“You can only believe those portraits
On which the models are almost invisible
But the Artist is very clearly visible. "
Oscar Wilde.
The first half of the 19th century in the life of Russian society was dramatic at the beginning, but also romantic later. The events of the war of 1812, the defeat of the Russian army and the seizure of territories by Napoleon at the beginning of the century, the victorious march through Europe and the surge of national identity became the basis for the subsequent emergence and development of interest in the knowledge of a particular person at important moments in his life, in his inner world and experiences. A little earlier, these tendencies manifested themselves in Europe and gave birth to artromanticism,which in Russia acquired its own peculiarity: at the beginning of the century, he was heroic, associated withinterest in national culture and history, to domestic talents. And this led to outstanding achievements in portraiture, which directly connected the artist with both society and with outstanding contemporaries.
One of the most famous portrait painters of the time wasOrest Kiprensky (1782-1836) , in the art of which even one periodreflected both the features of classicism and romanticism.

Kiprensky lived a stormy life, in which everything was: illegitimacy from a serf mother, an invented surname, training from 6 years at a school at the Academy of Arts under the leadership of Levitsky, accusation of fraud when a 22-year-old artist presented a portrait of his adoptive father in Italy (they first considered this work by an unknown masterpiece by Rubens or Rembrandt).

He was unusually handsome, and mad in passion, possessed a fierce temperament and impressionability, experienced a rise in fame in Italy and Russia (where he was called "Russian Van Dyck"). And then everything went downhill: rumors about the murder of his model, the adoption of Catholicism and unnecessary marriage, drunkenness, poverty and death far from home.

On his gravestone in Rome it is written: "In memory of Orest Kiprensky, the most famous among Russian artists." (More information about his biography can be found here:http://art19.info/kiprenskiy/biography.html )
Another outstanding painter of the time,Alexei Venetsianov (1780-1847) the main place in his work was occupied by the image of the work and life of the peasants, somewhat idealized and smoothed.

He began his career in the art of the Venetians with drawing lessons, which were given to him by his "uncle" (tutor), a talented draftsman. At that time, as we remember, the main genre was portrait, and the young self-taught, having painted a portrait of his mother, decided to devote himself to painting, went to Petersburg and worked as a draftsman in the post office.

A lucky chance made him a student of Borovikovsky, gradually he gained some fame and was able to devote himself entirely to painting. Soon after his marriage, Venetsianov bought a small estate and completely immersed himself in a new direction for Russian painting - portraits and genre scenes from peasant life. At the same time, he discovered a second vocation in himself - to teach talented peasant children to paint, and even bought some who were serfs himself. He raised over 70 capable students in his “Venetsianov School”.

"The early poetic realism of Venetsianov, which became such a necessary stage in the development of Russian painting, also colored his portrait work, thereby enriching the entire Russian portrait of this period."
(http://www.artprojekt.ru/gallery/russian/60.html ) The last years of his life were difficult: his wife died of cholera, there was not enough money, his daughters could not get married, many students betrayed his ideals and painted incredible happy scenes of peasant life and embellished portraits. The artist died absurdly and terribly: the horses in the carriage carried, and his hands got tangled in the reins and for several kilometers his body thrown out of the carriage rushed after her over the stones. (A detailed biography of the artist can be found here:http://art19.info/venetsianov/biography.html )
Another outstanding artist of the first half of the 19th centuryAlexandra Ivanova (1806-1858)

the portrait, as a rule, was not the main one in the work, it was an auxiliary sketch for the creation of a historical or historical-religious large canvas. Remember the whole room of portraits of various sizes and sketches in the Tretyakov Gallery, painted by the artist for the main picture of his life - "The Appearance of Christ to the People"? Some art critics believe that the sketches outweighed the value of the painting itself, which turned out to be huge (5.4 mx 7.5 m), inspiring respect, painted over 20 years, but not touching the soul, in my opinion. But each sketch for it can be considered a complete painting, look at this head, because this is a portrait of Gogol, only with a beard and long curly hair.

From the age of 25 and almost until the end of his life, the artist lived in Italy, practically in poverty and sometimes even starving, never creating a family, although he also had a great love for the beautiful Italian Vittoria Caldoni, who preferred his friend, the artist Lapchenko. (It is interestingly written about this here:http://nearyou.ru/ivanov/0vittoria.html .

He had no luck with women. For about eight years he lived with some Teresa (she is mentioned in his correspondence), she always arranged scenes for him and more than once robbed him. There was another woman with whom he was in love, Countess Apraksina, but she was given in marriage to another. Returning to Russia, Ivanov becomes infected with cholera a month later and dies.
A special place in portrait painting is occupied by the work of another Russian artist, who often introduced genre details into his portrait paintings. This is aboutPavel Fedotov (1815-1852) ,

career military, guards captain, who left the service and devoted himself to art on the orders of NikolaiI, who learned about the great abilities of the "drawing officer". And he began to draw as a battle artist, he was attracted by scenes of large-scale battles, and also cartoons and cartoons of his comrades in the cadet corps. Fedotov was going to leave military service even before the order of the tsar, and the fabulist Krylov, who saw his work and advised him "to expose the badness of Russian life and thereby contribute to its improvement", also called him to do so. You all know his famous genre scenes, which were of great interest to the viewer, but in the portrait he showed himself to be an outstanding artist, observant and outspoken.

Sometimes he could walk half the city after some type he liked in order to better see him in motion, and then portray him in one of the planned scenes. He lived with his batman very modestly, sometimes even in poverty, but he helped his family - his father and sisters.

The end of his short life was terrible - he died in a psychiatric hospital, in the ward for the violent madmen from pleurisy, he was buried only by his faithful orderly, his friends were not even notified. (A detailed biography can be found here:http://art19.info/fedotov/biography.html ).
A brilliant painter, a great portrait painter, a talented muralist, a wonderful watercolorist, classic and romantic - all these epithets are not an exaggeration when we talk aboutthis artist.

God himself told him to become an artist, giving him the opportunity to be born into the family of an artist and teacher of the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts Pavel Bryullo. Already at the age of 10, he entered the Academy and surprised the teachers with his talent and technique, ease of writing and hard work. In 1822, adding to his surname "v" at the end, Bryullov and his brother went on a tour of Europe on the instructions of the "Society for the Encouragement of Artists". His works, written in Italy, were a great success and received praise from Nikolai himselfI ... He paints a large number of portraits on commission, using a variety of artistic techniques and styles from baroque to realism, introducing everyday details and furnishings.

Returning home already famous artist, it becomes in demand in high society a portrait painter, many nobles, politicians, writers consider it an honor to have their own portrait by Bryullov.

In 1847, after a severe cold, Bryullov's rheumatism worsened and the work of a sick heart worsened since childhood, he lay in bed for seven months at the insistence of doctors, but continued to work.

At the request of the same doctors in 1849, Bryullov moved to the island of Madeira, then to a small place near Rome, painted several portraits, but this was already given to him with difficulty, and in 1852 the artist dies, leaving many unfinished works and sketches in the studio. (The full biography can be read here :(http://art19.info/brullov/biography.html ).
We gradually approached the middle of the 19th century, when in Russian art in general, and in painting in particular, great changes were ripe, associated with changes in the situation in the country and the mood in society. “National realistic art was born, which set itself the task of reflecting the life of society and the people ...” (http://art19.info/russkaja-zhivopis/articles.html). Although I do not like such definitions, as I consider them far-fetched, I am of the opinion that painting (and art in general) is not obliged to "set goals" to reflect anything, but this is not the place for this conversation.
One of the first russian artistswho felt and managed to convey the need of society for changes, called him to enlightenment, drew his attention to the life of the people, "denouncing", as critics say, injustice and oppression, wasVasily Perov (1834-1882) .

At first, his surname was a nickname given to him by a grammar teacher for his good "pen skills", which was fixed later as the only one. He was the illegitimate son of Baron Credener, who raised him in his family. Perov is mainly known for his genre paintings, some of which are clearly accusatory in nature (for example, "Troika", familiar to many from the Soviet textbook "Rodnaya Rech"), but we are interested in portraits, many of which are considered masterpieces of the genre.

“This portrait is not only the best portrait of Perov, but also one of the best portraits of the Russian school in general. All the artist's strengths are evident in it: character, power of expression, huge relief. " This is how Ivan Kramskoy described this work. Perov paints a whole series of portraits of Russian writers and musicians, including magnificent portraits of Turgenev, Rubinstein, Ostrovsky.

The artist Nesterov remarkably said about his portraits of that period: "... Expressed in such old-fashioned colors, rustic drawing, Perov's portraits will live a long time and will not go out of fashion in the same way as the portraits of Luke Cranach and antique sculptural portraits."
Creation recent years his short life is considered not very successful, and his life itself was tragic: the death of his wife, the loss of two older children, infection with consumption. A long, serious and incurable disease at that time was aggravated by typhus and pneumonia, the artist died at the age of 48 and was buried in the cemetery of the Donskoy Monastery. (More details here:http://www.art-portrets.ru/vasiliy-perov.html )
One of the brightest artists of that time, who tried his hand at both everyday and historical genres, but became famous mainly thanks to the portraits of his contemporaries, wasIvan Kramskoy (1837-1887).


His whole life is a complete contradiction: he was an academician and at the same time a fighter against academicism, he was an ardent admirer of Chernyshevsky, but painted portraits of members of the royal family. Having become famous for his masterly painting of portraits, the artist, however, considered for himself this type of painting a burden, a duty, a “fake art” that made it possible to support a family, but distracted from what he would like to do - “the search for the purpose of human existence and the decision of socio-political problems by means of painting ”.

And we, the descendants, were lucky that in order to maintain the standard of living of the family, the artist had to take orders for a large number of portraits, thanks to which we have the opportunity to see the faces of many prominent people of that time.

Kramskoy met his future wife when he was 22 years old, she was a kept woman of a little-known artist, and when he went abroad, became Kramskoy's wife, bore him 6 children, of which two survived, was his assistant and support not only in everyday life, but also in the activities of the "Artists' Artel" led by her husband.

The last years of the artist's life were overshadowed by the endless pursuit of earnings, the forced, annoying work on portraits to order, the impracticability of the desire to devote himself to other subjects, poor health and heart pains, which he tried to suppress with morphine. He died before he was 50 years old, while working on the next, last portrait (of the doctor Rauchfus) from a ruptured aortic aneurysm, it was impossible to help him.
And about another painter of French origin and an unusual zigzag fate,Nicolae Ge (Gay) (1831-1894) ,

who began his work with gospel stories, became famous at first for paintings on historical themes, who, together with Myasoedov, took an active part in the creation of the Association of Traveling Exhibitions, who left for the wilderness to engage in farming, made friends with Leo Tolstoy and left us portraits of many of his great contemporaries. Interesting biography fact: Ge met Herzen in Italy,

he painted a magnificent portrait of him, and was able to deliver it to Russia only under the guise of the prophet Moses, since Herzen lived in exile and the portrait of "this rebel" could have been destroyed by gendarmes at the border. Since the 1880s, Ge has become not only a follower of Leo Tolstoy, but also his friend,

is experiencing a spiritual rebirth, declares that one must live only by honest labor, and "art cannot be traded." At the end of the artist's life, the theme of the last days of Christ was occupied. He said, "I will shake all their brains with the suffering of Christ." But his new style, anticipating the emergence of Expressionism, was not accepted by the public and critics. Sudden death at 63 interrupted his search for new means of expression, contemporaries did not understand what a “grandiose breakthrough the artist made19th century to the harrowing aesthetics of the next century. " (Anna Yesterday.

Introduction

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

1.3 Alexey Gavrilovich Venetsianov (1780-1847)

II. Fellowship of Traveling Art Exhibitions

Chapter IV. The art of portrait painting

Conclusion

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

In this work, we will look at the art of portrait painting in the 19th century:

The greatest masters of Russian art of the 19th century.

Association of Traveling Art Exhibitions.

What is a portrait?

The history of the appearance of the portrait.

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

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

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

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

1.1 Orest Adamovich Kiprensky (1782-1836)

Born on the Nezhinskaya manor (near Koporye, now in the Leningrad region) on March 13 (24), 1782. He was the bastard son of the landowner A.S. Dyakonov, registered in the family of his serf Adam Schwalbe. Having received his freedom, he studied at the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts (1788-1803) under G.I. Ugryumov and others. He lived in Moscow (1809), Tver (1811), Petersburg (from 1812), and in 1816-1822 and from 1828 - in Rome and Naples.

The very first portrait - the adoptive father of A.K. Schwalbe (1804, Russian Museum, Petersburg) - stands out for its emotional flavor. Over the years, the skill of Kiprensky, manifested in the ability to create not only social and spiritual types (predominant in Russian art of the Enlightenment), but also unique individual images, has improved. Naturally, it is customary to begin the history of romanticism in Russian fine arts with Kiprensky's paintings.

The Russian artist, an outstanding master of Russian fine art of romanticism, is known as a remarkable portrait painter. Kiprensky's portraits are imbued with special cordiality, special simplicity, they are filled with his high and poetic love for man. In the portraits of Kiprensky, you can always feel the features of his era. This is always invariably inherent in each of his portraits - and in the romantic image of the young V.A. Zhukovsky, and the wise E.P. Rostopchin (1809), portraits: D.N. Khvostov (1814 TG), the boy Chelishchev (1809 TG), E.V. Davydov (1809 RM).

An invaluable part of Kiprensky's work is graphic portraits, made mainly in pencil with tint with pastels, watercolors, and colored pencils. It depicts General E.I. Chaplitsa (State Tretyakov Gallery), P.A. Olenin (State Tretyakov Gallery). In these images we see Russia, the Russian intelligentsia from the Patriotic War of 1812 to the December uprising.

Portraits of Kiprensky appear before us as complex, thoughtful, changeable in mood. Opening various facets of the human character and the spiritual world of man, Kiprensky each time used different possibilities of painting in his early romantic portraits. His masterpieces, like one of the best lifetime portraits of Pushkin (1827 TG), Avdulina's portrait (1822 RM). The sadness and thoughtfulness of Kiprensky's heroes is sublime and lyrical.

"Light-winged fashion lover,

Though not British, not French

You created again, dear wizard,

Me, a pet of pure muses. -

And I laugh at the grave

Gone forever from mortal bonds.

I see myself as in a mirror

But this mirror flatters me.

It says that I will not humiliate

Passions of important aonids.

My view will be known henceforth, -

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

A special section is made up of Kiprensky's self-portraits (with brushes behind the ear, c. 1808, Tretyakov Gallery; and others), imbued with the pathos of creativity. He also owns the heartfelt images of Russian poets: K. N. Batyushkov (1815, drawing, Museum of the Institute of Russian Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg; V. A. Zhukovsky (1816). The master was also a virtuoso graphic artist; working mainly in Italian pencil, he created a number of remarkable household types (like the Blind Musician, 1809, Russian Museum) Kiprensky died in Rome on October 17, 1836.

1.2 Vasily Andreevich Tropinin (1776-1857)

Representative of romanticism in Russian fine arts, master of portrait painting. Born in the village of Karpovka (Novgorod province) on March 19 (30), 1776 in the family of serfs, Count A.S. Minikh; later was sent to the disposal of Count II Morkov as a dowry for the daughter of Minich. He showed talent for drawing as a boy, but the master sent him to Petersburg to study as a pastry chef. He attended classes at the Academy of Arts, first furtively, and from 1799 - with the permission of Morkov; during his studies he met O.A. Kiprensky. In 1804, the owner summoned the young artist to his place, and since then he alternately lived in the Ukraine, in the new carrot estate Kukavka, then in Moscow, in the position of a serf painter, obliged along the way to carry out the landlord's economic orders. In 1823 he received a free and the title of academician, but, abandoning a career in St. Petersburg, remained in Moscow.

A serf artist who, with his work, introduced a lot of new things into Russian painting in the first half of the 19th century. Received the title of academician and became the most famous artist of the Moscow portrait school of the 20-30s. Later, the color of Tropinin's painting becomes more interesting, the volumes are usually sculpted more clearly and sculpturally, but most importantly, a purely romantic feeling of the mobile element of life is insinuatingly growing, Tropinin is the creator of a special type of portrait - painting. Portraits in which the features of the genre are introduced, images with a certain plot plot: "Lacemaker", "Spinner", "Guitarist", "Gold Embroiderer".

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

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

Over the years, the role of the spiritual atmosphere - expressed in the background, significant details - only increases. The best example is the Self-Portrait with Brushes and Palette from 1846, where the artist presented himself against the background of a window with a spectacular view of the Kremlin. Tropinin devotes a number of works to his fellow artists depicted in work or in contemplation (I.P. Vitali, c. 1833; K.P.Bryullov, 1836; both portraits in the Tretyakov Gallery; and others). At the same time, the Tropinin style is invariably inherent in a specifically intimate, homely flavor. In the popular Woman in the Window (based on the poem by M.Yu. Lermontov The Treasurer, 1841), this effortless sincerity takes on an erotic flavor. The later works of the master (Servant with a damask counting money, 1850s, ibid.) Testify to the extinction of coloristic skill, anticipating, however, the keen interest in dramatic description of everyday life characteristic of the Itinerants. An important area of \u200b\u200bTropinin's work is also his sharp-looking pencil sketches. Tropinin died in Moscow on May 3 (15), 1857.

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

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

During the Patriotic War of 1812, he created a series of propaganda and satirical pictures on the theme of popular resistance to the French invaders.

He painted portraits, usually small in format, marked by subtle lyrical inspiration (M.A. Venetsianova, the artist's wife, late 1820s, Russian Museum, Petersburg; Self-portrait, 1811, Tretyakov Gallery). In 1819 he left the capital and since then lived in the village of Safonkovo \u200b\u200b(Tver province) he bought, inspired by the motives of the surrounding landscape and rural life. The best of Venetsianov's paintings are classicistic in their own way, showing this nature in a state of idealized, enlightened harmony; on the other hand, they are obviously dominated by the romantic principle, the charm not of ideals, but of simple natural feelings against the background of native nature and everyday life. His peasant portraits (Zakharka, 1825; or Peasant Woman with Cornflowers, 1839) appear as fragments of the same enlightened natural, classic romantic idyll.

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

1.4 Karl Pavlovich Bryullov (1799-1852)

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

Departing from historical painting, Bryullov's interests lay in the direction of portraiture, in which he showed all his creative temperament and brilliance of skill. His brilliant decorative canvas The Horsewoman (1832 TG), which depicts the pupil of the Countess Yu.P. Samoilova Giovanina Paccini. Portrait of Samoilova herself with another pupil - Amatsilia (1839 RM). In the person of the writer Strugovshchikov (1840 TG) one can read the tension of inner life. Self-portrait (1848 TG) - a sadly thin face with a keen gaze. A very life-like portrait of Prince Golitsin, resting on an armchair in his office.

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

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

An inspiring example for the partnership was the "St. Petersburg Artel of Artists", which was founded in 1863 by participants in the "riot of fourteen" (IN Kramskoy, AI Korzukhin, KE Makovsky, etc.) - graduates of the Academy of Arts, demonstratively left it after the Academy Council forbade writing a competitive picture on a free plot instead of the officially proposed topic from scandinavian mythology... Standing up for the ideological and economic freedom of creativity, the "artel workers" began to organize their own exhibitions, but by the turn of the 1860s-1870s their activities had practically disappeared. A new incentive was the appeal to Artel (in 1869). With the proper permission, in all cities of the empire, traveling art exhibitions, in the form of: a) providing the residents of the provinces with the opportunity to get acquainted with Russian art and follow its progress; b) the development of love for art in society; and c) making it easier for artists to market their works. " Thus, for the first time in the fine arts of Russia (apart from Artel), a powerful art group emerged, not just a friendly circle or a private school, but a large community of like-minded people, which assumed (in defiance of the dictates of the Academy of Arts) not only to express, but also independently define the development process artistic culture countrywide.

The theoretical source of the creative ideas of the "Itinerants" (expressed in their correspondence, as well as in the criticism of that time - primarily in the texts of Kramskoy and the speeches of V.V. Stasov) was the aesthetics of philosophical romanticism. New art, liberated from the canons of the academic classics. In fact, to reveal the very course of history, thereby effectively preparing the future in their images. Among the "Itinerants", such an artistic and historical "mirror" was, first of all, modernity: the central place at the exhibitions was occupied by genre and everyday motives, Russia in its many-sided everyday life. The genre beginning set the tone for the portrait, landscape and even images of the past, as close as possible to the spiritual needs of society. In the later, including the Soviet tradition, which tendentiously distorted the concept of "itinerant realism", it boiled down to social-critical, revolutionary-democratic subjects, of which there really were many. It is more important to keep in mind the unprecedented analytical and even visionary role that was assigned here not so much to the notorious social issues, but to art as such, creating its own sovereign judgment over society and thereby isolating itself into its own, ideally self-sufficient artistic kingdom. Such aesthetic sovereignty, growing over the years, became the immediate threshold of Russian symbolism and modernity.

At regular exhibitions (there were 48 of them in total), which were shown first in St. Petersburg and Moscow, and then in many other cities of the empire, from Warsaw to Kazan and from Novgorod to Astrakhan, over the years it was possible to see more and more samples of not only romantic-realistic, but also modernist style. Difficult relations with the Academy eventually ended in a compromise, since by the end of the 19th century. (following Alexander III's wish “to end the split between artists”) a significant part of the most authoritative Itinerants was included in the academic faculty. At the beginning of the 20th century. In the Partnership, friction between innovators and traditionalists intensified, the Wanderers ceased to represent, as they themselves used to believe, everything that is art-advanced in Russia. Society was rapidly losing its influence. In 1909 his provincial exhibitions ceased. The last, significant surge in activity took place in 1922, when society adopted a new declaration expressing its desire to reflect the life of modern Russia.

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

3.1 Nikolai Nikolaevich Ge (1831-1894)

Russian artist. Born in Voronezh on February 15 (27), 1831 in the family of a landowner. He studied at the mathematical departments of Kiev and Petersburg universities (1847-1850), then entered the Academy of Arts, which he graduated from in 1857. He was greatly influenced by K.P.Bryullov and A.A. Ivanov. He lived in Rome and Florence (1857-1869), in St. Petersburg, and from 1876 - on the Ivanovsky farm in the Chernigov province. Was one of the founders of the Association of the Itinerants (1870). He did a lot of portrait painting. He began working on portraits while still studying at the Academy of Arts. Over the years, he painted many of his contemporaries. These were mainly leading cultural figures. M.E. Saltykov - Shchedrin, M.M. Antokolsky, L.N. Tolstoy and others. Ge owns one of the best portraits of A.I. Herzen (1867, Tretyakov Gallery) - the appearance of a Russian revolutionary, an ardent fighter against autocracy and serfdom. But the transfer of external similarity is not at all limited to the artist's intention. Herzen's face, as if snatched from the twilight, reflected his thoughts, the adamant determination of a fighter for social justice. Ge captured in this portrait a spiritual historical figure, embodied the experience of her entire life, full of struggle and anxiety.

His works differ from those of Kramskoy in their emotionality and drama. Portrait of the historian N.I. Kostomarov (1870, Tretyakov Gallery) is written unusually beautifully, temperamentally, freshly, freely. Self-portrait painted shortly before his death (1892-1893, KMRI), the master's face is illuminated by creative inspiration. Portrait of N.I. Petrunkevich (1893) was painted by the artist at the end of his life. The girl is depicted almost full-length at the open window. She is immersed in reading. Her face in profile, head tilt, posture express a state of thoughtfulness. As never before, Ge paid great attention to the background. Color harmony testifies to the unspent powers of the artist.

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

3.2 Vasily Grigorievich Perov (1834-1882)

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

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

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

3.3 Nikolai Alexandrovich Yaroshenko (1846-1898)

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

His works can be called a portrait - type "Fireman" and "Prisoner" (1878, Tretyakov Gallery). The Fireman is the first depiction of a worker in Russian painting. "Prisoner" is an actual image during the years of the stormy populist revolutionary movement. "Kursistka" (1880, Russian Museum) a young girl with books walks along the wet St. Petersburg pavement. In this image the whole epoch of women's struggle for independence of spiritual life found expression.

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

3.4 Ivan Nikolaevich Kramskoy (1837-1887)

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

The predominant area of \u200b\u200bartistic achievement for Kramskoy remained the portrait. Kramskoy in the genre of portrait is occupied by an exalted, highly spiritual personality. He created a whole gallery of images of the greatest figures of Russian culture - portraits of Saltykov - Shchedrin (1879, Tretyakov Gallery), N.A. Nekrasov (1877, Tretyakov Gallery), L.N. Tolstoy (1873, Tretyakov Gallery), P.M. Tretyakov (1876, Tretyakov Gallery), I.I. Shishkin (1880, State Russian Museum), D.V. Grigorovich (1876, Tretyakov Gallery).

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

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

3.5 Ilya Efimovich Repin (1844-1930)

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

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

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

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

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

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

3.6 Valentin Alexandrovich Serov (1865-1911)

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

Serov became a fashionable portrait painter. Famous writers, aristocrats, artists, painters, entrepreneurs and even tsars posed in front of him. In adulthood, Serov continued to paint relatives, friends: Mamontov, Levitan, Ostroukhov, Chaliapin, Stanislavsky, Moskvin, Lensky. Serov carried out the orders of the crowned - Alexander III and Nicholas II. The emperor is depicted in a simple jacket from the Preobrazhensky regiment; this painting (destroyed in 1917, but preserved in the author's replica of the same year; the Tretyakov Gallery) is often considered the best portrait of the last Romanov. The master painted both titled officials and businessmen. Serov worked on each portrait to exhaustion, with complete dedication, as if the work he had begun was his last work. The impression of spontaneous, light artistry was intensified in the images of Serov, and because he worked freely in a variety of techniques (watercolor, gouache, pastel) , reducing to a minimum or none at all the difference between a sketch and a painting. Black-and-white drawing was always an equal type of creativity with the master (the inherent value of the latter was fixed in his work since 1895, when Serov performed a cycle of animal sketches, working on illustrations of I.A. Krylov's fables).

At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. Serov becomes almost the first portrait painter in Russia, if someone in this regard is inferior, then only one Repin. It seems that best of all he succeeds in intimate lyrical images of women and children (N. Ya. Derviz with a child, 1888-1889; Mika Morozov, 1901; both portraits - Tretyakov Gallery) or images of creative people (A. Mazini, 1890; K.A. Korovin, 1891; F. Tamagno, 1891; N.A. Leskov, 1894; everything is in the same place), where a colorful impression, a free stroke reflect the state of mind of the model. But even more formal, secular portraits organically combine subtle artistry with an equally subtle gift of an artist-psychologist. Among the masterpieces of the "secular" Serov - Count FF Sumarokov-Elston (later - Prince Yusupov), 1903, Russian Museum; G.L. Girshman, 1907; V.O. Girshman, 1911; I.A. Morozov, 1910; Princess O.K. Orlova, 1911; all - in the same place).

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

chapter. The art of portrait painting

Portrait is a significant and important genre in art. The word "portrait" itself goes back to the old French word "pourtrait", which means: the image of a devil in a line; it goes back to the Latin verb "protrahere" - that is, "to take out", "to reveal"; later - "to portray", "to portray". In Russian, the word "portrait" corresponds to the word "podoben".

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

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

The techniques of painting the head in the Russian academic school of the first half of the nineteenth century continue the tradition of sculpting forms using strong and hot shadows. We can judge the academic methods by looking at the works of O. Kiprensky, K. Bryullov, A. Ivanov. Academic techniques cannot be regarded as something the same for all artists, but what is common to the students of the academy is the discipline of form.

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

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

The sequence of work and the system were of great importance in academic painting. Glazing on dry and wet gave the head its final shape, color, expression. But probably some of the heads of K.P. Bryullov wrote at once, while maintaining strict sculpting, cold lights and hot shadows. The same hot shadows lie in the portraits of I. N. Kramskoy. Their redness is softened by the usually diffused museum light. But if a ray of the sun falls on the portrait, you are amazed at the relative brightness of the red shadows.

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

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

The portrait image reflects not only the model, but also the artist himself. Therefore, the author is recognized by his works. The same person looks completely different in the portraits of different artists. After all, each of them brings into the portrait their attitude to the model, to the world, their feelings and thoughts, their way of seeing and feeling, their mental makeup, their outlook. The artist not only copies the model, not only reproduces its appearance - he communicates his impressions about it, conveys, expresses his idea of \u200b\u200bit.

The portrait genre had a large place in the system of academic education, since the teachers of the early nineteenth century saw it in the depiction of a person as the path of the artist's direct appeal to nature.

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

Working on a portrait brings the artist into close contact with representatives of various social strata of modern society, and working from life significantly expands and deepens the understanding of the psychology of embodied images in a painting. Portrait painting is enriched with typical folk images. Deepening psychological characteristic depicted in the portrait of a person, his moral, social understanding. In the portrait, not only a critical attitude to life, characteristic of the Itinerants, is especially felt, but also the search for a positive image, which is most vividly manifested in the images of representatives of the intelligentsia.

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

The best portrait painters of the 18th century and the first half of the 19th century bring to us the typical features of their contemporaries. But the tasks of typification while preserving the individual in the human image came into conflict in these portraits with the prevailing classical concept, in which the typical was understood as abstracted from the individual. In the itinerant portrait, we see it as a reverse understanding of the typical: the deeper the penetration into the individuality of a person, the more concrete and vividly his image is recreated, the more clearly the general features that have developed under the influence of certain living conditions appear in his portrait.

Bibliography

1. Aleshina L.S. Russian art of the XIX - early XX century -M., "Art" 1972.
2. Benois A. History of Russian painting in the XIX century - M., "Republic" 1999.
3. Gomberg - Verzhbitskaya E.P. Peredvizhniki: a book about the masters of Russian realistic painting from Perov to Levitan - M., 1961.
4. Ilyina T.V. Art history. Domestic art - M., "High School", 2005.
5. Portrait art. Collection - M., 1928.
6. A Brief Dictionary of Fine Art Terms.
7. Likhachev D.S. Russian art from antiquity to the avant-garde - M., "Art", 1992.
8. Matafonov S.M. Three centuries of Russian painting - Sib., "Kitezh" 1994.
9. Pushkin A.S. Complete works in one volume - M., 1938.
10. Roginskaya F.S. The Wanderers - M., 1997.
11. Shchulgin V.S., Koshman L.V., Zezina M.Z. Culture of Russia IX - XX centuries. uch. allowance - M., "Prostor" 1996.
12. Yakovlev V.M. About the great Russian artists - M., "Publishing House of the Academy of Artists of the USSR" 1952.

Shulgin V.S., Koshman L.V., Zezina M.Z., Culture of Russia IX - XX centuries. uch. manual - M. "Prostor", 1996 P. 205

Gomberg - Verzhbitskaya E.P. The Wanderers: a book about the masters of Russian realistic painting from Perov to Levitan - M., 1961, p. 44.

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Famous Russian artists

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

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

Kramskoy Ivan Nikolaevich
(1837-1887)

Kramskoy Ivan Nikolaevich, an outstanding Russian painter and progressive art figure. Born in Ostrogozhsk, Voronezh province, into a poor bourgeois family. He received his initial knowledge at the district school. He has been drawing since childhood on his own. At the age of sixteen he entered retouchers for a Kharkov photographer.

Kuindzhi Arkhip Ivanovich
(1842-1910)

A.I. Kuindzhi was the son of a poor Greek shoemaker from Mariupol, he was orphaned early, and he had to achieve everything in his life on his own. In the early 1860s, his passion for drawing brought him to St. Petersburg, where he twice tried to enter the Academy of Arts, but to no avail. There was not enough training, because he acquired all his painting experience as a retoucher in a photographic workshop.

Kustodiev Boris Mikhailovich
(1878 - 1927)

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

Lagorio Lev Feliksovich
(1827-1905)

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

Levitan Isaac Ilyich
(1861-1900)

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

Malevich Kazimir Severinovich
(1878-1935)

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

Malyutin Sergey Vasilievich
(1859-1937)

The future artist was born on September 22, 1859 in a Moscow merchant family. Left for three years a complete orphan, he was brought up in the house of his aunt, the wife of a petty official. The boy was sent to a commercial school, and then to accounting courses, after which he was assigned to serve as a clerk in Voronezh. His artistic inclinations manifested themselves early. But the environment did little to their development. Only at the end of the 1870s, when he visited a traveling exhibition that had opened in Voronezh, Malyutin first saw genuine painting. Long-standing vague dreams have found concreteness: the decision has come, despite any difficulties, to become an artist.

Nesterov Mikhail Vasilievich
(1862- 1942)

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

Perov Vasily Grigorievich
(1834-1882)

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

Polenov Vasily Dmitrievich
(1844- 1927)

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

Repin Ilya Efimovich
(1844-1933)

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

Roerich Nicholas Konstantinovich
(1874- 1947)

Roerich Nicholas Konstantinovich, an outstanding Russian artist, art critic, archaeologist and public figure. Was born in St. Petersburg. He studied in St. Petersburg at the May gymnasium (1883-93). Took drawing lessons from M. Mikeshin. Graduated from the law faculty of St. Petersburg University (1893-96) and the painting department of the Academy of Arts (1893-97), class of A. Kuindzhi. The latter sought to develop in his students a sense of the decorativeness of color. Without refusing to work from nature, he insisted that the paintings be painted from memory. The artist had to nurture the idea of \u200b\u200bthe painting.

Savitsky Konstantin Apollonovich
(1844-1905)

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

Savrasov Alexey Kondratievich
(1830-1890)

There are paintings without which it is unthinkable to imagine Russian art, just as it is impossible to imagine Russian literature without War and Peace by Tolstoy, Eugene Onegin by Pushkin. And this does not have to be a large and complex work. A small modest painting by Alexei Kondratyevich Savrasov (1830-1897) "The Rooks Have Arrived" has become such a true gem of Russian landscape painting. She appeared at the first exhibition of the Association of the Itinerants in 1871.

Serov Valentin Alexandrovich
(1865-1911)

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

Surikov Vasily Ivanovich
(1848-1916)

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

Fedotov Pavel Andreevich
(1815-1852)

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

Shishkin Ivan Ivanovich
(1832-1898)

Enter the hall of the Tretyakov Gallery, where paintings by Ivan Ivanovich Shishkin are hanging, and it will seem to you that the moist breath of the forest, the fresh wind of the fields breathed, it became sunnier and brighter. In Shishkin's paintings we see that early morning in the forest after a night storm, then the endless expanses of fields with a path running away to the horizon, then the mysterious twilight of the forest thicket.

Yuon Konstantin Fedorovich
(1875-1958)

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

Russian artists

Akimov Nikolay Pavlovich
(1901-1968)

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

Nissky Georgy Grigorievich
(1903-1987)

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

Alexey Pakhomov
(1900-1973)

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

Among the many Russian and foreign artists who worked in Russia, the outstanding masters of portrait in the 18th century can be safely called

A.P. Antropova, I.P. Argunova, F.S. Rokotova, D.G. Levitsky, V.L. Borovikovsky.

On his canvases A.P. Antropov and I.P. Argunov strove to portray a new ideal of a person - open and energetic. Cheerfulness and conviviality were emphasized by bright colors. The dignity of the depicted, their stoutness was conveyed with the help of beautiful clothes and solemn static poses.

A.P. Antropov and his paintings

Self-portrait of A.P. Antropov

In the works of A.P. Antropov's connection with icon painting is still noticeable. The master writes the face with continuous strokes, and clothes, accessories, background - freely and widely. The artist does not "fawn" before the noble heroes of his paintings. He paints them as they really are, no matter what traits, positive or negative, they have (portraits of M.A. Rumyantseva, A.K. Vorontsova, Peter III).

Among the most famous works of the painter Antropov are portraits:

• Izmailova;
• A.I. and P.A. Quantity;
• Elizaveta Petrovna;
• Peter I;
• Catherine II in profile;
• ataman F. Krasnoshchekov;
• portrait of Prince Trubetskoy

I.P. Argunov - portrait painter of the 18th century

I.P.Argunov "Self-portrait"

Developing the concept of a national portrait, I.P. Argunov quickly and easily mastered the language of European painting and abandoned the old Russian traditions. The ceremonial retrospective portraits that he painted from the lifetime images of the ancestors of P.B. Sheremetev. The painting of the next century is also foreseen in his work. He becomes the creator of a chamber portrait, in which great attention is paid to the high spirituality of the image. This was an intimate portrait, which became more widespread already in the 19th century.

I.P.Argunov "Portrait of an Unknown Woman in a Peasant Costume"

The most significant images in his work were:

• Ekaterina Alekseevna;
• P.B. Sheremetev in childhood;
• the Sheremetevs;
• Catherine II;
• Ekaterina Aleksandrovna Lobanova-Rostovskaya;
• unknown in a peasant costume.

F.S.Rokotov - artist and paintings

A new phase in the development of this art is associated with the name of the Russian portrait painter - F.S. Rokotov. He conveys the play of feelings, the variability of the human character in his dynamic images. The world seemed to the painter spiritualized, and his characters are also like that: multifaceted, full of lyricism and humanity.

F.Rokotov "Portrait of an Unknown Man in a Cocked Hat"

F.S. Rokotov worked in the genre of a half-parade portrait, when a person was depicted waist-deep against the background of architectural buildings or a landscape. Among his first works are portraits of Peter III and Grigory Orlov, seven-year-old prince Pavel Petrovich and princess E.B. Yusupova. They are smart, decorative, colorful. The images are written in the Rococo style with its sensuality and emotionality. Thanks to Rokotov's works, one can learn the history of his time. The entire progressive noble elite strove to be captured on the canvases of the great painter.

Rokotov's chamber portraits are characterized by: a bust image, a ¾ turn to the viewer, the creation of volume with complex cut-off, a harmonious combination of tones. With the help of these expressive means, the artist creates a certain type of canvas, which depicts the honor, dignity, and spiritual grace of a person (the portrait of "Unknown in a cocked hat").

F.S.Rokotov "Portrait of A.P. Struyskaya"

The artist's youthful and female images were especially remarkable, and even a certain rokotov type of woman was formed (portraits of A.P. Struyskaya, E.N.Zinovieva and many others).

In addition to those already mentioned, the works brought fame to F.S. Rokotov:

• IN AND. Maikova;
• Unknown in pink;
• V.E. Novosiltseva;
• P.N. Lanskoy;
• Surovtseva;
• A.I. and I.I. Vorontsovs;
• Catherine II.

D.G. Levitsky

D.G. Levitsky Self-portrait

They said that the portraits of D.G. Levitsky reflected the entire century of Catherine. Whoever Levitsky portrayed, he acted as a subtle psychologist and certainly conveyed sincerity, openness, sadness, as well as national characteristics of people.

His most outstanding works: portrait of A.F. Kokorinov, series of portraits "Smolyanka", portraits of Dyakova and Markerovsky, portrait of Agasha. Many of Levitsky's works are considered intermediate between ceremonial and chamber portraits.

D.G. Levitsky "Portrait of A.F.Kokorinov"

Levitsky combined the accuracy and truthfulness of Antropov's images and Rokotov's lyrics in his work, as a result of which he became one of the most prominent masters of the 18th century . His most famous works are:

• E. I. Nelidova
• M. A. Lvovoy
• N. I. Novikova
• A. V. Khrapovitsky
• the Mitrofanov couple
• Bakunina

V.L. Borovikovsky - master of sentimental portrait

Portrait of V.L. Borovikovsky, art. Bugaevsky-Blagodatny

The personality of the Russian master of this genre V.B. Borovikovsky is associated with the creation sentimentalist portrait... His miniatures and portraits in oil depicted people with their experiences, emotions, conveyed the uniqueness of their inner world (portrait of MI Lopukhina). Female images had a certain composition: a woman was depicted against a natural background, waist-deep, she was leaning on something, holding flowers or fruits in her hands.

VL Borovikovsky "Portrait of Paul I in the costume of the Order of Malta"

Over time, the artist's images become typical for the entire era (portrait of General F. A. Borovsky), and therefore the artist is also called the historiographer of his time. The artist's Peru portraits belong to:

• V.A. Zhukovsky;
• "Lizanka and Dasha";
• G.R. Derzhavin;
• Paul I;
• A.B. Kurakin;
• "Beardless with daughters."

The 18th century was a turning point for the development of Russian painting. Portrait becomes a leading genre . The artists adopt painting techniques and basic techniques from their European colleagues. But the focus is on a person with his own feelings and emotions.

Russian portrait painters tried not only to convey the similarities, but also to reflect on their canvases the soulfulness and inner world of their models. If Antropov and Argunov strove, overcoming conventions, to truthfully portray a person, then already Rokotov, Levitsky and Borovikovsky went further. Spiritual personalities look from their canvases, the mood of which was captured and conveyed by the artists. All of them strove for the ideal, in their works they sang beauty, but bodily beauty was only a reflection of the humanity and spirituality inherent in the Russian person.

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Russian portrait has its own history of development and its remarkable portrait painters.

In general terms, we will talk about how the portrait genre developed in Russia. In general, because this topic is immense for one article.

History of Russian portrait

In the Middle Ages, the Russian portrait differed from the understanding of this genre at a later time: the individual traits of a particular person were almost not reflected in his image. In a medieval portrait, it was a timeless image. Individuality was manifested only in the depiction of his social position, or rather, the ideal that corresponded to representatives of a certain stage in the feudal hierarchy. Naturally, only noble people, church leaders and other dignitaries of their time were depicted in the portraits.

Miniature from "Izbornik Svyatoslav" 1073 "Svyatoslav with his family." Svyatoslav is on the far right. Svyatoslav is the third son of Yaroslav the Wise and Ingegerda of Sweden.

And here is a group portrait of "Daughter of Yaroslav the Wise". Here we see some individualization of images, although it is not the main criterion in this portrait, it was more important for the artist to show the princely dignity of girls.
Some of the icon-painting images of Dionysius differ in their individual characteristics. For example, the icon of Joseph Volotsky.

Dionysius. Icon of Joseph Volotsky

Dionysius (c. 1440-1502) - famous Moscow icon painter, continuer of the traditions of Andrei Rublev.
In the XVI century. a secular portrait was born in Russia. The hundred-headed cathedral of 1551 legalized the possibility of writing on the icons of kings, princes and the people, a little later it was allowed to write on icons along with the usual plots and parables - this made it possible to insert household motives into icons. At the same time, according to the decision of the Stoglavy Cathedral, in the underwear row of icons (lower), kings, and princes, and saints, and peoples who were alive could appear.
And Ivan the Terrible himself demanded to display historical events and his deeds in art. Under him, the royal workshop was created, which in the 17th century. became the basis of the school of tsarist iconographers of the Armory Chamber.
In the Russian kingdom of that period, the portrait genre was called "parsuna" - a distorted transcription of the Latin word "persona" - "personality", "person". Parsuns of the 17th century, with rare exceptions, do not have the signatures of the authors and indicate the time of writing. And although the portrait resemblance in Parsun is transmitted rather conditionally, and the signature helps to determine the personality of the person depicted, nevertheless, this was already a step towards the further development of Russian pictorial portrait.

Parsuna XVII century "Portrait of Tsarevich Peter Alekseevich". Russia, late 17th - early 18th century Unknown artist. Canvas, oil.
By the XVI century. include lifetime images of Ivan the Terrible and many other historical figures of that time.

Parsun Ivan the Terrible
In the XVII century. the genre of the portrait continues to develop, the icon-painting face is increasingly beginning to approach the individual face, the artists depict not only tsars, but also boyars, stewards, merchants. It is especially important that the resemblance to the model is already mandatory. The artists of the Armory Iosif Vladimirov and Simon Ushakov became innovators in the field of creating a realistic portrait image. Vladimirov creates an image as he sees it in life. Their work is approaching realism. Ushakov worked a lot on the image of a human face. He created new icon-painting images with anatomically correct, volumetric modeled faces, real rendering of the shape of the eyes and the shine of the pupils. But these were only separate steps towards a realistic portrait.
XVIII century. brought his achievements into the portrait genre: artists introduce direct perspective, depth and three-dimensional image on a plane; comprehend the relationship between light and color, the role of light as a means of building volume and space.
The central theme of the art of the Petrine era is man, and the main genre is the portrait. At this time, the transition from parsuna to portrait was taking place. By the middle of the XVIII century. original and talented portrait painters have already appeared. The Russian school of portraiture was represented by the artists Ivan Nikitin, Andrey Matveev, Ivan Vishnyakov, Alexey Antropov, Ivan Argunov. Let's turn to the creativity of at least one of them.

Ivan Petrovich Argunov (1729-1802)

I.P. Argunov was a serf of the Sheremetevs. He studied portrait painting with his cousin Fyodor Leontievich Argunov, as well as with foreign masters. Under the guidance of his teacher Georg Christopher Groot, he created icons for the church of the Catherine Palace in Tsarskoe Selo.

I. Argunov "Self-portrait"
He is the author of excellent ceremonial and chamber portraits. Argunov became famous for his portraits of St. Petersburg nobility, for example, P.B.Sheremetev. In 1762 Argunov received an order to create a portrait of Empress Catherine II.

I. Argunov "Portrait of Catherine II" (1762)
The portrait was painted in the tradition of a ceremonial portrait. The Empress is depicted in an emphatically theatrical pose, her gaze directed at the viewer from top to bottom. The details are carefully written: a fragment of a column, luxurious draperies, gilded furniture details, regalia.
A special place in the work of I. Argunov is occupied by portraits of children and youth. One of the most famous portraits of the artist is "Portrait of an Unknown Peasant Woman in a Russian Costume".

I. Argunov "Portrait of an Unknown Peasant Woman in a Russian Costume" (1784)
In this portrait, he managed to show the natural beauty and dignity of a person, regardless of his class affiliation. Soft facial features, a friendly smile and a calm posture - all this emphasizes the modesty, openness and kindness of a woman from the people.
It should not be forgotten that foreign artists also worked in Russia during the time of Peter the Great, who also contributed to the development of the portrait genre. Thanks to them, this genre began to develop in a new quality. To designate Western European artists who worked in Russia, there is a special term - "Russia". Some of the names are: Georg Hrstofor Groot, John Wedekind, Louis Caravac, Alexander Roslin, Pietro Rotari, Stefano Torelli and many others.

L. Karavak "Portrait of princesses Anna Petrovna and Elizaveta Petrovna"
In the works of the portrait genre, composition, color, and style are developed.

I.G. Tannauer "Portrait of Peter I"
The next new step in the portrait genre was made by the artists of the 18th century. F. Rokotov, D. Levitsky, V. Borovikovsky. Read about them. By the end of the 18th century. In terms of its high level of quality, the Russian portrait is on a par with contemporary world models. Levitsky and Rokotov move from the ceremonial portrait to the chamber one. Their portraits are characterized by delicacy, thoughtfulness, restrained attentiveness.
In the genre of an official portrait at the end of the 18th century. S. Shchukin (1762-1828), a student of D. Levitsky, was considered an indisputable authority. The famous portrait painters Vasily Tropinin and Alexander Varnek were the pupils of S. Shchukin himself.

S. Shchukin "Paul I in the Maltese crown" (1799). Hermitage, Petersburg
For this portrait S. Shchukin was awarded the title of academician.
By the end of the 18th century. Russian portraiture began to develop in accordance with the general European style trends of Baroque, Rococo, Classicism, Sentimentalism.

The flourishing of Russian portraiture

With the onset of the era of romanticism at the beginning of the 19th century. the portrait genre has received a new development. The most famous masters of this period were Orest Kiprensky, V. Tropinin, K. Bryullov, Alexander Varnek.

Alexander Grigorievich Varnek (1782-1843)

A. Varnek "Self-portrait"
Graduate and later teacher of the Academy of Arts, master of portrait. The main theme of his work was portraits. Celebrate his ability to grasp similarities, choose lighting, portray a model truthfully and without embellishment. Many portraits of his contemporaries belong to his brush. For example, a portrait of M.M. Speransky, a Russian public and statesman, a reformer who took part in the education of Tsarevich Alexander Nikolaevich.

A. Varnek "Portrait of Mikhail Mikhailovich Speransky" (1824). Canvas, oil. Irkutsk Regional Art Museum. V.P.Sukacheva
From the middle of the XIX century. The best examples of the realistic portrait genre are created by the Itinerant artists Vasily Perov, Ivan Kramskoy, Nikolai Ge, Nikolai Yaroshenko, Valentin Serov, Ilya Repin. They created portraits of representatives of the intelligentsia of this era, many of which were made directly by order of P.M. Tretyakov, a renowned art patron and collector.

I. Kramskoy "Self-portrait"
Ivan Nikolaevich Kramskoy created a number of portraits of prominent Russian writers, artists and public figures: L.N. Tolstoy (1873), I.I.Shishkin (1873), P.M. Tretyakov (1876), M.E.Saltykov-Shchedrin (1879), A.S. Griboyedov, V. Solovyov, Emperor Alexander III and many others.

I. Kramskoy "Portrait of Emperor Alexander III" (1886)
The portrait is also widely introduced into the paintings of the everyday and historical genre, for example, in the paintings of V. Surikov.
Valentin Alexandrovich Serov (1865-1911) - Russian portrait master.

V. Serov "Self-portrait"
His most famous portrait is "Girl with Peaches".

V. Serov "Girl with Peaches" (1887). Oil on canvas, 91 x 85 cm.The State Tretyakov Gallery (Moscow)
This portrait was painted in the Abramtsevo estate of Savva Ivanovich Mamontov, a Russian entrepreneur and philanthropist. And the portrait depicts Mamontov's daughter, 12-year-old Vera. Her spontaneity, lively mind and curiosity are skillfully conveyed by the artist. Although the portrait was created for almost 2 months, and all this time the girl posed for the artist, there is no sense of stability on the canvas. It seems that Vera just ran into the dining room for a minute to eat a peach, and now she will go about her business again. By the way, peaches were grown in the Mamontov greenhouse.
V. Serov created a portrait gallery of "the highest persons", including portraits of the Grand Duke Georgy Mikhailovich, Emperor Alexander III, Grand Duke Pavel Alexandrovich, the coronation portrait of Nicholas II, etc.

V. Serov "Portrait of Nicholas II"

Silver Age portrait painters

The portrait genre continued its development in the works of Mikhail Vrubel, Sergei Malyutin, Abram Arkhipov, Boris Kustodiev, Malyavin.
These artists created portraits-types of people from the people. Their works are mostly colorful, full of optimism, color and freshness of perception.

A. Arkhipov "The Woman in Red" (1910)
Viktor Borisov-Musatov, Konstantin Somov, Zinaida Serebryakova portraits are more lyrical. K. Somov, for example, created a gallery of portraits of his contemporaries (A. Blok, E. Lancere, S. Rachmaninov, V. Ivanov, M. Dobuzhinsky, etc.)

K. Somov "Portrait of S. Rachmaninoff"
As you know, the Silver Age is the time of the search for a new artistic language, and this search is reflected in the portraits of that time. Silver Age portrait painters: Kazimir Malevich, Ilya Mashkov, Pyotr Konchalovsky, Aristarkh Lentulov, Alexander Osmerkin, Robert Falk, Nathan Altman, etc.

P.P. Konchalovsky "Portrait of V. E. Meyerhold" (1938). Oil on canvas, 211 x 233 cm.The State Tretyakov Gallery
The famous director is depicted in the portrait shortly before his arrest and death. The conflict between the personality and the surrounding reality is emphasized. The composition of the portrait plays an important role, to some extent it is allegorical: it seems that the canvas depicts a dreamer, whose dreams are embodied in colorful patterns that cover the entire wall and sofa to the floor. But at the same time we see a person immersed in his thoughts, as if removed from the surrounding world. The image is revealed through contrast: a bright ornament, and against its background - a monochrome figure, as if lost and tangled in the countless curves of patterns.

N. Altman "Portrait of A. A. Akhmatova" (1914). State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg
The portrait of A. Akhmatova was painted in the style of cubism.
The outstanding graphic artist of this period is Yuri Annenkov. He created a large gallery of pictorial and graphic portraits of many figures of Russian culture: Akhmatova A.A., Benois A.N., Gorky A.M., Zamyatin E.I., Lunacharsky A.V., Pasternak B.L., etc. ...

Y. Annenkov "Portrait of B. Pasternak" (1921)

By the 30s of the XX century. in the Russian portrait genre, realism again became in demand, it was now called "socialist realism". The image of a contemporary was also in demand. But this image had to be ideologically correct. “The main content of the Soviet portrait is the image of the new man, the builder of communism, the bearer of such spiritual qualities as collectivism, socialist humanism, internationalism, revolutionary determination. A representative of the people becomes the protagonist of the Soviet portrait ”(Great Soviet Encyclopedia). New portraits-types and portraits-paintings, reflecting the everyday life of Soviet people and their heroic deeds (artists Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin, Georgy Ryazhsky, Alexander Deineka, Sergei Gerasimov, Semyon Chuikov) appear.

A. Deineka "Runners" (1934)
Whole pictorial cycles have been formed dedicated to the leaders of the revolution and the Soviet state (Leninian, Stalinian).

One of the most famous paintings about the war was the "Mother of the Partisan" by artist S. Gerasimov.

S. Gerasimov "Mother of the Partisan" (1943-1950). Oil on canvas, 184 x 229 cm.The State Tretyakov Gallery (Moscow)
The theme of his painting is the heroism of an ordinary Soviet man during the war. In the center of the picture stands the mother of the partisan with her head held high. S. Gerasimov said about the idea of \u200b\u200bthis picture: “I wanted to show in her image all the mothers who sent their sons to war”. A woman cannot be intimidated by German invaders. Her native land is behind her. The face is the embodiment of the people's anger, which even the fascists feel: against the background of this heroic Russian woman, the German officer seems pathetic.
In the second half of the XX century. The genre of Russian pictorial portrait was enriched by artists of a new generation: Nikolai Andronov, Viktor Popkov, Tair Salakhov, Boris Korneev, Lev Rusov, Yevsey Moiseenko, Oleg Lomakin, as well as Dmitry Zhilinsky, Alexander Shilov (works in the manner of "photorealism"), Ilya Glazunov.
T. Salakhov created a gallery of images of cultural figures: composers D. D. Shostakovich, Kara Karaev, F. M. D. Amirov, artist R. Rauschenberg, actor M. Schell, writers Rasul Rza, G. Hesse, M. Ibragimbekov, cellist M. L. Rostropovich and others.

T. Salakhov "Portrait of M. Rostropovich"

Group portrait of D. Zhilinsky "Spring of the Art Theater" (1988)
Look closely at the faces of the characters and you will find many familiar faces.
D. Zhilinsky created portraits of people close to him in spirit.

D. Zhilinsky "Richter plays"
In the portrait gallery of I. Glazunov there are his contemporaries: from a simple rural carpenter to heads of state. He created a series of portraits of Soviet and foreign political and public figures, writers, people of art. The artist created many artistic images of historical characters.

I. Glazunov "Portrait of the Writer Valentin Rasputin" (1987). Canvas, oil. 121 x 90 cm

I. Glazunov "Kiss of Judas" (1985). Canvas, oil

We see how diverse the creative searches of portrait painters of the 20th century are.

Contemporary Russian portrait

The Russian portrait continues to develop. Now he is no longer bound by any ideological conditions, although the ceremonial portrait has been preserved - customers have existed at all times.
The most famous authors of this genre are Alexander Shilov, Nikas Safronov, the Leningrad artist Sergei Pavlenko, who lives in London and received two orders for portraits of the British royal family, including Queen Elizabeth. He works in line with the school of Korovin and Nesterov.

S. Pavlenko "Portrait of Elizabeth II", 250 x 210 cm

S. Pavlenko "Olga". Oil, 163 x 95 cm
Natalia Tsarkova, a graduate of the I. Glazunov Studio and the Surikov School, is the official court portraitist at the court of Pope Benedict XVI. But he paints portraits of popes Tsarkov from photographs, since
not supposed to pose. Natalia Tsarkova is the only woman in the world who painted portraits of the four popes of Rome.

N. Tsarkova "The Last Supper" (2002)
Here is how the artist herself explains this work: “In fact, I have not changed anything in this well-known gospel story, I just“ went ”from the other side. Jesus sits at the table opposite the apostles and half-turned from his back looks directly at the viewer. In the corner of the canvas, in the form of a servant, I portrayed myself, looking through the open door. This is also incompatible with the traditional canons of the "Supper", but in this way I wanted to emphasize the connection with the present day. This is a view from the third millennium.
A large white canvas lay in my studio for a whole year before the solution to the painting came up. Ideas appeared spontaneously, like insights, in the process of work. I redid many of the details several times. And in the role of the apostles, I decided to portray my Italian friends and acquaintances. For example, the person who posed Christ for me is Count Peppy Morga, a light designer by profession. "
Portrait painter Ivan Slavinsky is popular in France, Georgy Shishkin is an artist of Monaco.

It is obvious that Russian contemporary realist artists are in demand and successful in the world. Why? Are there really few of their talented artists? Of course they are. But the classical art school practically no longer exists in Europe. And the European aristocracy prefers to have their images for posterity in a classic recognizable manner. Therefore, there are many Russian names among the court artists of our time.