or is it a denunciation of the emptiness of a secular dude who throws dust in his eyes - in the "Breakfast of an Aristocrat"?
The strength of Fedotov's painting is not only in the depth of problems, in the entertaining plot, but also in the amazing mastery of execution. Suffice it to recall the charm-filled chamber “Portrait of N.P. Zhdanovich at the harpsichord” (1849, Russian Museum). Fedotov loves the real objective world, writes out every thing with delight, poeticizes it. But this delight before the world does not obscure the bitterness of what is happening: the hopelessness of the position of the "widow", the lie of the marriage deal, the longing of the officer's service in the "bear corner". If Fedotov's laughter breaks out, it is the same Gogol's "laughter through tears invisible to the world." Fedotov ended his life in the "house of sorrow" at the fateful 37th year of his life.
Fedotov's art completes the development of painting in the first half of the 19th century, and at the same time, quite organically - thanks to its social sharpness - the "Fedotov direction" opens the beginning of a new stage - the art of critical, or, as they often say now, democratic, realism.
Russian fine arts were characterized by romanticism and realism. However, the officially recognized method was classicism. The Academy of Arts became a conservative and inert institution that hindered any attempt at creative freedom. She demanded to strictly follow the canons of classicism, encouraged the writing of paintings on biblical and mythological subjects. Young talented Russian artists were not satisfied with the framework of academism. Therefore, they often turned to the portrait genre.
Romantic ideals of the era of national upsurge were embodied in painting. Rejecting the strict principles of classicism that did not allow deviations, the artists discovered the diversity and originality of the world around them. This was not only reflected in the already familiar genres - portrait and landscape - but also gave impetus to the birth of everyday painting, which was in the center of attention of the masters of the second half of the century. In the meantime, the primacy remained with the historical genre. It was the last refuge of classicism, however, even here romantic ideas and themes were hidden behind the formally classicist “facade”.
Romanticism - (French romantisme), an ideological and artistic direction in European and American spiritual culture of the late 18th - 1st half. 19th centuries Reflecting disappointment in the results of the French Revolution of the late 18th century, in the ideology of the Enlightenment and social progress. Romanticism contrasted utilitarianism and the leveling of the individual with the aspiration for unlimited freedom and the "infinite", the thirst for perfection and renewal, the pathos of personal and civil independence. The painful discord between the ideal and social reality is the basis of the romantic worldview and art. The assertion of the inherent value of the spiritual and creative life of the individual, the image of strong passions, the image of strong passions, spiritualized and healing nature, for many romantics - heroes of protest or struggle are adjacent to the motives of "world sorrow", "world evil", "night" side of the soul, clothed in forms of irony, grotesque poetics of two worlds. Interest in the national past (often its idealization), traditions of folklore and culture of one’s own and other peoples, the desire to create a universal picture of the world (primarily history and literature), the idea of art synthesis found expression in the ideology and practice of Romanticism.
AT fine arts Romanticism most clearly manifested itself in painting and graphics, less clearly - in sculpture and architecture (for example, false Gothic). Most of the national schools of Romanticism in the visual arts developed in the struggle against official academic classicism.
In the bowels of the official state culture, a layer of "elitist" culture is noticeable, serving the ruling class (the aristocracy and the royal court) and having a special susceptibility to foreign innovations. Suffice it to recall the romantic painting of O. Kiprensky, V. Tropinin, K. Bryullov, A. Ivanov and other major artists of the 19th in.
Kiprensky Orest Adamovich, Russian artist. An outstanding master of Russian fine art of romanticism, known as a wonderful portrait painter. In the painting "Dmitry Donskoy on the Kulikovo Field" (1805, Russian Museum) he demonstrated a confident knowledge of the canons of the academic historical picture. But early on, the area where his talent is revealed most naturally and naturally is the portrait. His first pictorial portrait (“A. K. Schwalbe”, 1804, ibid.), written in the “Rembrandtian” manner, stands out for its expressive and dramatic light and shade system. Over the years, his skill - which manifested itself in the ability to create, first of all, unique individual-characteristic images, choosing special plastic means to set off this characteristic - is getting stronger. Full of impressive vitality: a portrait of a boy by A. A. Chelishchev (circa 1810-11), paired images of the spouses F. V. and E. P. Rostopchin (1809) and V. S. and D. N. Khvostov (1814, all - Tretyakov Gallery). The artist increasingly plays with the possibilities of color and light and shade contrasts, landscape background, symbolic details (“E. S. Avdulina”, about 1822, ibid.). The artist knows how to make even large ceremonial portraits lyrically, almost intimately relaxed (“Portrait of the Life Hussars Colonel Yevgraf Davydov”, 1809, Russian Museum). His portrait of a young A.S. Pushkin is one of the best in creating a romantic image. Kiprensky's Pushkin looks solemn and romantic, in a halo of poetic glory. “You flatter me, Orestes,” Pushkin sighed, looking at the finished canvas. Kiprensky was also a virtuoso draftsman who created (mainly in the technique of Italian pencil and pastel) examples of graphic skill, often surpassing his pictorial portraits with open, excitingly light emotionality. These are everyday types (“The Blind Musician”, 1809, Russian Museum; “Kalmychka Bayausta”, 1813, Tretyakov Gallery), and the famous series of pencil portraits of participants in the Patriotic War of 1812 (drawings depicting E. I. Chaplits, A. R. Tomilova, P. A. Olenina, the same drawing with the poet Batyushkov and others, 1813-15, Tretyakov Gallery and other collections); the heroic beginning here acquires a sincere connotation. A large number of sketches and textual evidence show that the artist throughout his mature period tended to create a large (according to his own words from a letter to A. N. Olenin in 1834), “a spectacular, or, in Russian, striking and magical picture”, where the results of European history, as well as the destiny of Russia, would be depicted in allegorical form. “Readers of Newspapers in Naples” (1831, Tretyakov Gallery) - in appearance just a group portrait - in fact, there is a secretly symbolic response to revolutionary events in Europe.
However, the most ambitious of the picturesque allegories of Kiprensky remained unfulfilled or disappeared (like the "Anacreon's tomb", completed in 1821). These romantic searches, however, received a large-scale continuation in the work of K. P. Bryullov and A. A. Ivanov.
The realistic manner was reflected in the works of V.A. Tropinin. Tropinin's early portraits, painted in restrained colors (family portraits of Counts Morkovs of 1813 and 1815, both in the Tretyakov Gallery), still belong entirely to the tradition of the Age of Enlightenment: the model is the unconditional and stable center of the image in them. Later, the coloring of Tropinin's painting becomes more intense, the volumes are usually molded more clearly and sculpturally, but most importantly, a purely romantic feeling of the moving elements of life insinuatingly grows, only a part of which the hero of the portrait seems to be a fragment ("Bulakhov", 1823; "K. G. Ravich" , 1823; self-portrait, circa 1824; all three - ibid.). Such is A. S. Pushkin in the famous portrait of 1827 (All-Russian Museum of A. S. Pushkin, Pushkin): the poet, putting his hand on a stack of paper, as if “listens to the muse”, listens to the creative dream that surrounds the image with an invisible halo . He also painted a portrait of A.S. Pushkin. Before the viewer appears wise by life experience, not a very happy person. In the portrait of Tropinin, the poet is charming in a homely way. Some special old-Moscow warmth and comfort emanates from Tropinin's works. Until the age of 47, he was in bondage. Therefore, probably, the faces of ordinary people are so fresh, so inspired on his canvases. And the youth and charm of his "Lacemaker" are endless. Most often, V.A. Tropinin turned to the image of people from the people ("The Lacemaker", "Portrait of a Son", etc.).
The artistic and ideological searches of Russian social thought, the expectation of changes, were reflected in the paintings of K.P. Bryullov "The Last Day of Pompeii" and A.A. Ivanov "The Appearance of Christ to the People".
A great work of art is the painting "The Last Day of Pompeii" by Karl Pavlovich Bryullov (1799-1852). In 1830 at the excavations ancient city Pompeii was visited by the Russian artist Karl Pavlovich Bryullov. He walked along the ancient pavements, admired the frescoes, and that tragic night of August 79 AD rose in his imagination. e., when the city was covered with red-hot ash and pumice of awakened Vesuvius. Three years later, the painting "The Last Day of Pompeii" made a triumphant journey from Italy to Russia. The artist found amazing colors to depict the tragedy of the ancient city, dying under the lava and ash of erupting Vesuvius. The picture is imbued with high humanistic ideals. It shows the courage of people, their selflessness, shown during a terrible catastrophe. Bryullov was in Italy on a business trip from the Academy of Arts. In this educational institution, training in the technique of painting and drawing was well established. However, the Academy unequivocally focused on the ancient heritage and heroic themes. Academic painting was characterized by a decorative landscape, theatricality of the overall composition. Scenes from modern life, an ordinary Russian landscape were considered unworthy of the artist's brush. Classicism in painting received the name of academicism. Bryullov was associated with the Academy with all his work.
He possessed a powerful imagination, a keen eye and a faithful hand - and he produced living creations, consistent with the canons of academism. Truly with Pushkin's grace, he was able to capture on canvas the beauty of a naked human body, and the trembling of a sunbeam on a green leaf. His canvases “Horsewoman”, “Bathsheba”, “Italian Morning”, “Italian Noon”, numerous ceremonial and intimate portraits will forever remain unfading masterpieces of Russian painting. However, the artist has always gravitated towards large historical themes, to the depiction of significant events in human history. Many of his plans in this regard were not implemented. Bryullov never left the idea of creating an epic canvas based on a plot from Russian history. He begins the painting "The Siege of Pskov by the troops of King Stefan Batory." It depicts the climax of the siege of 1581, when the Pskov warriors and. the townspeople attacked the Poles who broke into the city and threw them behind the walls. But the picture remained unfinished, and the task of creating truly national historical paintings was carried out not by Bryullov, but by the next generation of Russian artists. The same age as Pushkin, Bryullov outlived him by 15 years. He has been ill in recent years. From a self-portrait painted at that time, a red-haired man with delicate features and a calm, thoughtful look is looking at us.
In the first half of the XIX century. the artist Alexander Andreyevich Ivanov (1806-1858) lived and worked. He devoted his entire creative life to the idea of the spiritual awakening of the people, embodying it in the painting “The Appearance of Christ to the People”. For more than 20 years he worked on the painting "The Appearance of Christ to the People", in which he put all the power and brightness of his talent. In the foreground of his grandiose canvas, the courageous figure of John the Baptist catches the eye, pointing the people to the approaching Christ. His figure is given in the distance. He has not yet come, he is coming, he will definitely come, says the artist. And the faces and souls of those who are waiting for the Savior brighten, cleanse. In this picture, he showed, as I. E. Repin later said, "an oppressed people, thirsting for the word of freedom."
In the first half of the XIX century. Russian painting includes everyday plot.
One of the first to address him was Alexei Gavrilovich Venetsianov (1780-1847). He devoted his work to depicting the life of peasants. He shows this life in an idealized, embellished form, paying tribute to the then fashionable sentimentalism. However, Venetsianov’s paintings “Threshing floor”, “At the harvest. Summer”, “On arable land. Spring”, “Peasant woman with cornflowers”, “Zakharka”, “Morning of the landowner”, reflecting the beauty and nobility of ordinary Russian people, served to affirm the dignity of a person, regardless of his social status.
His traditions were continued by Pavel Andreevich Fedotov (1815-1852). His canvases are realistic, filled with satirical content, exposing the mercantile morality, life and customs of the elite of society (“Major’s Matchmaking”, “Fresh Cavalier”, etc.). He began his career as a satirical artist as a guards officer. Then he made funny, mischievous sketches of army life. In 1848, his painting "The Fresh Cavalier" was presented at an academic exhibition. It was a daring mockery not only of the stupid, self-satisfied bureaucracy, but also of academic traditions. Dirty robe in which he put on main character paintings, very much reminiscent of an antique toga. Bryullov stood in front of the canvas for a long time, and then said to the author half in jest half seriously: “Congratulations, you have defeated me.” Other paintings by Fedotov ("Breakfast of an Aristocrat", "Major's Matchmaking") are also of a comedic and satirical nature. His last paintings are very sad (“Anchor, more anchor!”, “Widow”). Contemporaries rightly compared P.A. Fedotov in painting with N.V. Gogol in literature. Exposing the plagues of feudal Russia is the main theme of Pavel Andreevich Fedotov's work.
Russian painting of the second half of the 19th century
Second half of the 19th century was marked by the flourishing of Russian fine arts. It became a truly great art, imbued with the pathos of the liberation struggle of the people, responding to the demands of life and actively intruding into life. In the fine arts, realism was finally established - a truthful and comprehensive reflection of the life of the people, the desire to rebuild this life on the basis of equality and justice.
The conscious turn of the new Russian painting towards democratic realism, nationality, modernity was marked at the end of the 50s, along with the revolutionary situation in the country, with the social maturity of the raznochintsy intelligentsia, with the revolutionary enlightenment of Chernyshevsky, Dobrolyubov, Saltykov-Shchedrin, with the people-loving poetry of Nekrasov. In "Essays on the Gogol Period" (in 1856), Chernyshevsky wrote: "If painting is now generally in a rather miserable position, the main reason for this must be considered the alienation of this art from modern aspirations." The same idea was cited in many articles of the Sovremennik magazine.
The central theme of art was the people, not only the oppressed and suffering, but also the people - the creator of history, the people-fighter, the creator of all the best that is in life.
The assertion of realism in art took place in a stubborn struggle with the official direction, which was represented by the leadership of the Academy of Arts. The academy workers inspired their students with the idea that art is higher than life, put forward only biblical and mythological themes for the artists' work.
But painting was already beginning to join modern aspirations - first of all in Moscow. The Moscow School did not enjoy even a tenth of the privileges of the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts, but was less dependent on its rooted dogmas, the atmosphere in it was more lively. Although the teachers at the School are mostly academics, but academics are secondary and vacillating, they did not suppress their authority as they did at the Academy F. Bruni, the pillar of the old school, who at one time competed with Bryullov with the painting “The Copper Serpent”.
In 1862, the Council of the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts decided to equalize the rights of all genres, abolishing the primacy of historical painting. The gold medal was now awarded regardless of the theme of the picture, considering only its merits. However, the "liberties" within the walls of the academy did not last long.
In 1863, young artists participating in an academic competition filed a petition "for permission to freely choose subjects for those who wish this, in addition to the given theme." The Academy Council refused. What happened next is referred to in the history of Russian art as the "revolt of the fourteen". Fourteen students of the history class did not want to write pictures on the proposed topic from Scandinavian mythology- "Feast in Valgaal" and defiantly filed a petition - to leave the academy. Finding themselves without workshops and without money, the rebels united in a kind of commune - similar to the communes described by Chernyshevsky in the novel What Is to Be Done? - the Artel of Artists, headed by the painter Ivan Nikolaevich Kramskoy. Artel workers took orders for the performance of various works of art, lived in the same house, gathered in a common room for conversations, discussions of paintings, and reading books.
Artel broke up seven years later. By this time, in the 70s, on the initiative of the artist Grigory Grigorievich Myasoedov, an association arose - the Association of Artistic Mobile Inserts, a professional and commercial association of artists who stood on close ideological positions.
The Association of the Wanderers, unlike many of the later associations, did without any declarations and manifestos. Its charter only stated that the members of the Partnership should conduct their material affairs themselves, not depending on anyone in this respect, as well as organize exhibitions themselves and take them to different cities (“move” them around Russia) in order to acquaint the country with Russian art. Both of these points were of significant importance, asserting the independence of art from the authorities and the will of artists to communicate widely with people not only in the capital. the main role in the creation of the Partnership and the development of its charter, in addition to Kramskoy, belonged to Myasoedov, Ge - from Petersburgers, and from Muscovites - to Perov, Pryanishnikov, Savrasov.
The "Wanderers" were united in their rejection of "academicism" with its mythology, decorative landscapes and pompous theatricality. They wanted to portray living life. The leading place in their work was occupied by genre (everyday) scenes. The peasantry enjoyed special sympathy for the Wanderers. They showed his need, suffering, oppressed position. At that time - in the 60-70s. XIX century - the ideological side of art was valued higher than the aesthetic. Only with time did the artists remember the inherent value of painting.
Perhaps the greatest tribute to ideology was given by Vasily Grigoryevich Perov (1834-1882). Suffice it to recall such of his paintings as "The arrival of the police officer for the investigation", "Tea drinking in Mytishchi". Some of Perov's works are imbued with genuine tragedy ("Troika", "Old Parents at the Son's Grave"). Perov painted a number of portraits of his famous contemporaries (Ostrovsky, Turgenev, Dostoevsky).
Some canvases of the "Wanderers", painted from life or under the impression of real scenes, enriched our ideas about peasant life. The painting by S. A. Korovin “On the World” shows a skirmish at a rural meeting between a rich man and a poor man. V. M. Maksimov captured the rage, tears, and grief of the family division. The solemn festivity of peasant labor is reflected in the painting by G. G. Myasoedov “Mowers”.
In the work of Kramskoy, the main place was occupied by portraiture. He painted Goncharov, Saltykov-Shchedrin, Nekrasov. He owns one of the best portraits of Leo Tolstoy. The writer's gaze does not leave the viewer, from whatever point he looks at the canvas. One of the most powerful works of Kramskoy is the painting "Christ in the Desert".
The first exhibition of the Wanderers, which opened in 1871, convincingly demonstrated the existence of a new direction that had been taking shape throughout the 60s. It had only 46 exhibits (in contrast to the bulky exhibitions of the Academy), but carefully selected, and although the exhibition was not deliberately programmatic, the general unwritten program loomed quite clearly. All genres were presented - historical, everyday life, landscape portraiture - and the audience could judge what the "Wanderers" brought to them. Only sculpture was unlucky (there was one, and even then a little remarkable sculpture by F. Kamensky), but this type of art was “unlucky” for a long time, in fact, the entire second half of the century.
By the beginning of the 90s, among the young artists of the Moscow school, there were, however, those who worthily and seriously continued the civic itinerant tradition: S. Ivanov with his series of paintings about immigrants, S. Korovin - the author of the painting "On the World", where it is interesting and the dramatic (really dramatic!) collisions of the pre-reform village are thoughtfully revealed. But they were not the ones who set the tone: the World of Art, which was equally far from the Wanderers and the Academy, was approaching. What did the Academy look like at that time? Her artistic former rigoristic attitudes disappeared, she no longer insisted on the strict requirements of neoclassicism, on the notorious hierarchy of genres, she was quite tolerant of the everyday genre, she only preferred it to be “beautiful” and not “muzhik” (an example of “beautiful” non-academic works - scenes from the ancient life of the then popular S. Bakalovich). For the most part, non-academic production, as it was in other countries, was bourgeois-salon, its "beauty" - vulgar prettiness. But it cannot be said that she did not put forward talents: G. Semiradsky, mentioned above, was very talented, V. Smirnov, who died early (who managed to create an impressive big picture"Death of Nero"); one cannot deny certain artistic merits of painting by A. Svedomsky and V. Kotarbinsky. About these artists, considering them to be carriers of the "Hellenic spirit", Repin spoke approvingly in his later years, they impressed Vrubel, just like Aivazovsky, also an "academic" artist. On the other hand, none other than Semiradsky, during the period of reorganization of the Academy, decisively spoke out in favor of the everyday genre, pointing to Perov, Repin and V. Mayakovsky as a positive example. So there were enough vanishing points between the “Wanderers” and the Academy, and the then vice-president of the Academy I.I. Tolstoy, on whose initiative the leading "Wanderers" were called to teach.
But the main thing that does not completely discount the role of the Academy of Arts, primarily as an educational institution, in the second half of the century is the simple fact that many outstanding artists came out of its walls. This is Repin, and Surikov, and Polenov, and Vasnetsov, and later - Serov and Vrubel. Moreover, they did not repeat the "revolt of the fourteen" and, apparently, benefited from their apprenticeship.
Respect for the drawing, for the constructed constructive form, is rooted in Russian art. The general orientation of Russian culture towards realism became the reason for the popularity of the Chistyakov method - one way or another, Russian painters up to and including Serov, Nesterov and Vrubel honored the "unshakable eternal laws of form" and were wary of "dematerialization" or subjugation of the colorful amorphous element, no matter how much they loved color.
Among the Wanderers invited to the Academy were two landscape painters - Shishkin and Kuindzhi. Just at that time, the hegemony of the landscape began in art both as an independent genre, where Levitan reigned, and as an equal element of everyday, historical, and partly portrait painting. Contrary to the predictions of Stasov, who believes that the role of the landscape will decrease, in the 1990s it increased like never before. The lyrical "landscape of mood" prevailed, leading its lineage from Savrasov and Polenov.
The Wanderers made genuine discoveries in landscape painting. Alexey Kondratievich Savrasov (1830-1897) managed to show the beauty and subtle lyricism of a simple Russian landscape. His painting "The Rooks Have Arrived" (1871) made many contemporaries take a fresh look at their native nature.
Fyodor Alexandrovich Vasiliev (1850-1873) lived a short life. His work, interrupted at the very beginning, enriched domestic painting with a number of dynamic, exciting landscapes. The artist was especially successful in transitional states in nature: from sun to rain, from calm to storm.
Ivan Ivanovich Shishkin (1832-1898) became the singer of the Russian forest, the epic latitude of Russian nature. Arkhip Ivanovich Kuindzhi (1841-1910) was attracted by the picturesque play of light and air. The mysterious light of the moon in rare clouds, the red reflections of dawn on the white walls of Ukrainian huts, the slanting morning rays breaking through the fog and playing in the puddles on the muddy road - these and many other picturesque discoveries are captured on his canvases.
Russian landscape painting of the 19th century reached its peak in the work of Savrasov's student Isaac Ilyich Levitan (1860-1900). Levitan is a master of calm, quiet landscapes. A very timid, shy and vulnerable person, he could only relax alone with nature, imbued with the mood of the landscape he loved.
Once he came to the Volga to paint the sun, air and river expanses. But there was no sun, endless clouds crawled across the sky, and the dull rains stopped. The artist was nervous until he was drawn into this weather and discovered the special charm of the lilac colors of Russian bad weather. Since then, the Upper Volga, the provincial town of Ples, has firmly entered his work. In those parts, he created his "rainy" works: "After the Rain", "Gloomy Day", "Above Eternal Peace". Peaceful evening landscapes were also painted there: “Evening on the Volga”, “Evening. Golden reach”, “Evening ringing”, “Quiet abode”.
In the last years of his life, Levitan drew attention to the work of French impressionist artists (E. Manet, C. Monet, C. Pizarro). He realized that he had a lot in common with them, that their creative searches were going in the same direction. Like them, he preferred to work not in the studio, but in the air (in the open air, as the artists say). Like them, he brightened the palette, banishing dark, earthy colors. Like them, he sought to capture the transience of being, to convey the movements of light and air. In this they went further than him, but they almost dissolved three-dimensional forms (houses, trees) in light-air flows. He avoided it.
“Levitan's paintings require a slow examination,” wrote a great connoisseur of his work, K. G. Paustovsky, “They do not stun the eye. They are modest and accurate, like Chekhov's stories, but the longer you look at them, the sweeter the silence of provincial settlements, familiar rivers and country roads becomes.
In the second half of the XIX century. account for the creative flowering of I. E. Repin, V. I. Surikov and V. A. Serov.
Ilya Efimovich Repin (1844-1930) was born in the city of Chuguev, in the family of a military settler. He managed to enter the Academy of Arts, where P. P. Chistyakov became his teacher, who brought up a whole galaxy of famous artists (V. I. Surikov, V. M. Vasnetsov, M. A. Vrubel, V. A. Serov). Repin also learned a lot from Kramskoy. In 1870, the young artist traveled along the Volga. Numerous sketches brought from the trip, he used for the painting "Barge haulers on the Volga" (1872). She made a strong impression on the public. The author immediately moved into the ranks of the most famous masters.
Repin was a very versatile artist. A number of monumental genre paintings belong to his brush. Perhaps no less impressive than the "Barge haulers" is made by the "Religious procession in the Kursk province." The bright blue sky, the clouds of road dust pierced by the sun, the golden glow of crosses and vestments, the police, the common people and the crippled - everything fit on this canvas: the greatness, strength, weakness and pain of Russia.
In many of Repin's paintings, revolutionary themes were touched upon ("Refusal of confession", "They did not wait", "The arrest of the propagandist"). The revolutionaries in his paintings are kept simply and naturally, avoiding theatrical poses and gestures. In the painting “Refusal of Confession”, the condemned man, as if on purpose, hid his hands in his sleeves. The artist clearly sympathized with the heroes of his paintings.
A number of Repin's canvases are written on historical themes ("Ivan the Terrible and his son Ivan", "Cossacks composing a letter to the Turkish Sultan", etc.). Repin created a whole gallery of portraits. He painted portraits of - scientists (Pirogov and Sechenov), - writers Tolstoy, Turgenev and Garshin, - composers Glinka and Mussorgsky, - artists Kramskoy and Surikov. At the beginning of the XX century. he received an order for the painting "The Ceremonial Meeting of the State Council." The artist managed not only to place such a large number of those present on the canvas, but also to give a psychological description of many of them. Among them were such well-known figures as S.Yu. Witte, K.P. Pobedonostsev, P.P. Semenov Tyan-Shansky. It is hardly noticeable in the picture, but Nicholas II is very subtly written out.
Vasily Ivanovich Surikov (1848-1916) was born in Krasnoyarsk, in a Cossack family. The heyday of his work falls on the 80s, when he created three of his most famous historical paintings: "Morning of the Streltsy Execution", "Menshikov in Berezov" and "Boyar Morozova".
Surikov knew the life and customs of past eras well, he knew how to give vivid psychological characteristics. In addition, he was an excellent colorist (color master). Suffice it to recall the dazzling fresh, sparkling snow in the painting "Boyar Morozova". If, however, to get closer to the canvas, the snow, as it were, “crumbles” into blue, blue, pink strokes. This painting technique, when two or three different strokes merge at a distance and give desired color widely used by the French Impressionists.
Valentin Alexandrovich Serov (1865-1911), the composer's son, painted landscapes, canvases on historical themes, worked as a theater artist. But fame brought him, above all, portraits.
In 1887, the 22-year-old Serov was vacationing in Abramtsevo, the dacha near Moscow of the philanthropist S. I. Mamontov. Among his many children, the young artist was his man, a participant in their romps. Once, after dinner, two people accidentally lingered in the dining room - Serov and 12-year-old Verusha Mamontova. They were sitting at a table on which peaches were left, and during the conversation Verusha did not notice how the artist began to sketch her portrait. The work dragged on for a month, and Verusha was angry that Anton (as Serov was called at home) was forcing her to sit in the dining room for hours.
In early September, The Girl with Peaches was finished. Despite its small size, the picture, painted in rose gold tones, seemed very "spacious". There was a lot of light and air in it. The girl, who sat down at the table as if for a minute and fixed her gaze on the viewer, enchanted with clarity and spirituality. Yes, and the whole canvas was covered with a purely childish perception of everyday life, when happiness is not conscious of itself, and a whole life lies ahead.
The inhabitants of the "Abramtsevo" house, of course, understood that a miracle had happened before their eyes. But only time gives final estimates. It put "The Girl with Peaches" among the best portrait works in Russian and world art.
The following year, Serov managed to almost repeat his magic. He painted a portrait of his sister Maria Simonovich ("The Girl Illuminated by the Sun"). The name stuck a little inaccurate: the girl is sitting in the shade, and the glade in the background is illuminated by the rays of the morning sun. But in the picture everything is so united, so united - morning, sun, summer, youth and beauty - that it is difficult to think of a better name.
Serov became a fashionable portrait painter. Posed in front of him famous writers, artists, artists, entrepreneurs, aristocrats, even kings. Apparently, not to everyone he wrote, his soul lay. Some high-society portraits, with a filigree technique, turned out to be cold.
For several years Serov taught at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. He was a demanding teacher. An opponent of the frozen forms of painting, Serov, at the same time, believed that creative searches should be based on a solid mastery of the technique of drawing and pictorial writing. Many outstanding masters considered themselves students of Serov. This is M.S. Saryan, K.F. Yuon, P.V. Kuznetsov, K. S. Petrov-Vodkin.
Many paintings by Repin, Surikov, Levitan, Serov, "Wanderers" ended up in Tretyakov's collection. Pavel Mikhailovich Tretyakov (1832-1898), a representative of an old Moscow merchant family, was an unusual person. Thin and tall, with a bushy beard and a quiet voice, he looked more like a saint than a merchant. He began collecting paintings by Russian artists in 1856. The hobby grew into the main business of his life. In the early 90s. the collection reached the level of a museum, absorbing almost the entire fortune of the collector. Later it became the property of Moscow. The Tretyakov Gallery has become a world famous museum Russian painting, graphics and sculpture.
In 1898, in St. Petersburg, in the Mikhailovsky Palace (the creation of K. Rossi), the Russian Museum was opened. It received works by Russian artists from the Hermitage, the Academy of Arts and some imperial palaces. The opening of these two museums, as it were, crowned the achievements of Russian painting of the 19th century.
Introduction
In the first half of the 19th century, the crisis of the feudal-serfdom system, which hampered the formation of the capitalist order, intensified more and more. Freedom-loving ideas are spreading and deepening in the advanced circles of Russian society. The events of the Patriotic War, the help of the Russian troops in the liberation of the states of Europe from the tyranny of Napoleon exacerbated patriotic and freedom-loving moods. All the basic principles of the feudal-serf state are subjected to criticism. The illusory nature of hopes for changing social reality with the help of the state activity of an enlightened person becomes clear. The Decembrist uprising in 1825 was the first armed uprising against tsarism. It had a huge impact on Russian progressive artistic culture. This era gave rise to the brilliant work of A. S. Pushkin, popular and universal, full of dreams of freedom.
The fine arts of the first half of the 19th century have an inner commonality and unity, a unique charm of bright and humane ideals. Classicism is enriched with new features, its strengths are most clearly manifested in architecture, historical painting, and partly in sculpture. The perception of the culture of the ancient world became more historical than in the 18th century, and more democratic. Along with classicism, the romantic direction is intensively developed and a new realistic method begins to take shape.
After the suppression of the Decembrist uprising, the autocracy established a cruel reactionary regime. His victims were A. S. Pushkin, M. Yu. Lermontov, T. G. Shevchenko and many others. But Nicholas I could not suppress the discontent of the people and progressive social thought. Liberation ideas spread, embracing not only the nobility, but also the raznochintsy intelligentsia, which began to play an increasingly significant role in artistic culture. V. G. Belinsky became the founder of Russian revolutionary-democratic aesthetics, which influenced artists. He wrote that art is a form of people's self-consciousness, led the ideological struggle for creativity, close to life and socially valuable.
Russian artistic culture in the first third of the 19th century took shape during a period of social upsurge associated with the heroic events of the Patriotic War of 1812 and the development of anti-serfdom and freedom-loving ideas of the pre-Decembrist period. At this time, all types of fine arts and their synthesis reached a brilliant flowering.
In the second third of the 19th century, due to the intensified government reaction, art largely lost those progressive features that were characteristic of it earlier. By this time, classicism had essentially exhausted itself. The architecture of these years embarked on the path of eclecticism - the external use of styles from different eras and peoples. Sculpture lost the significance of its content, it acquired the features of superficial showiness. Promising searches were outlined only in sculpture of small forms, here, just as in painting and graphics, realistic principles grew and strengthened, asserting themselves despite the active resistance of representatives of official art.
Classicism in the first half of the 19th century, in accordance with romantic tendencies, created images that were elevated, spiritualized, emotionally sublime. However, the appeal to a living direct perception of nature and the destruction of the system of so-called high and low genres already contradicted academic aesthetics, based on classic canons. It was the romantic direction of Russian art in the first third of the 19th century that prepared the development of realism in the following decades, for to a certain extent it brought romantic artists closer to reality, to simple real life. This was the essence of the complex artistic movement throughout the first half of the 19th century. It is no coincidence that the formation of a satirical everyday genre in painting and graphics at the end of this period. In general, the art of this stage - architecture, painting, graphics, sculpture, applied and folk art- an outstanding, full of originality phenomenon in the history of Russian artistic culture. Developing the progressive traditions of the previous century, it has created many magnificent works of great aesthetic and social value, contributing to the world heritage.
An important evidence of the changes that took place in Russian art in the first half of the 19th century was the desire of a wide range of viewers to get acquainted with the exhibitions. In 1834, in the "Northern Bee", for example, it was reported that the desire to see "The Last Day of Pompeii" by K. P. Bryullov swept the St. Petersburg population, spread "in all states and classes." This picture, as contemporaries argued, largely served to bring "our public closer to the artistic world."
The nineteenth century was also distinguished by the expansion and deepening of ties between Russian art not only with life, but also with the artistic traditions of other peoples who inhabited Russia. Motifs and images of the national outskirts, Siberia, began to appear in the works of Russian artists. The national composition of students in Russian art institutions became more diverse. Natives of Ukraine, Belarus, the Baltic States, Transcaucasia and Central Asia studied at the Academy of Arts, in the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture organized in the 1830s.
In the second half of the 19th and early 20th centuries, only individual masters, and primarily A. A. Ivanov, aroused interest in the artistic world of Russia. Only during the years of Soviet power did the art of this period receive wide recognition. In recent decades, Soviet art history has paid great attention to the study of the work of the masters of the first half of the 19th century, especially in connection with the large jubilee exhibitions of A. G. Venetsianov, A. A. Ivanov, O. A. Kiprensky, the 225th anniversary of the USSR Academy of Arts.
Culture of the 19th century is a culture established bourgeois relations. To late XVIII in. capitalism as a system is fully formed. It covered all branches of material production, which led to corresponding transformations in the non-productive sphere (politics, science, philosophy, art, education, everyday life, social consciousness).
The culture of this period is characterized by a reflection of the internal contradictions of bourgeois society. The clash of opposing tendencies, the struggle of the main classes - the bourgeoisie and the proletariat, the polarization of society, the rapid rise of material culture and the beginning of the alienation of the individual determined the nature of the spiritual culture of that time.
In the 19th century a revolution is taking place t associated with the emergence of a machine that alienates a person from nature, breaking the usual ideas about his dominant role, and turns a person into a creature dependent on the machine. Under the conditions of intensifying mechanization, a person goes to the periphery of spiritual life, breaks away from spiritual foundations. The place of handicraft work associated with the personality and creativity of the master was taken by monotonous work.
Spiritual culture of the XIX century. developed and functioned under the influence of two most important factors: success in the field of philosophy and natural science. The leading dominant culture of the XIX century. was science.
Various value orientations were based on two initial positions: the establishment and approval of the values of the bourgeois way of life, on the one hand, and the critical rejection of bourgeois society, on the other. Hence the emergence of such dissimilar phenomena in the culture of the 19th century: romanticism, critical realism, symbolism, naturalism, positivism, and so on.
Features of the worldview European culture 19th century is a reflection of those contradictory principles that a developed bourgeois society is, but, nevertheless, it has no equal in terms of the depth of penetration into the being and the spiritual world of a person in terms of creative tension in science, literature, philosophy and art.
In the first half of the 19th century Russian art develops within the academic school painting. The historical and battle genres are widely spread, which is associated with the victory in the Patriotic War of 1812 and the rise of national self-consciousness. Since the mid-60s of the 19th century, Russian painters turn to the themes of folk life, a social genre appears in the visual arts. In the last decades of the century, it is partly replaced by an Impressionist landscape, in paintings by Russian artists features of neoclassicism and modernity appear.
academic school painting at the beginning of the 19th century, she occupied a strong position as a trendsetter in artistic styles and trends. The main method was classicism, the main genres were portrait, decorative landscape and historical painting. Young painters were dissatisfied with the implacable conservatism of the Academy and, in order not to write paintings on biblical and mythological subjects, turned to the portrait genre and landscape. They increasingly appeared features of romanticism and realism.
In the portrait painting O. A. Kiprensky there are many romantic images: a portrait of a boy A. A. Chelishchev (1810-1811), spouses F. V. and E. P. Rostopchins (1809), spouses V. S. and D. N. Khvostov ( 1814), E. S. Avdulina (1822)
Portraits of V. A. Tropinin written in a realistic manner. The depicted person is in them in a central way all attention is focused on him. Figures and facial features are written out with anatomical clarity and reliability (portraits of Counts Morkovs, 1813-1815; "Bulakhov", 1823; "K. G. Ravich", 1823).
Brushes by V. A. Tropinin belongs to one of the most famous portraits of A. S. Pushkin - the one where the poet put his hand on a stack of paper and seemed to listen to his inner voice.
AT picture K. P. Bryullov "The Last Day of Pompeii", written according to all the canons of the academic school painting, reflected the development of Russian social thought, the expectation of change, which was associated with the rise of national consciousness. Painting symbolized the courage of people looking into the eyes of a terrible catastrophe. Among other famous paintings by K. P. Bryullov, one can name "Italian morning", "Italian noon", "Horsewoman", "Bathsheba". In these and many others paintings to the artist equally talented managed to capture the beauty of the human body and the beauty of nature.
Spiritual Awakening Ideas people were reflected in the work of A. A. Ivanov. Above the most famous painting, "The Appearance of Christ to the People", he worked for about twenty years. Jesus on picture depicted in the distance, and John the Baptist is brought to the fore, pointing to the people at the approaching Savior. The faces of people waiting for Jesus brighten as he approaches, their souls are filled with joy.
Painters A. G. Venetsianov and P. A. Fedotov in the first half of the 19th century laid the foundations of the social genre in painting. A. G. Venetsianov in his pictures idealized the life of the peasants, focusing on the beauty and nobility of people, regardless of social status (“Threshing floor”, “On the harvest. Summer”, “On the arable land. Spring”, “Peasant woman with cornflowers
Since the 50s of the 19th century, the main direction Russian fine art becomes realism, main theme- an image of the life of the common people. The approval of the new direction took place in a stubborn struggle with the adherents of the academic school painting. They argued that art should be higher than life, there is no place in it for Russian nature and social topics. However, academicians were forced to make concessions. In 1862 all genres visual arts were equalized in rights, which meant that only artistic merit was evaluated paintings, regardless of subject matter.
17. Russian art of the first half - the middle of the 19th century. Romanticism, sentimentalism - the direction of classic art.
After the Patriotic War of 1812.: growing interest in folk life; to human individuality led to the formation of a new ideal, which was based on the idea of a spiritually independent person, deeply feeling and passionately expressing his feelings. This ideal was reflected in the work of representatives of a new creative concept - romanticism, the establishment of which took place simultaneously with the death of classicism.
In painting, it was observed the withering away of classicism and the establishment of romanticism and realism
Romanticism- a direction in the art of the first half of the 19th century, which brought individuality to the fore, endowing it with ideal aspirations.
But the true successes of painting lay, however, in a different vein - romanticism. The best aspirations of the human soul, ups and downs of the spirit were expressed by the romantic painting of that time, and above all by the portrait. In the portrait genre, the leading place should be given to Orest Kiprensky (1782-1836).
Kiprensky studied, starting with the Educational School, at the Academy of Arts, where he studied in the class of historical painting. The artist uses bold color effects to model the form; impasto painting contributes to the expression of energy, enhances the emotionality of the image. On a fair note D.V. Sarabyanova, Russian romanticism has never been such a powerful artistic movement as in France or Germany. There is neither extreme excitement nor tragic hopelessness in it. In the romanticism of Kiprensky, there is still much from the harmony of classicism, from a subtle analysis of the “windings” of the human soul, which is so characteristic of sentimentalism. “The current century and the past century”, colliding in the work of the early Kiprensky, who was formed as a creative person in the best years of military victories and bright hopes of Russian society, made up the originality and inexpressible charm of his early romantic portraits.
In the late Italian period due to many circumstances of his personal fate, the artist rarely managed to create anything equal to his early works. But even here one can name such masterpieces as one of the best lifetime portraits Pushkin(1827, Tretyakov Gallery), painted by the artist during the last period of his stay at home, or a portrait of Avdulina (c. 1822, Russian Museum), full of elegiac sadness.
An invaluable part of Kiprensky's work- graphic portraits, made mainly with a soft Italian pencil with tinted pastel, watercolor, colored pencils. The appearance of quick pencil sketch portraits is in itself significant, characteristic of the new time: any fleeting change in the face, any spiritual movement is easily recorded in them. But Kiprensky's graphics are also undergoing a certain evolution: in his later works there is no spontaneity and warmth, but they are more virtuosic and refined in execution (portrait of S.S. Shcherbatova, it. car., State Tretyakov Gallery).
Pole A.O. can be called a consistent romantic. Orlovsky(1777-1832), who lived in Russia for 30 years and brought to Russian culture themes characteristic of Western romantics (bivouacs, horsemen, shipwrecks. “Take your quick pencil, draw, Orlovsky, sword and battle,” Pushkin wrote). He quickly assimilated on Russian soil, which is especially noticeable in graphic portraits. In them, through all the external attributes of European romanticism, with its rebelliousness and tension, something deeply personal, hidden, secret lurks (Self-portrait, 1809, State Tretyakov Gallery). Orlovsky, on the other hand, played a certain role in “breaking through” the paths to realism thanks to his genre sketches, drawings and lithographs depicting St. Petersburg street scenes and types, which brought to life the famous quatrain
Finally, romanticism finds its expression in the landscape.. Sylvester Shchedrin (1791-1830) began his creative career as a student of his uncle Semyon Shchedrin with classic compositions: a clear division into three plans (the third plan is always architecture), on the sides of the wings. But in Italy, where he left the St. Petersburg Academy, these features were not consolidated, they did not turn into a scheme. It was in Italy, where Shchedrin lived for more than 10 years and died in the prime of his talent, that he revealed himself as a romantic artist, became one of the best painters in Europe along with Constable and Corot. He was the first to open plein air painting for Russia. True, like the Barbizons, Shchedrin painted only sketches in the open air, and completed the picture (“decorated”, as he defined it) in the studio. However, the motive itself changes emphasis. So, Rome in his canvases is not the majestic ruins of ancient times, but a living modern city of ordinary people - fishermen, merchants, sailors. But this ordinary life under Shchedrin's brush acquired a sublime sound.
Harbors of Sorrento, embankments of Naples, the Tiber at the castle of St. Angels, people fishing, just talking on the terrace or relaxing in the shade of trees - everything is conveyed in the complex interaction of the light and air environment, in a delightful fusion of silver-gray tones, usually united by a touch of red - in clothes, and a headdress, in the rusty foliage of trees , where any one red branch was lost. In the last works of Shchedrin, an interest in chiaroscuro effects was increasingly evident, heralding a wave of new romanticism by Maxim Vorobyov and his students (for example, "View of Naples on a moonlit night"). Like the portrait painter Kiprensky and the battle painter Orlovsky, the landscape painter Shchedrin often paints genre scenes.
O.A. Kiprensky(1782-1836), portrait painter, most vividly embodied the romantic ideal. His style absorbed the features of classical harmony and sentimentalism. Portraits reveal everything that is best and significant in a person: an active and romantic nature; the thoughtfulness and ardor of a young man who is just learning about the world. In the last period, the best lifetime portrait of A.S. Pushkin - the portrait of the great poet is historically specific and at the same time there is a desire to give a collective image of an ideal creative personality.
S.F. Shchedrin(1791-1830), landscape painter. He was the first to open "plein air painting", "New Rome"; "View of Sorrento near Naples".
V.A. Tropinin, introduces elements of romanticism into genre portraits. Brought up on the sentimentalist traditions of the late 18th century. Experienced the Romanesque influence of the early 19th century. (portraits of the son; A.S. Pushkin; self-portrait). He embodied in the images of the peasants not only spiritual purity, but also nobility. Details of everyday life and labor activity bring them closer to genre painting ("Lacemaker", "Golden stitcher").
Historical painting of the 30-40s: the intersection of classicism and romanticism.
Russian historical painting of the 30-40s developed under the sign of romanticism. “The genius of compromise” between the ideals of classicism and the innovations of romanticism was called by one researcher (M.M. Allenov) Karl Pavlovich Bryullov (1799-1852). Fame came to Bryullov while still at the Academy: even then Bryullov’s ordinary studies turned into finished paintings, as was the case, for example, with his Narcissus (1819, Russian Museum). After completing the course with a gold medal, the artist left for Italy. In pre-Italian works, Bryullov turns to biblical subjects (“The Appearance of Three Angels to Abraham at the Oak of Mamre”, 1821, Russian Museum) and antique (“Oedipus and Antigone”, 1821, the Tyumen Regional Museum of Local Lore), is engaged in lithography, sculpture, writes theatrical scenery, draws costumes for performances. The paintings “Italian Morning” (1823, location unknown) and “Italian Noon” (1827, Russian Museum), especially the first, show how close the painter came to the problems of the open air. Bryullov himself defined his task as follows: “I illuminated the model in the sun, assuming backlighting, so that the face and chest are in shadow and reflected from the fountain illuminated by the sun, which makes all the shadows much more pleasant compared to simple lighting from the window.”
The tasks of plein air painting thus interested Bryullov, but the path of the artist, however, lay in a different direction. Since 1828, after a trip to Pompeii, Bryullov has been working on his equal work - The Last Day of Pompeii (1830-1833). The real event of ancient history is the death of the city during the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD. e. - gave the artist the opportunity to show the greatness and dignity of man in the face of death. Fiery lava is approaching the city, buildings and statues are collapsing, but children do not leave their parents; the mother covers the child, the young man saves his beloved; the artist (in which Bryullov portrayed himself) takes away the colors, but, leaving the city, he looks with wide eyes, trying to capture a terrible sight.
Even in death, a person remains beautiful how beautiful the woman thrown from the chariot by mad horses is in the center of the composition. One of the essential features of his painting was clearly manifested in Bryullov's painting: the connection between the classicist style of his works and the features of romanticism, with which Bryullov's classicism is united by faith in the nobility and beauty of human nature. Hence the amazing "accommodation" of the plastic form that preserves the clarity, the drawing of the highest professionalism, prevailing over other expressive means, with romantic effects of pictorial lighting. Yes, and the very theme of inevitable death, inexorable fate is so characteristic of romanticism.
as a certain standard, a well-established artistic scheme, classicism in many ways limited the romantic artist. The conventions of the academic language, the language of the “School”, as the Academies were called in Europe, were fully manifested in Pompeii: theatrical poses, gestures, facial expressions, lighting effects. But it must be admitted that Bryullov strove for historical truth, trying as accurately as possible to reproduce specific monuments discovered by archaeologists and astonished the whole world, to visually fill in the scenes described by Pliny the Younger in a letter to Tacitus. Exhibited first in Milan, then in Paris, the painting was brought to Russia in 1834 and was a resounding success. Gogol spoke enthusiastically about her. The significance of Bryullov's work for Russian painting is determined by the well-known words of the poet: "And the "Last Day of Pompeii" became the first day for the Russian brush."
K.P. Bryullov- a representative of historical painting, in whose work elements of classicism and romanticism were intertwined. "The last day of Pompeii"
"Horsewoman", Self-portrait.
P.A. Fedotov- genre painter He is inherent in the depth of comprehension of life, its dramatic essence. The talent was most fully revealed in genre painting, where he went from caricature plots ("The Fresh Cavalier"; "The Picky Bride"), to tragic and laconic images ("The Widow"), to the metaphorical figurative system. His art served as a model for several generations of artists: the Wanderers perceived and developed the critical pathos of his work, artists of the turn of the 19th - 20th centuries. attracted drama and metaphor;
A.A. Ivanov- “The Appearance of Christ to the People” - a picture on which all subsequent generations of Russian artists studied, reflected the most intimate meaning of the Gospel and the essence of the spiritual aspirations of the people.
A.E. Martynov, landscape painter and engraver, made one of the first lithographed series "Collection of views of St. Petersburg and its environs."
Since the beginning of the XIX century. in Russian fine arts develops in such a way as sentimentalism(from English sentimental - sensitive) - a trend in the art of the 18th century. It was prepared by the crisis of enlightenment rationalism. However, elements of sentimentalism in the work of Russian masters were usually combined with elements of classicism or romanticism. The most complete features of sentimentalism were embodied in the works of a remarkable artist A.G. Venetsianova, who lovingly painted Central Russian rural landscapes, portraits of peasants.
Characteristic features of Russian sentimentalism:
Attention to the human person;
Cult of feeling and imagination;
Development of family psychological stories;
Image of nature.
Alexei Gavrilovich Venetsianov was the real founder of the genre(1780-1847). A land surveyor by education, Venetsianov left the service for the sake of painting, moved from Moscow to St. Petersburg and became a student of Borovikovsky. He made his first steps in the "arts" in the genre of portraiture, creating amazingly poetic, lyrical, sometimes fanned with romantic mood images in pastel, pencil, oil (portrait of V.C. Putyatina, State Tretyakov Gallery). But soon the artist left portraiture for the sake of caricature, and for one action-packed caricature "The Nobleman", the very first issue of the "Magazine of Caricatures for 1808 in Faces" he had conceived was closed. The etching by Venetsianov was, in fact, an illustration to Derzhavin's ode and depicted petitioners crowding in the waiting room, while a nobleman was visible in the mirror, being in the arms of a beauty (it is assumed that this is a caricature of Count Bezborodko).
At the turn of the 10-20s, Venetsianov left St. Petersburg for the Tver province where he bought a small estate. Here he found his main theme, devoting himself to depicting peasant life. In the painting "The Barn" (1821-1822, Russian Museum), he showed a labor scene in the interior. In an effort to accurately reproduce not only the poses of the workers, but also the lighting, he even ordered to saw out one wall of the threshing floor. Life as it is - that's what Venetsianov wanted to portray, drawing peasants peeling beets; a landowner giving a task to a courtyard girl; sleeping shepherdess; a girl with a beetroot in her hand; peasant children admiring a butterfly; scenes of harvest, haymaking, etc. Of course, Venetsianov did not reveal the most acute conflicts in the life of the Russian peasant, did not raise the "sore questions" of our time. This is a patriarchal, idyllic way of life.
But the artist did not bring poetry into it from the outside, did not invent it, but scooped it up in the very life of the people depicted by him with such love. In the paintings of Venetsianov there are no dramatic plots, a dynamic plot, they, on the contrary, are static, “nothing happens” in them. But man is always in unity with nature, in eternal labor, and this makes the images of Venetsianov truly monumental. Is he a realist? In the understanding of this word by artists of the second half of the 19th century - hardly. In his concept there is a lot of classicistic ideas (it is worth remembering his “Spring. On Plowed Field”, State Tretyakov Gallery), and especially from sentimental ones (“On the Harvest. Summer”, State Tretyakov Gallery), and in his understanding of space - also from romantic ones. And, nevertheless, the work of Venetsianov is a certain stage on the way of the formation of Russian critical realism of the 19th century, and this is also the enduring significance of his painting. This determines his place in Russian art as a whole.
Venetsianov was an excellent teacher. Venetsianov's school, the Venetians - is a whole galaxy of artists of the 20-40s who worked with him both in St. Petersburg and in his estate Safonkovo. This is A.V. Tyranov, E.F. Krendovsky, K.A. Zelentsov, A.A. Alekseev, S.K. Zaryanko, L.K. Plakhov, N.S. Krylov and many others. Among the students of Venetsianov there are many peasants. Under the brush of the Venetians, not only scenes of peasant life were born, but also urban ones: St. Petersburg streets, folk types, landscapes. A.V. Tyranov also painted interior scenes, portraits, landscapes, and still lifes. The Venetians were especially fond of “family portraits in the interior” - they combined the concreteness of the images with the detail of the narrative, conveying the atmosphere of the environment (for example, Tyranov’s painting “The Workshop of the Chernetsov Brothers”, 1828, which combines a portrait, a genre, and a still life).
18. The problem of academicism in Russian painting of the second third of the 19th century.
Academicism- a direction in European painting of the 17th-19th centuries. Academic painting arose during the development of art academies in Europe. The stylistic basis of academic painting in early XIX century was classicism, in the second half of the XIX century - eclecticism. Academism grew up following the external forms of classical art. Followers characterized this style as a reflection on the art form of the ancient antiquity and the Renaissance. Academism helped the layout of objects in art education, replenished the traditions of ancient art, in which the image of nature was idealized, while compensating for the norm of beauty.
For Russian academicism of the first half of the XIX century are characterized by sublime themes, high metaphorical style, versatility, multi-figure and pomposity. Biblical scenes, salon landscapes and ceremonial portraits were popular. Despite the limited subject matter of the paintings, the works of the academicians were distinguished by their high technical skill. Representative - K. Bryullov ("Rider").
In the middle of the 19th century realism began to take hold in a stubborn struggle against academicism, represented by the leadership of the Academy of Arts. The academy workers inspired the students that art is higher than life and put forward only biblical and mythological themes for creativity. Fourteen students of the history class did not want to paint on the proposed theme from Norse mythology and filed a petition to withdraw from the academy. The rebels united in the kamunnu, headed by Kramskoy.
And in 70, a society of Wanderers was formed. Wanderers" were united in their rejection of "academicism" with its mythology, decorative landscapes and pompous theatricality. They wanted to portray living life. The leading place in their work was occupied by genre (everyday) scenes. The peasantry enjoyed special sympathy for the Wanderers. Perov ("Troika", "Old parents at the grave of their son", "Tea drinking in Mytishchi"). S. A. Korovina "On the World" Myasoedov "Mowers". Kramskoy - portraits of Nekrasov, Tolstoy, "Christ in the Desert", also Myasoedov, Savrasov, Ge.
19. Association of Traveling Exhibitions
In the 70s, progressive democratic painting wins public recognition. She has her own critics - I.N. Kramskoy and V.V. Stasov and his collector - P.M. Tretyakov. The time has come for the flowering of Russian democratic realism in the second half of the 19th century.
At this time in the center of the official school- St. Petersburg Academy of Arts - the struggle for the right of art to turn to real, real life is also brewing, which resulted in the so-called "rebellion of 14" in 1863. A number of Academy graduates refused to write a programmatic picture on one theme of the Scandinavian epic, when there are so many exciting contemporary problems, and, not having received permission to freely choose a topic, left the Academy, founding the "Petersburg Artel of Artists" (F. Zhuravlev, A. Korzukhin, K. Makovsky, A. Morozov, A. Litovchenko and others). "Artel" did not last long. And soon the Moscow and St. Petersburg advanced artistic forces united in the Association of Travelers. art exhibitions(1870). These exhibitions were called mobile because they were arranged not only in St. Petersburg and Moscow, but also in the provinces (sometimes in 20 cities during the year). It was like "going to the people" of artists. The partnership existed for over 50 years (until 1923). Each exhibition was a huge event in the life of a provincial town. Unlike Artel, the Wanderers had a clear ideological program - to reflect life with all its sharp social problems, in all its urgency.
Myasoedov claimed that the success of the first performance should predetermine in many respects the future fate of the Partnership, and he turned out to be right. The first general meeting of the Association, which took place on December 6, 1870, scheduled the opening of the exhibition "September 15 of the future, 1871 and no later than October 1." But this deadline could not be met: the first exhibition opened only on November 29, 1871 and closed on January 2 of the new year, 1872. Thus, it was available for viewing a little more than a month. But this month was crucial to the evaluation of the new organization. The exhibition immediately brought recognition, although only 16 artists performed at it in St. Petersburg, showing 47 works. This alone distinguished it from the more extensive academic exhibitions in terms of the number of exhibits.
“Partnership has an aim,” says § 1 of the Charter, - the organization, with proper permission, of traveling art exhibitions in the form of: a) providing an opportunity for willing residents of the province to get acquainted with Russian art and follow its progress, b) developing a love for art in society, c) making it easier for artists to market their works.
The art of the Wanderers was an expression revolutionary democratic ideas in the national artistic culture of the second half of the 19th century. The social orientation and high citizenship of the idea distinguish it in European genre painting of the 19th century.
The partnership was created on the initiative of Myasoedov, was supported by Perov, Ge, Kramskoy, Savrasov, Shishkin, the Makovsky brothers and a number of other "founding members" who signed the first charter of the Partnership. In the 1970s and 1980s, younger artists joined them, including Repin, Surikov, Vasnetsov, Yaroshenko, Savitsky, Kasatkin, and others. Since the mid-1980s, Serov, Levitan, and Polenov have taken part in exhibitions. The generation of the "senior" Wanderers was mostly diverse in social status. His worldview was formed in the atmosphere of the 60s. The leader, the theoretician of the movement was Ivan Nikolaevich Kramskoy(1837-1887), who in 1863 also led the "revolt of 14", a wonderful organizer and an outstanding art critic. He was characterized by an unshakable faith, primarily in the educational power of art, designed to form the civic ideals of the individual and improve it morally. The themes of Kramskoy's own work, however, were not typical of the Wanderers.
He rarely wrote genre paintings, turned to gospel stories. But him " Christ in the desert" - a meditation of a deeply lonely person sitting against the backdrop of a desert rocky landscape Christ, his readiness to sacrifice himself in the name of the highest goal - all this was clear to the populist intelligentsia of the 70s. In the portrait genre, he is also occupied by a sublime, highly spiritual personality. Kramskoy created a whole gallery of images of the largest figures of Russian culture - portraits of Saltykov-Shchedrin, Nekrasov, L. Tolstoy. For the artistic manner of Kramskoy, a certain protocol dryness, monotony of compositional schemes is characteristic. The best characteristic in terms of brightness is the portrait of L.N. Tolstoy, commissioned by Tretyakov, in which the viewer is struck by the penetrating, all-knowing and all-seeing gaze of calm gray-blue eyes. The portrait of A. G. Litovchenko is distinguished by picturesque richness. Kramskoy was an artist-thinker. He is conservative in his work.
In addition to Kramskoy, among those who signed the Charter of the Partnership, there was another artist who was occupied with Christian subjects - Nikolai Nikolaevich Ge(1831-1894). He graduated from the Academy, having received the Big Gold Medal for the painting "Saul at the Fairy of Endor." In 1863 he published his first large independent work, The Last Supper. Light and shadow, good and evil, the clash of two different principles underlie Ge's work. This is emphasized by light and shade contrasts and dynamics of expressive poses. The Last Supper expressed the artist's desire for a generalized art form, for its monumentalization, for great art based on the traditions of the great masters of the past. It is no accident that he was awarded the title of professor for this painting.
Ge did a lot of portraiture. His portraits differ from the works of Kramskoy in their emotionality, sometimes drama, like, for example, the portrait of Herzen: the bitterness of doubt, the torment of reflection, reaching the point of pain, are read on the face of the model. An unusually temperamental, fresh, free portrait of the historian N. I. Kostomarov was painted. Ge, like Kramskoy, is one of the organizers of the Association. At the first exhibition in 1871, he shows historical picture"Peter I interrogates Tsarevich Alexei Petrovich in Peterhof." The artist sought to convey the ultimate concreteness of the situation. All of Ge's works of recent years are permeated with the moral and religious idea of rebuilding the world. In a peculiar way, in a new way, he also solves formal problems - the search for color, light, texture. He boldly violates academic canons, often uses fragmentary compositions, harsh light and color contrasts, writes emotionally, expressively. ("Golgotha", "What is truth? Christ and Pilate")
The organizers of the Kramskoy movement and Ge in their work follow a different path than their comrades in the association, genre painters. They turn to Christian subjects, they have a different figurative and pictorial-plastic structure, gravitating more towards the traditions of art of the first half of the 19th century: for Ge - for romantic ones, for Kramskoy - for rational-classic ones.
Vasily Maksimovich Maksimov(1844-1911) already in the first multi-figure composition - "The sorcerer's arrival at a peasant wedding" - comes to his main theme - the image of peasant life, which he himself, a native of the peasants, knew very well. Subsequent paintings are devoid of a festive feeling. In them, in all their nakedness, the image of impoverished post-reform Russia arises (“Family Division”, “Dashing Mother-in-Law”, “Everything is in the Past”).
The Wanderers of the 70s within genre were able to raise the most important, most acute problems of public life, as did Grigory Grigorievich Myasoedov(1834-1911) in the painting Zemstvo is having lunch. The sincerity of the faith of the Russian peasants was shown by Konstantin Apollonovich Savitsky (1844-1905) in the large painting "Meeting the Icon". Master of multi-figured compositions. "Repair work on railway"," To the war.
Nikolai Alexandrovich Yaroshenko(1846-1898): “Stoker” and “Prisoner”, of which “Stoker” is the first image of a worker in Russian painting, and “Prisoner” is the most relevant image during the years of the violent populist revolutionary movement. "Cursist" - portrait-type.
Vladimir Egorovich Makovsky- "In the waiting room at the doctor", "Visit the poor", "Waiting", "Condemned", "The collapse of the bank", "Date", "On the Boulevard". Makovsky managed to respond to many topics. His paintings reveal the dramatic destinies not only of individuals, but of entire strata and generations. Makovsky did not always avoid sentimental and melodramatic situations (for example, his “I won’t let you in!”), But in his best works he remained true to life’s truth and amazed at the completeness of the picturesque story, the completeness of the picture that grew out of everyday life scenes noticed by his keen eye.
20. Household genre
In medieval art, genre scenes, concrete observations of everyday life arose, as a rule, with the development of secular humanistic tendencies within the framework of the dominant religious worldview and were often woven into religious and allegorical compositions. They are common in paintings, reliefs and miniatures - Russian paintings of the 17th century.
In Russia, the development of the everyday genre in the 2nd half of the 18th century. associated (with the exception of the "home scene" by I. Firsov's "Young Painter") with an interest in the peasant; and here the idyllic idealized rural scenes (I. M. Tankov) were opposed by the loving and accurate depiction of traditional peasant life in the paintings of M. Shibanov, the harsh, uncompromising truthfulness of showing peasant poverty in the watercolors of I. A. Ermenev.
In the 19th century democratic artists addressed to the everyday genre as a programmatic art, which made it possible to critically evaluate and expose the social relations and moral norms that prevailed in the bourgeois-noble society, and their manifestations in everyday life, to defend the rights of working, oppressed people, to make the viewer a direct eyewitness to the social contradictions that filled everyday life and conflicts. In the first half of the 19th century, an important role in the aesthetic affirmation of everyday life was played by a truthful, but one-sided, image of the bright, cloudless aspects of the life of the peasantry and urban democratic strata (A. G. Venetsianov and the Venetian school in Russia), captivating with poetic simplicity and touching sincerity.
AT domestic genre Russian critical realism satirical exposure of the feudal system and sympathy for the disadvantaged were complemented by a deep and precise insight into peace of mind heroes, detailed narrative, detailed dramatic development of the plot and relationships of the characters. These features became clear in the middle of the 19th century. in the paintings of P. A. Fedotov, full of burning mockery and pain, in the drawings of A. A. Agin and the Ukrainian artist T. G. Shevchenko, combining direct and sharp publicism with a deep lyrical experience of the life tragedies of the peasantry and the urban poor.
On this basis grew having constituted a new stage, the everyday genre of the Wanderers, which played a leading role in their art, which exclusively fully and accurately reflected the folk life of the second half of the 19th century, and intensely comprehended its fundamental laws. A detailed typified picture of the life of all strata of Russian society was given by G. G. Myasoedov, V. M. Maksimov, K. A. Savitsky, V. E. Makovsky, and - with special depth and scope - I. E. Repin, who showed not only barbarian oppression of the people, but also the mighty vitality hidden in it and the heroism of the fighters for its liberation. This breadth of tasks genre painting often brought it closer to the historical composition. In the paintings of N. A. Yaroshenko, N. A. Kasatkin, S. V. Ivanov, A. E. Arkhipov in the late 19th - early 20th centuries. reflected the contradictions of capitalism, the stratification of the countryside, the life and struggle of the working class and the rural poor.
Household genre from 1860-70s. approved a new type genre painting, associated in many ways with impressionism and developed in France by E. Manet, E. Degas, O. Renoir, A. Toulouse-Lautrec. The beauty of everyday life transformed by art, the expressiveness of a seemingly random, fragmentary, unexpected aspect of life, instantly seized situations, changeable moods and states, a sharp characteristic of the appearance and habitual movements of characters, an interest in people who stand outside social norms come to the fore in it. A number of stylistic features of this type of genre painting were adopted in many countries by masters of the everyday genre, who sought to combine the breadth of perception of folk life with the freshness and unexpectedness of aspects (V. A. Serov, F. A. Malyavin, K. F. Yuon in Russia).
In Soviet art, everyday genre acquired new features conditioned by the formation and development of socialist society - historical optimism, the affirmation of selfless free labor and a new way of life based on the unity of social and personal principles. From the very first years of Soviet power, artists (B. M. Kustodiev, I. A. Vladimirov) sought to capture the changes brought by the revolution to the life of the country. In the work of A. A. Deineka and Yu. I. Pimenov, who were members of the OST association, the characteristic and later for them peppy, energetic structure of paintings devoted to construction, industrial labor, and sports began to be determined. The searches of the masters of AHRR and OST organically entered the joyful, life-affirming art of the 1930s. The painters S. V. Gerasimov, A. A. Plastov, T. G. Gaponenko, V. G. Odintsov, F. G. Krichevsky, the sculptor I. M. Chaikov captured the bright, colorful aspects of urban and collective farm life.
In the Soviet household genre. the difficult front-line and rear life of the war years, with its sorrows and joys, was also reflected (paintings by Yu. . Soyfertis), and spiritual aspiration, enthusiasm for collective work and social life, typical features of the everyday way of life in the post-war years (paintings by T. N. Yablonskaya, S. A. Chuikov, F. P. Reshetnikov, S. A. Grigoriev, U. M. Japaridze, E. F. Kalnyn, engravings by L. A. Ilyina). Since the 2nd half of the 1950s. Soviet masters. B. g. strive to expand the range of observations of modern life, to show the courage and will of the Soviet people, growing stronger in creative work, in overcoming difficulties. In the paintings of G. M. Korzhev, V. I. Ivanov, E. E. Moiseenko, Yu. P. Kugach, T. T. Salakhov, G. S. Khandzhyan, E. K. Iltner, I. A. Zarin, I. N. Klychev, in engravings by G. F. Zakharov, V. M. Yurkunas, V. V. Tolli everyday life of the people appears rich and complex, saturated with great thoughts and experiences.
Painting of the first half XIX century:
The trend of realistic painting of the 18th century remains leading in the first half of the new century, special attention is paid during this period to the features of Russian life, which are of a folk and national character. A significant achievement of Russian painting in the first third of the 19th century was the development of the portrait genre. Portraits of this time are illuminated by the humanism of the Pushkin era with its boundless respect for the dignity of man. The patriotic upsurge caused by the struggle against the French intervention of 1812, the expectation of the triumph of social justice, gave the worldview of the progressive person of this era an exalted character, at the same time, the civic principle was combined here with the lyrical, intimate, which gave the spiritual image of the best people of that time a special completeness.
Among the largest Russian portrait painters of the first half of the 19th century is Vasily Andreevich Tropinin (years of life 1776-1857), one of the founders of romanticism in Russian painting. In his portraits, Tropinin revealed the value of the human personality in all the specificity of its external appearance and spiritual world. Tropinin's portraits are easy to recognize by the benevolent facial expression characteristic of his characters; he endowed his characters with his own calmness and goodwill. In addition to portraits, Tropinin also developed everyday subjects in his work, which also makes him one of the founders of Russian genre painting. A masterpiece of Tropinin's early work can be called "Portrait of Arseny Tropinin". Children's images were especially attractive for the artist. Most of the children's portraits by Tropinin have a genre plot, he depicts children with animals, birds, toys, musical instruments ("Boy with a pity", "Boy with a goldfinch" and others). "Portrait of Arseny Tropinin" captivates with sincerity and purity of emotions, it is written easily and generally. The refined coloring is built on a combination of golden brownish tones, a pinkish tone of the ground and underpainting shines through the paint layer and glazing.|
V. A. Tropinin. Lacemaker. 1823 |
The image of a pretty girl, who for a moment looked up from her occupation and looked at the viewer, suggests that her work is not at all difficult, that this is just a game. A still life is carefully and lovingly painted - lace, bobbins, a box for needlework. The feeling of peace and comfort created by Tropinin in this picture convinces of the value of every moment of everyday human existence.
The early forms of Russian genre painting include other portraits of serf needlewomen by Tropinin - gold embroiderers, embroiderers, and spinners. Their faces are similar, they clearly show the features of the artist's female ideal - a gentle oval, dark almond-shaped eyes, a friendly smile, a coquettish look. These works by Tropinin are distinguished by clear contours and body overlay of paints, the picturesque texture acquires density. Small, densely laid strokes make the paintings look like enamel miniatures.|
V. A. Tropinin. Portrait of A. S. Pushkin. 1827 |
Pushkin is depicted sitting in a relaxed position, his right hand is placed on a table with an open book. The background and clothes are united by a common golden-brown tone, on which the poet's face stands out - the most intense colorful spot and the compositional center of the picture. Genuine inspiration shines in the wide-open blue eyes of the poet. All contemporaries noted in this portrait an irreproachable resemblance to Pushkin, where the artist, conscientiously following nature, managed to capture the high spirituality of the poet.
The 1830-1840s account for the largest number of portraits painted by Tropinin. These are portraits of the first persons in the city hierarchy and private individuals - nobles, merchants, as well as actors, writers, and artists spiritually close to Tropinin.During these years, under the influence of Karl Bryullov, who returned to Russia from Italy, Tropinin produced large-sized works similar to a formal portrait. In the portrait of Bryullov himself, Tropinin emphasizes the artistic originality of the artist with a lush background with ancient ruins entwined with vines and smoking Vesuvius.
Tropinin's later works attract with their genre observation, anticipating the interest in everyday life that was characteristic of Russian painting in the 1860s.
It is worth noting that Tropinin was a serf for most of his life and received freedom only at the age of 47 (and his family, wife and son, after another 5 years), but despite this, the artist maintained a benevolent attitude towards people all his life, depicting them in portraits in a good mood and with a pleasant expression.
Vasily Andreevich Tropinin created more than three thousand portraits throughout his long creative life, having a huge impact on the formation of the Moscow school of painting and the development of realistic trends in Russian art.
One of the most significant Russian painters of the first half of the 19th century can be called Karl Pavlovich Bryullov (years of life 1799-1852). Bryullov in his work gravitates towards large, historical canvases, their general design is often romantic, although they retain the features of classicism and a realistic basis.Karl Bryullov was born into the family of an academician, woodcarver and painter-decorator. In 1809, Bryullov was admitted to the Academy of Arts, having graduated with honors, was sent on a pensioner trip to Italy, where he painted a series of paintings on the theme of the life-affirming beauty of a healthy person, who feels the joy of being with his whole being (“Italian Morning”, “ Italian noon”, “Bathsheba”).
This theme of joyful beauty and harmony sounds distinctly in the painting “Italian Noon”. Bryullov skillfully conveys the effect of the sun's rays penetrating the foliage and the grape bunch filled with juice, traces the play of light and shadow softened by reflexes on the swarthy skin of the Italian, while maintaining the clarity of the plastic volumes of her bare shoulders and full arms.
Karl Bryullov can also be called a master of the ceremonial portrait. The romantic elation of the image, its decorativeness, the plastic clarity of the three-dimensional form and the amazing materiality of the texture of objects distinguish the best ceremonial portraits of Bryullov, such as The Horsewoman and two portraits of Countess Yulia Samoilova.However, it can be noted that the ceremonial portraits of Bryullov are devoid of the significance that is inherent in the representative image of the 18th century. Many ceremonial portraits of Bryullov are purely external in nature, anticipating the salon portrait of the second half of the 19th century.
In contrast to custom-made ceremonial portraits, the portraits of people of art by Bryullov (the poet Kukolnik, the sculptor Vitali, the fabulist Krylov, the writer and critic Strugovshchikov) are distinguished by the special accuracy of the psychological characteristics of the models.
In the portrait of Vitali Bryullov depicts the sculptor as an enthusiastic creator, the sparkle of moistened eyes betrays the tension of the creative state, and simple clothes with a casually turned down collar of a white shirt remind of the sculptor's working environment. Bryullov highlights Vitali's face and hand with bright light, plunging the rest of the environment into soft semi-darkness.
K. P. Bryullov. The last day of Pompeii. 1830-1833
The pinnacle of creative achievements, bright talent and virtuosity of Karl Bryullov can be called a large historical painting "The Last Day of Pompeii", which characterizes romanticism in Russian painting, mixed with idealism and increased interest in the open air.
In the picture, Bryullov depicted the moment of the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD. e. and the destruction of the city of Pompeii near Naples. The death of people under the influence of blind, elemental forces is tragically inevitable, the glow of the volcano and the light of lightning illuminate the crowd of people rushing about in horror, seeking salvation. Bryullov combines in the images of the characters in this picture the heroic idealization traditional for classicism and the tendency inherent in the new romantic direction to portray natures in exceptional situations.
In constructing the composition of the painting, Bryullov uses the basic rules of classicism: the frontality and closed nature of the composition, its division into three planes in depth, the distribution of actors into groups arranged in the form of academic triangles. Such a construction of the composition in the style of classicism conflicts with the general romantic nature of the idea of the picture, introducing some conventionality and coldness into the picture.
Unlike his contemporaries, who illuminated the paintings with neutral diffused daylight, Bryullov boldly and successfully takes on the transmission of the most complex double lighting: hot red light from the volcano flame in the depths and cold, greenish-bluish light in the foreground from a flash of lightning.
The painting "The Last Day of Pompeii" by Karl Bryullov created a sensation both in Russia and abroad, marking the first great international success of the Russian painting school.
Sculpture of the first half XIX century:
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ON. Russia. Portrait of I. P. Martos |
The most prominent representative of Russian classicism in the sculpture of this period can be called Ivan Petrovich Martos (years of life 1754-1835).
In the work of Martos, a large place is occupied by memorial sculpture. Martos can be called one of the creators of a peculiar type of Russian tombstone of the era of classicism. Among the first works of Martos that have come down to us is the tombstone of S. S. Volkonskaya, which is a marble slab with a bas-relief image of a weeping woman next to the urn. The slender, majestic figure is completely draped in long clothes, the face is shaded by a veil thrown over the head and is almost invisible. The work of Martos is characterized by a great measure of restraint in the transfer of human sorrow; a calm and clear solution to the overall composition of the tombstone.
The same features distinguish the tombstone of E. S. Kurakina. Instead of a complex multi-figured composition, the sculptor placed only one reclining figure of a woman on the pedestal of the tombstone; leaning on an oval medallion with a portrait of the deceased, a woman in grief covers her face with her hands. On the pedestal of the tombstone, Martos carved a bas-relief depicting the two sons of the deceased against a smooth, neutral background characteristic of classicism.
The strength and drama of deep human feelings are conveyed in this work by Martos with artistic tact and plastic expressiveness.
The theme of grief is revealed in the marble tombstones of Martos with deep poetry, they feel a great sincerity of feelings, an elevated ethical understanding of human grief, they lack the overwhelming horror of death.
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I. P. Maptos. Monument to Minin and Pozharsky in Moscow. 1804-1818 |
The monument to Minin and Pozharsky is a sculptural group on a granite pedestal of a strict rectangular shape. Stretching his hand towards the Kremlin and as if calling for the salvation of the fatherland, Kuzma Minin hands Prince Pozharsky a sword, Pozharsky, accepting the sword and holding the shield with his left hand, rises from his bed, on which he rested after his injuries.
The dominant image in the group is the figure of Kuzma Minin; his powerful figure clearly dominates and attracts the main attention with a wide free wave of his hand. High reliefs are cut into the pedestal on both sides, the front high relief depicts patriotic citizens donating their property for the good of the Motherland, the back depicts Prince Pozharsky driving the Poles from Moscow.
Martos, by laconic means, was able to fully express in the monument the idea of civic duty and feat in the name of the motherland, which fully corresponded to the deeds and feelings of the Russian people after the victory in the war with the French in 1812.
Commemorative inscription on the pedestal
Martos's late period work anticipates the romantic tendencies of sculpture in the second half of the 19th century. Martos creates monuments that play an important role in creating the figurative structure of cities: to Duke E. Richelieu in Odessa, Alexander I in Taganrog, G. A. Potemkin-Tavrichesky in Kherson, M. V. Lomonosov in Arkhangelsk.Among the late monumental works of Martos stands out the monument to Richelieu in Odessa, which has become a symbol of this city. Martos depicted Richelieu dressed in an ancient Roman toga, his movements are restrained and expressive, which emphasizes the noble simplicity of the image. The monument is compositionally connected with the surrounding architectural ensemble: with buildings located along the semicircle of the square, with the famous Odessa staircase and Primorsky Boulevard.
Ivan Petrovich Martos played a decisive role in shaping the work of many Russian sculptors of the 19th century. He taught at the Academy of Arts for more than fifty years, from 1814 he was its rector.
In the work of many sculptors of the first half of the 19th century, one can see a growing interest in the transfer of reality and a passion for genre and everyday themes, which will determine the features of art in the second half of the century. The expansion of the themes of sculptural works and interest in the genre are most characteristic of the work of P. K. Klodt.
Pyotr Karlovich Klodt (years of life 1805-1867) - Russian sculptor from the baronial family Klodt von Jurgensburg of Baltic-German origin.
In his youth, Baron Klodt, at the insistence of his father, the chief of staff of the Separate Siberian Corps, entered the artillery school, but he devoted all his free time to his main hobby: at the slightest opportunity, Klodt took up a pencil or penknife and drew or cut horses in small sizes.
At 23, Klodt retired from military service and devoted his later life exclusively to sculpture. In 1830, Klodt entered the Academy of Arts as a volunteer, his teachers were the rector of the Academy I.P. Martos, as well as the famous masters of sculpture S.I. Galberg and B.I. Orlovsky. At the same time, Klodt's figurines depicting horses began to enjoy great success.
The first famous monumental work of Klodt can be called a sculptural group of horses in the design of the Narva Gates in St. Petersburg. Klodt worked on this large government order together with such experienced sculptors as S. S. Pimenov and V. I. Demut-Malinovsky.
According to Klodt's model, a copper six horses were installed on the attic of the gate arch, carrying the chariot of the goddess of glory. Unlike the classical images of this plot, the horses performed by Klodt are rapidly rushing forward and rearing up, while giving the entire sculptural composition the impression of impetuous movement.
From 1833 to 1841, Klodt worked on models of four groups of Horse Tamers installed on the Anichkov Bridge in St. Petersburg.The romantic-sounding theme of these groups, performed in the best traditions of Russian classicism, can be defined as the struggle of the will and mind of a person with the forces of nature. Defeated to the ground at the first attempt to curb the animal, the man in the end still becomes the winner. Clearly conveyed elastic volumes are typical for all four groups, their silhouettes are clear and expressive. Thanks to these qualities, Klodt's sculptural groups are compositionally integrated into the surrounding architectural urban ensemble.
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P. K. Klodt. Horse tamer. 1833-1841
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In the first group, a naked athlete holds back a rearing horse, the animal and the person are tense. The growth of the struggle is shown with the help of two main diagonals: the smooth silhouette of the neck and back of the horse forms the first diagonal, which intersects with the diagonal formed by the figure of the athlete. Movements are marked with rhythmic repetitions. |
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In the second group, the head of the animal is upturned high, the mouth is bared, the nostrils are swollen, the horse beats the air with its front hooves, the figure of a man is turned in a spiral in an attempt to besiege the horse. The main diagonals of the composition are approaching, the silhouettes of the horse and the man seem to be intertwined. |
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In the third group, the man is thrown to the ground, and the horse tries to break free, triumphantly arching his neck, his freedom is hindered only by the bridle in the man’s left hand. The main diagonals of the composition are clearly readable and their intersection stands out. The silhouettes of a horse and a man form an open composition, in contrast to the first two groups. |
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In the fourth group, a person tames an angry animal: leaning on one knee, he stops the horse’s wild run, squeezing the bridle with both hands. The silhouette of the horse forms a gentle diagonal, the silhouette of a man is covered by a drapery falling from the back of the horse. The general silhouette of the monument again becomes closed and balanced. |
Klodt renounces here all the conventional and idealizing methods of sculpture of classicism and conveys his living impressions and the appearance of a man whom he knew and loved well. The sculptor depicts the poet sitting in a simple, natural pose, focusing on Krylov's face, which reveals his personal characteristics. Unusually, Klodt solves the pedestal of the monument, the entire middle part of which is occupied by a solid high relief encircling the perimeter with images of various animals, characters of Krylov's fables. Despite some criticism for excessive realism in the depiction of animals on the pedestal, the monument was highly appreciated and took its rightful place in the history of Russian sculpture.
Throughout his life, Klodt paid a lot of attention to small plastic art - small figurines depicting horses ("A horse at a watering place", "A horse covered with blankets, rearing up", "Horse galloping", "Foal", etc.). The sculptor in these figurines masterfully conveys the individual character of each animal; these are real portraits, made soulfully, with sensitive attention and genuine respect for nature.
