(1776-1857) Russian artist
The name of Vasily Andreevich Tropinin is known to everyone who is familiar with the history of Russian culture in the first half of the 19th century. But few know that he made a real moral feat, over the years, tirelessly proving his right to engage in art.
The future artist was born in the village of Karpov, Novgorod province, in the family of a serf, Count A. Minikh. At the age of about ten, the boy was assigned to the Novgorod folk school, where he studied arithmetic, reading, writing, calligraphy, drawing and sacred history. This was the end of Tropinin's "systematic" education. After leaving school, the young man was taken to the master's house to carry out small assignments - "running errands." The humiliating service did not last long, but it left a heavy mark on his soul for the rest of his life.
Early 1790s youngest daughter Minikha married General I. Morkov and, having received the Tropinin family as a dowry, took him to Moscow. Since that time, the life of the future artist on long years turned out to be connected with the Carrots. Alien to art, Morkov was not interested in the early artistic inclinations of his yard. He judged in his own way, identifying Vasily Tropinin as an apprentice to a confectioner, for which he was sent to St. Petersburg.
Thanks to the requests of the owner's cousin - A. I. Morkov - in 1799 Tropinin became a student of S. Schukin, head of the class portrait painting Petersburg Academy of Arts. Tropinin settled in his family. He came to the Academy at the age of twenty-two. He had a passionate desire to become a real artist and in achieving this goal he showed an unlimited will and selfless diligence, which marked all his subsequent activities. Soon after the start of classes, he began to receive prizes and medals for his drawings.
The short period of Vasily Andreevich Tropinin's stay at the Academy turned out to be extremely important for the entire subsequent work of the artist. Here the foundations were laid professional excellence, a circle of painters was determined, the study of which helped him to fully show his talent. Here, finally, the main directions of the subsequent path of the artist were outlined.
However, soon Vasily Tropinin had to leave for the new lands of the Morkov brothers, who were in Ukraine, in Polesie. It was a heavy blow for the artist, who had just begun to join great art. The move also meant a return to the former bondage. In the house of the Carrots, the artist took the place of a pastry chef at the same time as the count's personal footman. His duties also included work with brushes and paints, however, reduced to the level of a craft. He had to take up a brush to paint carriage doors, paint a well, or paint images for a church. Tropinin lived in Ukraine from 1804 to 1821. AT free time the artist continued his education and drew a lot, painted from nature.
In 1821, Vasily Andreevich Tropinin arrived already quite famous master to Moscow. Shortly before this, the name of the serf painter first appeared in print. Around Tropinin there was a well-defined public opinion. Fearing to lose respect, Morkov was finally forced to give in and give the serf artist his freedom. He dated this event to Easter: on May 8, 1823, Vasily Tropinin received a vacation pay, but only one, without a family.
He was in his forty-eighth year. He enjoyed some notoriety. However, after obtaining personal freedom, it became necessary to officially strengthen his right to paint, and the artist writes to Shchukin with a request for assistance in submitting his works to the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts. He sent the work to the capital. On September 20, 1823, Tropinin received the title of “appointed academician” for the paintings “The Lacemaker”, “Portrait of the Artist E. Skotnikov” and “The Old Beggar”, and on October 6, 1824 he was unanimously elected an academician for the painting “Portrait of the medalist K. Leberecht”.
The artist did not want to enter public service- neither to the Academy of Arts, nor to the Kremlin architectural school where he was invited. He gratefully rejected the proposal of Count Carrot with the words: "Now I want a quiet life, Your Excellency, and I will not accept any official duty."
Vasily Andreevich Tropinin settled in Moscow, rented a modest apartment on the second floor in a house near the Stone Bridge and did not change it for thirty-two years - from 1824 to 1856. Mature creativity artist developed in Moscow. Here he painted his famous paintings "Lacemaker", "Golden Sewing" and others.
In the period from 1820 to 1830, Tropinin created many portraits of his contemporaries - representatives different layers Russian society. The artist lived only on what he earned with his work, so he willingly took orders, especially since his fame in Moscow was growing rapidly and those who wanted to have their own portrait painted with a brush famous artist, was enough. Among the most famous works of Vasily Tropinin, one can note the portrait of N. A. Maikov, the father of the future famous poet, as well as one of the most interesting portraits of Bulakhov.
But Tropinin has a work in which the idea of free will and a free way of thinking is embodied most convincingly and strongly. It's about about his most famous work - a portrait of A. S. Pushkin.
The portrait was painted in 1827, when the poet returned from Mikhailovsky exile lived in Moscow, waiting for permission to appear in the capital. A small preparatory study has been preserved, fixing mainly the poet's head, and a pencil sketch, where the idea of the future work is presented in expanded form. The portrait itself was made in the workshop on the basis of a field study.
Undoubtedly, the artist sought to create an exalted image of the poet. In the portrait, Pushkin appears in a snow-white shirt, around the open collar of which a black neckerchief is artistically thrown, and in a spacious, purple-colored dressing gown. It was no coincidence that the artist portrayed the national Russian poet in a dressing gown, as if emphasizing Pushkin's independence. When comparing this portrait with the portrait of Pushkin by Kiprensky, which appeared in the same 1827, one usually notes a somewhat everyday, but also more realistic, national character Tropinin's image next to the brilliant, romantic image of the poet on the canvas of Kiprensky. However, the images of Pushkin created by both famous artists have much in common.
A significant event in the life of Vasily Andreevich Tropinin was his meeting with Karl Pavlovich Bryullov, who stopped in Moscow in December 1835. He was already a famous artist - the author of the painting "The Last Day of Pompeii", which had a triumphant success. Among all the Moscow artists, Bryullov especially singled out Tropinin and for " true talent", and for spiritual purity. Bryullov refused to carry out portraits in Moscow, saying that his excellent master lives here.
Before last days the artist continues to create portraits and genre paintings. Tropinin was not officially listed as a teacher, but he took a lively and direct part in the education of young artists - he constantly attended classes, gave advice to students.
Vasily Tropinin spent the last year of his life in Zamoskvorechye, where he bought a small cozy house. But he did not feel joy from this, because he constantly recalled his recently dead wife and grieved. Vasily Andreevich survived her for a short time. He died on May 3, 1857 and was buried at the Vagankovsky cemetery.
Tropinin belongs to all of Russia, but perhaps Moscow has the greatest right to consider him its painter. It is no coincidence that in 1971 a museum of Vasily Andreevich Tropinin and other Moscow artists of his time was opened in Moscow.
May 3, 1857 (May 16). – Portrait painter Vasily Andreevich Tropinin died
Self-portrait with brushes and palette in front of a window overlooking the Kremlin (1844)
Vasily Andreevich Tropinin (March 19, 1776–May 3, 1857), portrait painter. Born a serf on the estate of Count Anton Sergeevich Minikh, located in the village of Karpovka, Novgorod province. Tropinin's father was a headman of serfs, then a manager, and for honest service he received freedom from the count, but his children were not free, they continued to be considered serfs.
Primary education (through the efforts of his father) Vasily received in Novgorod, where he studied for four years in public school. There, the boy also showed a craving for drawing. When Minikha's daughter Natalya Antonovna married Count Irakli Ivanovich Morkov, young Tropinin was among her dowry and entered the service of the new owner. Count Morkov did not like drawing his serf and sent Vasily to St. Petersburg to study confectionery. In the capital, Tropinin, who was under the supervision of his cousin Count Alexei Ivanovich Morkov, continued to draw in his spare time. Soon Alexei Ivanovich was surprised to learn that Vasily had been secretly attending lectures at the Academy of Arts since 1798.
After viewing the drawings of the serf, the young count decided at all costs to persuade his cousin to send Tropinin to study at the Academy of Arts, and ultimately won his consent, promising his relative that he would reimburse all costs. At that time, according to the charter of the Academy, serfs could only be volunteers for an appropriate fee. For six years Tropinin studied art in plaster and painting classes. Basics artistic craft the future painter comprehended in the workshop famous artist- Professor Stepan Semenovich Shchukin. For student drawings, Vasily received gold and silver medals. Tropinin made friends with the future at the Academy of Arts famous engraver Egor Osipovich Skotnikov and artist Orest Adamovich Kiprensky.
In 1804 Tropinin presented his work for the first time at an academic exhibition. His painting was praised by the adjunct rector of the Academy Ivan Akimovich Akimov and Empress Maria Feodorovna, who visited the exhibition. And the president of the Academy, Count Alexander Sergeevich Stroganov, having learned from Kiprensky that one of the best students continues to be a serf, promised to get a free man for Tropinin. But, as soon as Count Irakli Morkov found out about the interest of such high-ranking gentlemen in his peasant, he immediately recalled Vasily from St. Petersburg to Little Russia. The count did not need a highly educated portrait painter - he needed a serf estate artist who was supposed to paint icons and altarpieces for the new church under construction and decorate carriages.
In 1807, Vasily Tropinin married Anna Ivanovna Katina, a free settler who was not afraid to marry a serf. A year later, the Tropinins had a son, Arseny. The Patriotic War of 1812 found Tropinin in Little Russia. Count Morkov was elected to the leadership of the Moscow militia. Summoned to Moscow, Tropinin arrived in the ancient capital with a convoy of the master's property. Life in burnt Moscow after the expulsion of Napoleon gradually revived. In 1813, the militia began to return from the war, in 1814 - Russian troops from foreign campaigns. Tropinin took up painting again. In the count's house rebuilt after the fire, he had a workshop where he painted portraits of his masters, their relatives and acquaintances of the nobles. A large canvas of the Carrot family depicts a father with sons-warriors and eldest daughters-brides, happy to meet after graduation. Patriotic War.
Family of Counts Carrots, 1813, Tretyakov Gallery
In 1818, Tropinin painted a portrait of the historian Nikolai Mikhailovich Karamzin, which was engraved and opened the collection of the writer's works. The nobles, following the old fashion, again revived in their homes portrait galleries instead of canvases burned in the Moscow fire. Therefore, Tropinin painted portraits of the count's neighbors, numerous military men, his relatives (son, sister Anna), Muscovites. In these works, possession of the fullness is noticeable. painting techniques relating to portrait tasks. Orders also appeared from representatives of the merchant class.
In the 1810-1820s, improving his skills, Tropinin copied paintings by old masters from Moscow private collections. This helped to master professional "secrets": the expressiveness of contours, the subtlety of light and shade modeling, and color. Although in Moscow there were no art exhibitions, the master quickly gained fame as good portrait painter. The interest of lovers of the elegant in his personality aroused flattering lines in Domestic notes: “Tropinin, a serf of Count Carrot. He also studied at the Academy of Arts and has a happy gift and a penchant for painting. Its coloration is similar to the Titian's.
Very many enlightened and noble people, learning that the painter Tropinin was a serf, were extremely outraged by this. The young nobles, with whom Count Carrot had various affairs, considered it their duty to publicly demand from him that he be granted freedom to a talented serf. There is information that once in the English club a certain Dmitriev, having won against the count in cards a large sum, publicly invited him to exchange debt for freedom for Tropinin. But Morkov did not want to lose his personal artist: he did not let go of Vasily Andreevich anywhere and took care of him in his own way.
Yet Count Carrot was forced to yield public opinion: in May 1823, as an Easter gift, he presented Tropinin with a free letter. Now he could start a new free life, but it was necessary to determine the status, place of work and residence. Morkov, whose wife and son Tropinin remained in serfdom (they received freedom only five years later), invited Vasily Andreevich to stay in his count's house and promised to petition for him a place in the military department. However, the artist, who had dreamed of complete independence for so long, decided to live independently and do what he loved most.
Tropinin turned to Imperial Academy arts with a request to be awarded the title of artist. In September 1823 for submitted to the Academy paintings: portrait of E.O. Skotnikov, paintings "Lace Maker" and "Old Beggar", he received the title of "appointed" to the academics. In the painting "The Lacemaker" the problems of conveying the illusion of space, light-tonal painting are convincingly resolved. The prettiness of the model, the picturesque beauty of the canvas made the viewer forget that in reality the girl’s work is very difficult. According to the rules of the Academy, in order to receive the title of academician, an artist must make a large generational image of one of the members of the Academy Council. In the spring of 1824, he arrived in St. Petersburg, where he painted a portrait of professor-medalist K.A. Leberecht and was awarded the title of academician of portraiture. Then the master showed his paintings at an academic exhibition. Having received recognition from colleagues and art lovers, Tropinin painted his self-portrait. The status of a free man and artist Vasily Andreevich Tropinin in society increased: the title of academician and the rank of 10th grade according to the Table of Ranks made it possible to enter the civil service.
From 1824 until the end of his life (year of death 1857), Vasily Tropinin lived and worked in Moscow. Relentless portrait art made the artist the most famous and leading portrait painter ancient capital. In the 1820s, the artist worked on portraits of university professors and other notables in Moscow. The images of prominent city dignitaries made by him decorated the halls of the Board of Trustees, the Race Hunting Society, the Agricultural Society and others. His brush captured a number of heroes-winners of the Patriotic War of 1812. They were used as iconographic material English artist Dow at creation military gallery Winter Palace. Among private commissioned works, in 1827 a portrait of Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin was painted at the request of a friend of the great poet, Sobolevsky. Contemporaries noted the striking similarity of the poet depicted in the portrait with the living Pushkin.
In addition to portraits to order, the artist painted his friends, buddies and good acquaintances. These friendly works of the artist include portraits: engraver E.O. Skotnikov, owner of the baguette workshop P.V. Kartashev, sculptor I.P. Vitali, amateur guitarist P.M. Vasiliev, engraver N.I. Utkin. At the beginning of 1836, in winter, Muscovites solemnly welcomed K.P. Bryullov. The author of the painting “The Last Day of Pompeii” and the portrait painter Tropinin met. In his modest workshop, Vasily Andreevich, as a sign of friendship and recognition of talent, painted a portrait of Karl Pavlovich Bryullov.
In the early 1850s, the unprecedented popularity of Vasily Tropinin began to fade. Many non-resident and foreign portrait painters often came to rich Moscow to earn money, who offered their services cheaper and worked faster than an elderly artist. But the habit of daily work did not allow Vasily Andreevich Tropinin to leave the brush. He kept writing, trying various options portrait compositions, trying to compete with the masters of the salon direction. Therefore, in a fashionable spirit, the “Portrait of the spouses Nikolai Ivanovich and Nadezhda Mikhailovna Ber” (1850, National Art Museum Republic of Belarus, Minsk).
Noble gentlemen are presented in luxurious clothes and free poses against the backdrop of a rich entourage. own house. marble sculpture a plump angel, a vase of flowers, velvet drapery, an oriental carpet on the floor - all these elements of the ceremonial furnishings are designed not so much to show the viability of the customers as to demonstrate the skill of the artist, who so realistically conveyed the decoration of the room. Tropinin and in his declining years wanted to remain true to his principles of image happy life portrayed. The painting “Girl with a Pot of Roses” (1850, Museum of V. A. Tropinin and Moscow Artists of His Time, Moscow) is a genre scene. A young maid, clutching a pot with a blooming rose, takes the tray from the table and looks playfully at the viewer. Sweet, slightly embarrassed face, open look, smoothly combed hair and a stately figure of a girl, as well as large pink buds against the background of the dark color of the room convey the immediacy and liveliness of a young person and, of course, the romantically upbeat mood of the entire canvas.
Tropinin created a series of canvases that reflected the images of the "inconspicuous" residents of Moscow. These are beggars, retired veteran soldiers, old men and women. The artist painted them mainly for himself. However, in the respect with which they are depicted on the canvas, one can feel the genuine, unostentatious democracy and humanism of the remarkable master painter. Servant boys and boys with books, seamstresses and laundresses, gold seamstresses and lace makers, guitarists and girls with flowers - each of these images has a unique personality. It is no less significant that all these works are distinguished by the nobility colors, subtle understanding of shades of color, wholeness color solution. Even in European painting of those times, it is difficult to find a master who would retain the taste and quality of impeccable man-made craftsmanship for many years of his creative life.
In 1855, after the death of his wife, the artist moved to Zamoskvorechye. He bought a house in Nalivkovsky Lane. In it, an outstanding Russian portrait painter and died on May 3, 1857. Tropinin was buried at the Vagankovsky cemetery in Moscow. The painter lived a long creative life and created more than 3,000 portraits in which he strives for a lively, spiritual characterization of a person as a unique personality with a romantic sense of the moving elements of life. In his portraits often great importance have expressive details, a landscape background, the composition becomes more complicated. The portraits of the son (1818), (1827), composer P.P. Bulakhov (1827), artist (1836), self-portrait (1846), paintings "Lacemaker", "Golden Sewing", "Guitarist".
An important part of Tropinin's heritage is his drawings, especially pencil portrait sketches, which stand out for their sharpness of observation. The penetrating sincerity and the poetic and everyday, harmonious harmony of his images were more than once perceived as specific trait old Moscow art school.
At the end of his life, fidelity to nature and an analytical view of the world appeared in the paintings of Vasily Tropinin, as a result of which the artist found himself at the origins of the direction in Russian art, called critical realism, which was subsequently developed by graduates of the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture - Vasily Grigorievich Perov and Nikolai Vasilievich Nevrev. Thus, Tropinin had a huge impact on the work of all subsequent generations of great Russian painters. The memory of the greatest master of Russian portrait Vasily Andreevich Tropinin is carefully preserved at the present time. At the corner of Volkhonka and Lenivka streets, on the wall of the Moscow house where Vasily Andreyevich Tropinin lived and worked for thirty years, there is a memorial plaque. Since 1969, there has been a Museum of Tropinin and Moscow artists of his time in Zamoskvorechye. Numerous works outstanding master decorate the halls of the State Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow and the State Russian Museum in St. Petersburg. The works of Vasily Andreevich Tropinin are kept in the collections of many museums and art galleries Russian Federation.
The first Moscow portrait painter of the last century was convinced that a portrait of any person is painted "for the memory of people close to him, people who love him." A former serf, he turned down flattering official offers, but tried not to refuse anyone who made private requests to paint a portrait for family or friends. What was drawn for the memory of those who love made up our memory, our idea of good-natured, talented, famous and little-known people of the past century. People, as it turned out, and close to us.
How much income from his serf Vasily Tropinin had Count Irakly Ivanovich Morkov, who distinguished himself in the capture of Ochakov and during the assault on Izmail, who received a diamond sword and a huge estate in southern Ukraine after the Polish campaign, is definitely difficult to say. But over the years, he stubbornly gave birth to the requests of the most famous and influential people to give freedom to an artist already appreciated by all. It was as if he needed the talent, noted by the Empress Elizaveta Alekseevna herself, the talent that the great Karl Bryullov bowed to, to serve at the table during dinner as the main footman. Contemporaries noted that Tropinin Vasily Andreevich enjoyed great confidence of the count. Apparently, Irakli Ivanovich knew the price of this good-natured and eccentric, endowed not only with great talent, but also with endless humility and patience. Everyone knew the price. Marriable daughters argued among themselves which of them would get a serf artist as a dowry. Irakli Ivanovich replied to this that no one would get it. And only in 1823, when the artist was 47 years old, on the feast of the Resurrection of Christ, after matins, which was ruled at the house of Count Carrot, instead of a red egg, Tropinin was given a vacation pay, however, alone, without a son. Only five years after the death of the count, his heirs gave him freedom to Arseny Vasilyevich, the beloved son of Vasily Andreevich, to the one whose portrait, among others, made the glory of a remarkable artist.
The artist was born a serf in the village of Karpovka, Novgorod province, which belonged to Count Minikh. Then Count Irakli Ivanovich Morkov became his master, who received Tropinin as a dowry for his wife, the daughter of Minich.
Early passionate attraction to drawing, which manifested itself in Tropinin, and the abilities were so obvious that even then, in childhood, they forced the attention of Count Carrot's friends. Many advised the Count to give Tropinin to study painting. But the more urgent the advice was, the more he resisted. Petersburg, but - for a confectioner, that was the decision. Only in 1798, at the request of a close relative of Count Morkov, who undertook to pay his own money for Tropinin in the event of failure in the study of painting, he was given to art academy as a free student (according to the charter of the Academy at that time it was forbidden to accept serfs) to S.S. Shchukin, a student of D.G. Levitsky. Tropinin studied easily and successfully, and in 1804, at a student exhibition, he exhibited a portrait of a boy who yearns for a dead bird. His work was very liked by the academic authorities, as well as by the Empress Elizaveta Alekseevna. Count Carrot, warned of possible requests for the release of a talented serf, urgently withdrew Tropinina to his little Russian estate in the village of Kukavka. It was there that the serf Vasily Tropinin earned the “great trust” of the count: as they say, and “ Shvets, and a reaper, and a player on the pipe". Occasionally he is allowed to write what he wants. Most of Tropinin's early works have not survived; they burned down in the Moscow house of Morkov during the fire of Moscow in 1812.
Tropinin's early works have a special sophistication and, at the same time, a shy timidity in expressing feelings, they shine with a touching tenderness for the world. Their painting is thin-layered and transparent. The most interesting work from the surviving group of early works is " Portrait of Natalia Morkova"- a sketch for a large group portrait of the Carrot family.
His golden hair is messy, his lively brown eyes are set aside. In 18th-century art, children were depicted as small adults with wooden figurines and doll faces. In the next century, art, as it were, opens up childhood, tries to cognize the vast world of a child who lives with bright, pure feelings.
Already in the 1820s, Vasily Andreevich was famous in Moscow as a noteworthy artist. And a year later, having a freestyle, Tropinin was elected an academician of the Academy of Arts. ON THE. Ramazanov writes: “Tropinin had orders for 14,000 rubles in St. Petersburg, but northern Palmyra, sung by more than one St. one, then another ... No, to Moscow! Tired of servile life, Tropinin turned down all offers of official service, he now wanted to lead the life of a private person and be independent. A successful early official career did not allow the talent of his teacher S.S. to develop to its full potential. Schukin. And Tropinin did not want to repeat his path. Tropinin's heritage has no custom official work. Having settled in Moscow, the artist soon became the first Moscow portrait painter. Here he painted about three thousand portraits. It was an honor to commission portraits from him of Artistic Moscow, Small Nobility Moscow, and Merchant Moscow. Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin came to him either on Lenivka or on Tverskaya (not exactly established) to pose. Tropinin had a great influence on the Moscow painting school, he stands at the origins of the formation of the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. His brothers Vladimir and Konstantin Makovsky studied under him.
People came to Tropinin from other cities and from distant landowners' estates. According to the testimony of the same Ramazanov, Karl Bryullov refused to paint portraits of Muscovites, referring to Tropinina like an excellent artist. When the English master D. Dow was working on a gallery of portraits of the heroes of the war of 1812 for the Winter Palace, Tropinin painted Muscovites who did not want to go to St. Petersburg to pose. Dow then used these portrait studies in his works.
Popularity did not affect the features of the formation of Tropinin's character. He painted portraits at home with customers, finalizing them later in his studio. The prices for his portraits were low, copies from the old masters Tropinin estimated more expensive. Just like Fedotov and Venetsianov, Tropinin was not abroad, but did not complain about this: "Maybe it turned out for the best that I was not in Italy, if I were there, maybe I would not be peculiar." But Tropinin knew Western European art well, he studied private collections in St. Petersburg and Moscow, as well as the richest collection of the Hermitage.
Of all the masters of the first half of the 19th century, Tropinin most of all retains ties with art. XVIII century. One of his favorite artists was J.-B. Grez, his work Tropinin copied a lot. He also copied works Austrian artist I.-B. Lampi, teachers V.L. Borovikovsky, " Portrait of Agashi's daughter» D.G. Levitsky. Undoubtedly, the connections of Tropinin's art with the "heads" Italian master P. Rotary. The whimsical, playful, flirtatious style of rococo and the gentle grace of the art of sentimentalism - Tropinin has it all. The aromas of the art of the gallant age are long preserved in his work.
Tropinin's nature was also close to the hedonism of art of the 18th century, asserting pleasure, pleasure as the highest goal and main motive of human behavior, his rapture with the beauty of the forms and colors of the real world. All of his lacemakers», « gold embroiderers», « spinners" and " laundresses as if covered with a thin veil of light erotica.
They are affectionate, smiling, flirtatious. Tropinin's revelations are in what he loves. He admires his natures as the most amazing creations of nature. Tropinin uses a system of contrasts - complex turns of the figure, when the shoulders are deployed strongly in three-quarters, the face is almost frontal, the eyes are slanted to the left or right, resulting in a helix, giving the impression of playing with the viewer. Most notable work of this series - the painting by Vasily Andreevich Tropinin "" - became calling card Tropinin.
He repeated this work many times. Here Tropinin is already a mature master. The errors in anatomy and carelessness, which were in early works. « Lacemaker» are distinguished by the clarity and accuracy of the silhouette, the sculptural roundness of the forms. Numerous thin translucent layers of paint allowed Vasily Andreevich Tropinin to achieve a gentle effect of porcelain transparency of the exterior, which, when illuminated, begin to glow from the inside. Details are carefully and lovingly written: curls of hair, bobbins, scissors.
Tropinin's portraits are often shallow in psychological characteristics, but very reliable in the transfer of a person's everyday environment. Tropinin's work is comparable to the so-called Biedermeier movement that developed in the art of Germany, Austria and a number of Scandinavian countries in the 20-40s of the last century, who sang the ideal family life, the attachment of family members to each other, admiring the arranged life is not for show.
Tropinin liked chamber portraits. He always cared about the naturalness of the model’s pose, advised paying attention, “so that ... the face does not care to sit like this, put your hand like that, etc., try to distract him with a conversation and even distract him from the thought that he is sitting for a portrait.” His images expressed in portraits are distinguished by an individual and natural originality of posture, sincere and benevolent openness.
One of the best portraits of Tropinin - Bulakhov's portrait.
The sketchy manner of painting, the carelessness and artistry of writing correspond to the gentle nature of the depicted person. He is presented in the homely appearance of a private person, which is emphasized by the clothes - a robe with squirrel fur. But the journal Vestnik Evropy, in the hands of Bulakhov, suggests that he is no stranger to intellectual pursuits. Home clothing was perceived as the antithesis of a tailcoat, it was "the loose clothing of a free man."
From more prim and strict style life of bureaucratic Petersburg, the capital, the residence of the emperor, Moscow was distinguished by freedom. Many writers preferred to live in Moscow, it was a city of artistic bohemia. Moscow was famous for its cordiality, its eccentrics. Moscow ladies often dressed with tasteless quirkiness and pomp. An example of this Countess N.A. Zubova, beloved daughter of Suvorov, from Tropinin's portrait.
Her bright red headdress with white feathers seems to have descended from a Baroque painting. Nevertheless, this outfit corresponds to her monumental figure, healthy complacency of nature, all the brutality of her appearance and does not make her ridiculous and ridiculous. But one should not think that Tropinin's talent was inaccessible to the aristocracy of the spirit, inner world intellectual model. With long liquid strokes, he writes a subtle smart face famous historian Karamzin.
He enlarges the face, gives it strictly in front, refusing complex turns, details of the situation, elements of "everyday prose" in the portrait.
Tropinin lived in the heyday of romantic life-feeling. He, personally acquainted with Karl Bryullov and Pushkin, admired their work, empathized with their attitudes, which naturally affected their writing. Portrait of A.I. Baryshnikov under a tree against the backdrop of an evening landscape, a kind of reflective English dandy; Bryullov's portrait against the backdrop of smoking Vesuvius, portrait of V.M. Yakovlev with the stamp of disappointment and fatigue on his face.
But in general, romantic influences were alien to the sober character of Tropinin, he perceived them rather externally, paying tribute to the mood of the era. The most successful portrait of this group of works - portrait of A.S. Pushkin.
The portrait was ordered to the artist by Alexander Sergeevich himself and presented as an unexpected gift to his friend S.A. Sobolevsky. Tropinin invested a lot in this portrait. own feeling. Creativity and freedom - the ideas that underlie the guiding idea of the portrait of Pushkin, were secret for the artist himself, who through incredible work overcame the entire class ladder of hierarchical Russian society.
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In 1855, calm in recent times Vasily Andreevich's life was overshadowed by the loss of his beloved wife Anna Ivanovna, with whom he married in Kukavka about half a century ago. Shortly after the funeral, he moved to a house he bought across the Moscow River. And two years later, “On May 5, at 10 o’clock in the morning, artists, friends, relatives and admirers of Vasily Andreevich Tropinin converged and gathered in Polyanka to his small, cozy and pretty house. Never before has there been such a large gathering of people in the dwelling of a venerable artist who spent his whole life modestly, nobly, vigilantly, actively; many two, three people close to him came together to talk and listen to his wise speeches; - and on this day there was a crowd that was silent ... We saw off the deceased to the Vagankovo cemetery. Snow and hail rushed in our faces; wayward northern spring, it seemed, wanted to remind that we are burying our northern artist who never melted in the Italian sun and therefore died in full memory ... ”recalls Shikhanovsky.
