Unknown peasant woman in Russian costume. History of the portrait

"The Art of the Portrait" - For a long time, the ancient Greeks did not have a portrait in the strict sense of the word. Really existing or existed in the past. Mannerist portrait. F. Bush. (From French - to depict, to convey "hell to hell"). Renaissance portrait. Generalization and consolidation of knowledge. G. Holbein Jr. "Portrait of Erasmus of Rotterdam".

"Portrait in painting" - We are considering a portrait of a girl. The soul of a child... The beautiful does not tolerate lies. V. Tropinin Portrait of the artist's son. Material: V. Tropinin "Portrait Arseny - son artist. A. Mylnikov Verochka. I. Arkhipov Girl with a jug. To develop a sense of the relationship between the moods of visual and musical images.

"Fayum portrait" - In general, more than 700 "Fayum portraits" are stored in the museums of the world. Fayum portrait. The Egyptians used to preserve their dead by placing mummies in wooden or stucco coffins, for the most part ending with a sculptural portrait mask. The goal of the ancient Egyptians was to create a physical double of the deceased.

"Portrait of the Terrible" - Ivan the Terrible in the image of Russian artists. K. Lebedev "Portrait of Ivan the Terrible". Alena Dmitrievna and Stepan Paramonovich. Chapter 1. The Feast of Ivan the Terrible. N.V. Nevrev Oprichniki. Chapter 2. Alena Dmitrievna tells her husband about the abuse of Kiribeevich. Good fellow Kiribeevich. Farewell Kalashnikov with loved ones before the execution.

"Portrait of the author" - I. Repin Tolstoy at work. I myself, shameful and corrupt, With blue circles around my eyes... K. Somov A. Blok 1907 1849 1851 1856 Ermontov in childhood. Portrait as one of the ways to get acquainted with the biography and work of the author. Daguerreotype portraits of L. Tolstoy. A. Morua. B.M. Kustodiev Yu.P. Annenkov Portrait of E. Zamyatin Portrait of E. Zamyatin.

"Portraits of Chekhov" - The portrait was made by I. Levitan. Self-portrait. O. Knipper (1868-1959). A.P. Chekhov. Olga Knipper is the writer's wife. I. Levitan (1860-1900). A. Stepanov (1858-1923). Portrait by the writer's brother, Nikolai Chekhov. Portrait by I.E. Braz, kept in the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow. Photo portrait made by S. Linden.

In total there are 14 presentations in the topic

There are women in Russian villages

With calm gravity of faces,

WITH beautiful power in movements

With a gait, with the eyes of queens.

The image of a girl from the yard in poetry and in painting.

Ivan Argunov. Portrait of an unknown peasant woman in Russian costume. 1784

This is the first formal portrait with a peasant woman leading role, therefore, many tend to consider the peasant woman not a real one, but an actress dressed in a sundress and a kokoshnik. In favor of the fact that the young lady is really a peasant woman, the ethnographically accurate outfit of the Moscow province and the ingenuous absence of any mannerism speak. In addition, Argunov himself came from serfs, so his interest in peasant topics was especially acute.

Vladimir Borovikovsky. Portrait of a Torzhkovskaya peasant woman Khristinya. 1795

Khristinya looks not so much like a real peasant woman as an embodied dream of a sentimentalist artist, a follower of Karamzin, who claimed that “peasant women know how to love!” The dream peasant woman appears in national costume, against the background of a transparent blue sky and a greenish curtain. The painter admires the gentle face, colorful outfit: a white shirt, a green sundress trimmed with a gold braid, a raspberry kokoshnik.

Alexey Venetsianov. Girl with a calf. 1829

Venetsianov not only admired the charm of familiar simplicity from the outside, but also completely built his life on the traditions of the rural way of life. He changed the fate of a bureaucrat to the fate of an Academician of Arts, who lives by his art far from the capitals, in the tiny estate of Safonkovo ​​in the Tver province. There he set up a small but exemplary farm - in agronomic science he achieved regular harvests. The earth fed the Venetsianov family in the direct and literal sense of the word. She and her inhabitants nourished the inspiration of the artist. The image of a modest girl with a calf was born here, among rounded hills and dense forests, on the banks of a quiet river with almost symbolic name Divination.

Philip Malyavin. Learning the alphabet.

Malyavin is pure emotion. A peasant from a large family, an icon painter on Mount Athos, a "World of Art" artist in Paris. Already becoming famous painter, Philip Andreevich admitted: “ For a long time I could not decide whether I should be a painter or a carver, and this made me very depressed. I always looked with horror at the years - now I will be seven, eight. Before ten, I couldn’t even imagine, but this is already old age, it seemed to me that people after ten years are already elderly ... I was only afraid of one thing, so as not to lose time, and I ran, collected coals in the ashes and painted everywhere - on walls, on wheels, on gates and even on ashes. I turned to the peasants to show me how to draw, and successfully used their advice. Gifted with a remarkable, inquisitive mind, he was at the same time a perfect child in life: his girls are delight, humor, youthful provocation and cheerfulness.

Abram Arkhipov. Portrait of a peasant woman. 1911

Arkhipov is a talented peasant, a student of Perov and Polenov. As a practice, every summer he traveled to his homeland in the Ryazan province, where he painted sketches, choosing his fellow villagers as models. Since he personally knew both people and their lives, the pictures turned out to be lively, genre, and the girls - sincere and playful. All of them are in national bright clothes, with embroidered scarves and beads. The portraits are painted with a temperamental large stroke, they are distinguished by their decorative effect and bright colors.
It is Abram Arkhipov who can be considered the one who, after centuries of stagnation, rediscovered the red color in Russian painting, all its strength and fiery power - either the red sun, or a terrible fire ... Red women and Malyavin and Solovitsky come from him.

Zinaida Serebryakova. Peasant girl. 1910s

Serebryakova to her artistic development first of all I owe my uncle Alexandru Benois- mother's brother. The artist spent her childhood and youth in St. Petersburg in the house of her grandfather, the architect N. L. Benois, and in the Neskuchny estate. Zinaida's attention was always attracted by the work of young peasant girls in the field. The first success in the work of the artist, which came in 1914-1917, is also associated with their portraits. She created a series of paintings dedicated to the Russian village, peasant labor and Russian nature, very “feminine”, neat works, glorifying the beauty and strength of young peasant women.

Vladimir Tatlin. Peasant woman. 1911

And Malevich, and Kandinsky, and Larionov, and other representatives of the avant-garde youth were looking for new language and new artistic techniques to talk about the "spiritual in art", to include in painting his search for the philosophy of the new time. Processing the accumulated experience of generations - from Russian icons and popular prints to folk art they invented their own painting styles. Tatlin, for example, always remained in a genetic connection with ancient Russian art, icon painting, frescoes: from the study and copying of samples ancient Russian art he began his studies in art in general.

Simple Russian face, a ray of light in the realm of nobles and heroes of antiquity, filling the hall number 2. The author of this masterpiece is the famous portrait painter Ivan Petrovich Argunov, a talented serf of two great nobles. Centuries pass, nobles go down in history, works of art remain that touch the soul, although their authors did not belong to the elite.

The artist Ivan Vasilievich Argunov, who was commissioned for ceremonial portraits by Catherine the Great, was born and died a serf. Its first owner was Prince Alexei Cherkassky: Chancellor Russian Empire, governor of Siberia, the richest landowner in Russia in terms of the number of souls. As a serf artist of Prince Cherkassky, Ivan Argunov was apprenticed to George Christoph Grooth, a painter of the Imperial Court, who painted portraits of special imperial family and Russian nobility. Soon Ivan Argunov reached the level of skill of his teacher in the subtleties of transferring the texture of expensive fabrics of rich clothes of nobles.

In 1743, the only daughter of Prince Cherkassky, Varvara Alekseevna, heiress to the largest fortune in Russia, was married to Count Pyotr Borisovich Sheremetyev, son of the famous Petrovsky Field Marshal B.P. Sheremetyev, hero of the Battle of Poltava, commander of the times Northern war, the first to be elevated to the dignity of a count of the Russian kingdom. It can be added that the young Count P.B. Sheremetiev was also the godson of the hetman of the Zaporozhian Sich I.I. Skoropadsky. As a dowry, Prince Cherkassky gave his daughter 70,000 souls, including the entire talented Argunov family of serfs (Uncle Ivan Arguln was a talented serf sculptor). As a result of the wedding of the heirs of the two richest families, the famous “Sheremetyevo state” was formed - the largest state in Russia, where serfs alone numbered 140,000 souls. The talent of their serfs of the Argunov family count. P. B. Sheremetyev used to manage his estates and palaces. In contrast to his father, the young Count Pyotr Sheremetev showed no aptitude for either military or civil service. But he became famous for his love of the arts and luxurious image life, as well as wealth and the best theater and orchestra in Russia. His Art Gallery portraits in the Kuskovo estate was considered the best in Russia XVIII century. Many famous portraits this gallery belonged to the brushes of the serf Ivan Argunov, among them the famous ceremonial posthumous portrait of the great Field Marshal B.P. Sheremetyev and his wife Anna Petrovna Naryshkina, a portrait of Pyotr Borisovich himself and others.

In the late 1760s, Argunov was appointed manager of the Million House of the Sheremetevs in St. Petersburg. Years pass, Ivan Argunov becomes a master, more and more energy is spent on managing the estates of Count Sheremetyev, less and less time is left for painting.

And suddenly the swan song of the artist! In 1784, Ivan Petrovich Argunov painted the last and most famous of his portraits. His model is not the Empress, not a noble lady, but an unknown peasant woman. According to one version, the portrait depicts a nurse who lived in the Sheremetevs' house, according to another, the serf singer and actress of the Sheremetevs' theater Anna Izumrudova-Buyanova. As follows from the website of the Tretyakov Gallery ( http://www.tretyakovgallery.ru/ru/collection/_show/image/_id/398):« ethnographically accurate outfit of a peasant woman in the Moscow province(a kokoshnik embroidered with gold threads, a red sundress, a thin white shirt, bright jewelry), as well as ingenuity and the absence of any mannerisms speak, precisely, of the peasant origin of the model. Her soft features, friendly, barely noticeable smile and calm posture - everything emphasizes the modesty, openness and kindness of a woman from the people. The portrait is distinguished by the clarity of the drawing, the severity of the forms, the thoughtful ratio of colors, characteristic of classicism., which is clearly seen in mature creativity Argunov".

In 1788 Argunov was appointed manager of the Moscow House of N.P. Sheremetyev and a member of the serf board, which was in charge of all the economic affairs of the count. After this appointment, the artist no longer had any opportunity to engage in creativity.

"Portrait of an Unknown Woman in Russian Costume" was a very bold act for the old artist, who spent his whole life writing ceremonial custom-made portraits of the highest nobility, but in the end was not afraid to go against fashion high society. After all, the XVIII century is the so-called Gallant century ( Fetes galantes): the rise of absolutism, the power of official favorites and favorites, the cult of pleasure, the development of fine arts, the fashion and entertainment industries. As well as the gallomania that has survived to this day, i.e. recognition for France of absolute priority in the field of arts, fashion, education and personality development. With all this, Louis XIV, known as the Sun King, washed only twice in his life, and then on the advice of doctors. The gallant French of the 18th century, their kings and beautiful awnings were distinguished by a large number dangerous ties, illegitimate children and diseases associated with unsanitary conditions. Maybe that's why the gallant French still cannot understand the mysterious Russian soul. In the 18th century, “barbarian” Russia continued to bathe regularly, give birth to healthy children in a legal marriage, and also catch up and overtake Europe in the field of science and art.

And the artist Ivan Argunov, by virtue of his talent, was able to discover new theme in Russian painting - peasant theme. More precisely, Ivan Argunov, who painted portraits of the highest nobility all his life, depicted his ideal of a woman - pure soul and the body of a peasant woman.

There is a French expression "expensive simplicity", as opposed to "cheap chic". This quiet, costly simplicity illuminates the face of the Unknown in Russian costume in Ivan Argunov's painting.

Portrait of an outdoor hetman.1720s. State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg

In this lovely child portrait the daughter of the chief of the Chancellery from the buildings of Fermor, a little girl, pulled into a corset of a low-cut dress with tansy, looks like an adult young lady. Delicate and fragile, it resembles a porcelain figurine. All the movements of the soul are reflected in the face of the girl - you can feel the sweet shyness of the child and great warmth in him.

The portrait demonstrates the combination of the Russian medieval tradition characteristic of Vishnyakov’s painting (stiffness of the pose, inept writing of hands, convention of a landscape backdrop) with a virtuoso, coming from the “modern time”, the ability to write faces full of quivering feelings and perfectly convey the texture of fabrics.

Portrait of Sarah Eleanor Fermor.1749. State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg

In the portrait of the lady of state Maria Andreevna Rumyantseva (1699–1788), the mother of the future commander P. A. Rumyantsev-Zadunaisky, the significance of her social status: the skirts of the cape are deliberately parted to reveal the diamond badge of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna. Antropov, after own confession, especially liked to paint the faces of older people, in which he was not afraid to emphasize the signs of a lived life, while young faces seemed expressionless to him. As critic A. Efros writes, Antropov “does not dare, and does not want to laugh at this layer of rouge, which is obligatory even on the faces of noble old women, at the heaviness of their dresses and jewelry, he is even convinced that bars should dress up like that, but he does not feel any servile trembling before the nobility, nor the obliging need to flatter wealth.

Portrait of the State Lady M. A. Rumyantseva.1764. State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg

This painting is the first in Russian portrait genre image of a woman of the "vile class". It anticipated literary images sentimentalists who discovered in peasant women the ability to high feelings.

In the image of an unknown young beauty, there is a lot of warmth, kindness and attention of the artist to the model. A simple peasant woman, probably like the artist himself, a serf of the Sheremetevs, poses with stately dignity. This portrait anticipates the performed inner beauty and enlightened peace portraits of serfs by Alexei Venetsianov.

Portrait of an unknown peasant woman in Russian costume. 1784. State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

There is something fragile and unprotected in the image of a young charming landowner. It's hard to imagine her real life. The contours of her face and hair seem to be dissolved in a shimmering background. Big sad eyes look at us from the melting twilight. A secular smile cannot hide their hidden sadness. The pearl pendant on the dress repeats the oval of the pale face, emphasizing her fragile beauty.

N. Zabolotsky's wonderful lines were written about this portrait: “Do you remember how from the darkness of the past, / Barely wrapped in satin, / From the portrait of Rokotov again / Struyskaya looked at us. / Her eyes are like two fogs, / A half-smile, half-cry, / Her eyes are like two deceptions, / Of failures shrouded in mist.

Portrait of A. P. Struiskaya.1772. State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

Prokofy Akinfiyevich Demidov (1710–1786), the eldest son of the Ural mining plant owner A. N. Demidov, in violation of the traditions of a large ceremonial portrait, is presented in a silk dressing gown in the image of a gardener pointing at greenhouse flowers. Demidov was really fond of botany, grew rare plants (tulip bulbs, very expensive for those times, and an open scientific book are on the table). Behind the colonnade in the background one can see the Moscow Orphanage, for the maintenance of which Demidov donated a lot of money.

Portrait of P. A. Demidov.1773. State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

This is one of the most unusual ceremonial portraits of Russian emperors. Probably, his concept was suggested and approved by Paul I himself. We do not see the usual attributes of a representative portrait - a solemn curtain or architectural decorations in the background, the imperial crown and scepter. The solitary figure of the emperor in the uniform of a colonel of the Preobrazhensky regiment is placed in an empty semi-dark space. The cocked hat is pulled over the forehead, the hand with the cane is set aside majestically, right leg pushed forward. Paul I demonstrates importance and majesty, but cheerfulness and open benevolence are read in his snub-nosed face - he seems to be slightly laughing at himself. In the loneliness of the figure, in the deaf, thickening background around it, one can see a moment of historical foresight - tragic loneliness and the death of Paul I.

Portrait of Paul I.1797. State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

Borovikovsky wrote the Empress a year before her death. Catherine II is depicted without regalia - as an ordinary landowner in a cap and a morning bonnet, walking in the park with a thin-legged white dog. Only the obelisk in the background indicates that we are facing a significant person. The obelisk is a monument in honor of the victories of the Russian fleet, installed in the middle of the Big Pond in Tsarskoe Selo, where Catherine II liked to spend the summer months. Contemporaries wrote that old age she retained a beautiful complexion, lively and smart looking eyes, nicely contoured mouth. She dressed for walks really quite simply. There is evidence that her favorite servant, M. S. Perekusikhina, dressed in the dress of the Empress, posed for the artist.

Catherine II for a walk in Tsarskoye Selo Park.1794. State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

In this most famous portrait by Borovikovsky, the feminine ideal of the era of sentimentalism was clearly expressed. The artist is not interested in the character traits of 18-year-old Maria Ivanovna Lopukhina, but in her compliance with this ideal. Dreaminess, languor, melancholy in the eyes are designed to emphasize the refinement of feelings; the landscape background reminds of the ideal "merging" with nature, of naturalness. She seemed to be walking in the park, leaning on the parapet and dreaming ...

A withered rose flower symbolizes the beauty and youth that passes quickly. Borovikovsky reaches the pinnacle of coloristic mastery in this portrait: gentle, softened, as if melting pink-lilac and silvery tones shimmer like precious pearl. Lopukhina came from the ancient count family of Tolstoy, her brother was the famous Fedor Fat American. At the age of 22, Maria Tolstaya married the elderly Jägermeister of the court S. A. Lopukhin. According to legend, in her marriage to him she "was very unhappy" and died of consumption two years later.

Portrait of an unknown peasant woman in Russian costume

1784. State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

This picture is the first image of a woman of the "vile class" in the Russian portrait genre. It anticipated the literary images of the sentimentalists, who discovered in peasant women the capacity for high feelings.

In the image of an unknown young beauty, there is a lot of warmth, kindness and attention of the artist to the model. A simple peasant woman, probably like the artist himself, a serf of the Sheremetevs, poses with stately dignity. This portrait anticipates the portraits of serfs painted by Alexei Venetsianov, full of inner beauty and enlightened peace.