Cultural studies and art history
: Portrait in the work of F. A new stage in the development of portrait art, which is now not limited to capturing the individual features of a person but penetrates into his inner world, was marked by the work of F. Rokotov's amazing talent quickly brought him fame and recognition at court, but the best works belong to the Moscow period of his life where the artist's talent for intimate chamber portraits flourished. The chamber intimate portrait created by Rokotov constitutes an entire era in Russian portraiture.
Answer to question No. 49 “Russian art of the 18th century: Portrait in the work of F.S. Rokotova, D.G. Levitsky, V.L. Borovikovsky.
A new stage in the development of portrait art, which is now not limited to capturing the individual features of a person, but penetrates into his inner world, was marked by the work of F. S. Rokotov. Rokotov's amazing talent quickly brought him fame and recognition at court, but the best works date back to the Moscow period of his life, where the artist's talent for intimate, intimate portraits flourished.The type of portrait created by Rokotov chamber intimate portrait constitutes an entire era in Russian portraiture. He possessed a rare gift that allows him to masterfully convey the inner world of a person, his trepidation and warmth. His models seem to emerge from the shimmering twilight, the facial features are slightly blurred, as if shrouded in haze. The canvases of the master are characterized by a richness of shades of tone, exquisite color combinations. Soft, muted tones create an atmosphere of intimacy: there is nothing ostentatious or spectacular in his portraits. The artist is attracted by the inner beauty of a person. Examples of works: "Portrait of Maykov" - a grassy-green caftan of the poet with red lapels and gold embroidery, lace frill painted somewhat carelessly. The artist focused on the face: it is a little mocking, a little puffy (edematous), narrowed eyes. All this speaks of a person who loves to live for his own pleasure. Rokotov reaches his true heights of skill in a number of female portraits. “Portrait of A.P. Struyskaya” (1772) Rokotov showed the loftiness of the image of a young woman. Her figure in the portrait seems unusually light and airy. This work is called "Russian Mona Lisa". “Portrait of Countess Santi” an amazing work of the 18th century. by the subtlety of the transfer of the image, by the colors, by the charming combinations of olive and pink tones. A bouquet of modest wild flowers on the chest of this lady brings a special sophistication. Rokotov's portraits are history in faces.
Less subjectively portrait D. G. Levitsky. His painting is more material and solid, the coloring is more intense, he knows how and loves to extract decorative effects, changing the nature of the arrangement of saturated color spots on the canvas. Therefore, Levitsky willingly painted ceremonial portraits that were not inferior to the best Western European examples in terms of representativeness, the ability to use accessories, background, pose, gesture, and picturesque brilliance. In his paintings, one can feel the weight of velvet, the rustling of a mass of silk, the cold sheen of metal, the prickly roughness of gold embroidery, the transparency and play of precious stones. However, all this pictorial luxury does not prevent the artist from demonstrating the vigilance of a psychologist in his best ceremonial portraits. Actively worked on chamber portraits. Levitsky to create extremely convincing and exhaustive portrait characteristics of the people of his time. A classic example of style classicism in the portrait genre is the famous “Portrait of Catherine II the Legislator in the Temple of the Goddess of Justice”. In the portrait description of Catherine the Great, what is so valued in classicism generally significant, official and high, obscuring the personal and emotional side of the soul. Among their best works are portraits of "Smolyanka", pupils of the Smolny Institute. The series, painted by Levitsky, consists of seven large portraits in life size. Institute girls are depicted in full growth against the background of a conditional decorative landscape or lush curtains falling in heavy wide folds. With this technique, the artist emphasizes that the subject of the image here is not real life, but the theater. In the composition of all portraits, a somewhat lowered horizon is deliberately chosen - the artist shows his heroines from the same point from which the viewer from the stalls looks at the stage. The originality of the idea lies, first of all, in the fact that before us are not portraits in the usual sense of the word, but portraits-pictures in which this or that action is revealed. The heroines of Levitsky dance, play the harp, perform theatrical roles. All portraits vary, in essence, the same theme of blooming, cheerful youth; in all portraits, the bright, optimistic sense of life of the artist, marked by genuine humanism, is affirmed with equal force. The enormous gift of the painter-decorator, characteristic of Levitsky, manifested itself in that amazing accuracy, almost material tangibility, with which the fabrics of clothes, the transparency of lace, the brilliance of satin, the shimmer of golden threads woven into matte velvet are conveyed in Smolyanki. Levitsky's drawing is distinguished by impeccable fidelity and sharp expressiveness.
V.L. Borovikovsky - from his teachers, he adopted a brilliant technique, ease of writing, compositional skill and the ability to flatter the person being portrayed. By 1790 he had become one of the most famous portrait painters.
He was conscientious and industrious, and did everything perfectly: the numerous copies that he was ordered more than once, and even those portraits in which he was required to follow some fashionable model. He excelled in the formal portrait (many of his works in this genre were revered as models), and in the intimate, and in the miniature. He created a portrait of Paul I, as well as ceremonial portraits - an amazingly beautiful and exotic portrait of Murtaza Kuli-khan, a magnificent portrait of A.B. Kurakin, a portrait of Derzhavin. Most clearly, his talent was revealed in a series of female portraits, executed in the same years. They are not as spectacular as men's, small in size, sometimes similar in compositional solution, but they are distinguished by exceptional subtlety in the transfer of characters, elusive movements of mental life and are united by a gentle poetic feeling. For beautiful female images, Borovikovsky in the style of sentimentalism created a certain style of portrait: a half-length image, a figure immersed in thought, leaning on a support with his hand, and a quiet landscape serves as a background for the languid curve of the body in light, light clothes.Portrait of M. I. Lopukhina - this portrait is intended to reveal not the social significance and social status of the person being portrayed, but the deeply intimate sides of his character. An example empire portrait can serve as the work “Portrait of M.I. Dolgoruky" - in this work the ideal of a woman of the era of the Patriotic War of 1812 is clearly expressed. Animation, the rise of feelings, the awakening of national self-consciousness were fertile ground, ready to grow the seeds of sublimely heroic ideas. In the image of Dolgoruky there is no languid bliss, relaxation and thoughtfulness of young ladies of the 1790s. On the contrary, the depth of feelings depicted is harmoniously combined with external restraint in their manifestation. Feelings M.I. Dolgorukaya are subject to will, hidden sadness is hidden by a gentle smile. The strict simplicity that distinguishes the appearance of the princess was expressed in the restrained grace of movements, in the simplicity of the costume, which perfectly reveals the harmony of her figure, in the nature of the jewelry (pearl jewelry on her head and in a long string of pearls on her neck). A fairly detailed development of the face is combined here with the generalization of the ideally beautiful forms of her figure, neck, hands.
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F.S. Rokotov(1732 or 1735 / 6-1808) - an outstanding portrait painter of the 18th century. Early 60s. - Studying at the Academy of Fine Arts. 1765 - assignment of the title of academician. The innovative nature of Rokotov's work (portraits of Grand Duke Pavel Petrovich in childhood and youth, A.G. Bobrinsky in childhood, the poet V.I. Maikov, etc.). The Moscow period (portraits of the Struisky couple, "Unknown in a cocked hat", A.I. Vorontsov, "Unknown in a pink dress", etc.). Poetic spirituality in the portraits of Rokotov in the 80s. (portraits by V.E. Novosiltseva, P.N. Lanskoy, E.V. Santi and others).
Features of Rococo and Classicism in his work.
Great master of Russian portraiture D.G. Levitsky(1735-1822) - the creator of images of representatives of different strata of Russian society in the 70-80s of the XVIII century. Leadership of the portrait class of the Academy of Arts (1771-1787).
Portraits of the 60s. The most famous portrait of that time is the portrait of A.F. Kokorinov.
"Smolyanki" - the famous suite of seven portraits (F.S. Rzhevskaya and N.M. Davydova, E.I. Nelidova, E.N. Khrushcheva and E.N. Khovanskaya, A.P. Levshina, N.S. Borshcheva, E. I. Molchanova, G. I. Alymova, 1770s).
Portraits of progressive people of the XVIII century - Denis Diderot, P.A. Demidova, N.A. Lvov.
Female portraits of the 80s - Princess P.N. Repnina, E.A. Vorontsova, N.Ya. Levitskaya, A.D. Levitskaya.
Male portraits of the 80s - M.F. Poltoratsky, A.V. Khrapovnitsky, A.D. Lansky.
Creation of ceremonial portraits of the Empress. "Portrait of Catherine II - legislator in the temple of the goddess of justice." The program of this portrait.
Portraits of the 90s - V.I. Mitrofanova and M.A. Mitrofanova; I.I. Gaufa.
Features of classicism in the work of Levitsky.
The most prominent representative of a new stage in the development of portraiture V.L. Borovikovsky (1757-1825).
Early works of the master (portraits of o.F. Filippova, Catherine II).
Lyricism of women's portraits. Portrait of M.I. Lopukhina. The role of accessories in revealing the personality image of a male portrait (portraits of G.R. Derzhavin, D.P. Troshchinsky, F.A. Borovsky).
Work on ceremonial portraits - Paul I, Prince A.B. Kurakin, prince of the Persian Qajar dynasty Murtaza Kuli Khan.
Transfer of friendship and strength of family relations in group portraits. Portraits of Lizynka and Dashenka, sisters of A.G. and I.G. Gagarins.
Features of classicism and sentimentalism in the work of Borovikovsky.
Participation of Borovikovsky at the beginning of the 19th century in the work on the iconostasis of the Kazan Cathedral.
Other Russian portrait painters of the second half of the 18th century. P.S. Drozhdin(1745 (?) - 1805). Portrait of the artist A.P. Antropova with her son in front of a portrait of his wife. Portrait of Empress Maria Feodorovna.
L.S. Miropolsky(1744/5-1819). Presumably, he is a student of D.G. Levitsky. Portrait of adjunct rector of the Academy of Arts G.I. Kozlov.
S.S. Schukin(1762-1828) - portrait painter. From 1788 he taught at the portrait painting class of the Academy of Arts. The significance of the portraits of Paul I by Shchukin for revealing the personality of the Russian emperor.
V.Ya. Rodchev(1768-1803). Historical painter and portrait painter. He taught drawing in the class of historical painting. Careful study of the image of the person being portrayed.
S. Pogodin. Portrait of the engraver and miniaturist G.I. Skorodumova.
M.I. Belsky(1753 (?) - 1794 (?)). Portrait of the teacher of history and geography Baudouin with two pupils of the Academy of Arts of the first and third age.
N.I. Argunov(1771 - not earlier than 1829). Portrait painter, miniaturist, decorator. Serf Count N.P. Sheremetev. He painted portraits of serf theater artists, ceremonial portraits of Paul I, N.P. Sheremetev and his wife, former serf actress P.I. Kovaleva-Zhemchugova.
Foreign portrait painters. I.-B. Lumpy Senior(1751-1830) - Austrian painter. Portraits of Empress Catherine II and her favorites.
W. Eriksen(1722-1782) Danish painter. Portraits of Empress Catherine II. "A hundred-year-old woman in Tsarskoye Selo with her family."
J.-L. Veil(1744 - not earlier than 1806) - French painter. Portraits of members of the imperial family (Grand Duke Pavel Petrovich, Grand Duke Alexander Pavlovich, Empress Maria Feodorovna). Portrait of I.P. Yelagin.
A. Roslin(1718-1793) Swedish painter. He painted portraits of members of the imperial family and the highest nobility.
Domestic genre in Russian painting
Second half of the 18th century
Interest in the human personality, in the life of different segments of the population of Russia.
Russian painters I. Firsov(c. 1730 - not earlier than 1785). "Young Painter" Influence on this work of the French school of painting. M. Shibanov(? - not earlier than 1789). "Peasant Lunch", "Conspiracy".
foreign painters turned to the genre of everyday life. AND I. Mettenleiter(1750-1825) German painter. "Country Dinner", "Peasants and the Pie Dealer".
Landscape in Russian fine art
Second half of the 18th century
Landscape in Russian painting of the second half of the 18th century.
S.F. Shchedrin(1745-1804) - the founder of Russian landscape painting. From 1776 he was the head of the landscape painting class, from 1799 he was the head of the engraving landscape class of the Academy of Arts.
Artist's works: “Noon. (View in the vicinity of Lake Nemi)”, “Landscape with a cow”, “View in the estate of P.G. Demidov Sivoritsy near Petersburg" and others.
F.Ya. Alekseev(1753/4-1824) - one of the founders of the Russian urban landscape. Studying at the Russian Academy of Arts, at the Venetian Academy of Arts. From 1803 he taught at the Academy of Arts in the class of perspective painting.
Italian views in the artist's work. “Internal view of the courtyard with a garden. Loggia in Venice. Copies of works by A. Kanal and B. Belotto.
Russian views in the artist's work. Petersburg: "View of the Palace Embankment from the Peter and Paul Fortress", "View of the Mikhailovsky Castle in St. Petersburg from the Fontanka", "View of the Mikhailovsky Castle and Connetable Square". Moscow: "Red Square", "View of the Moscow Kremlin and the Stone Bridge".
Oriental views in the artist's work. View of the city of Bakhchisarai.
MM. Ivanov(1748-1823) - landscape painter and battle painter. From 1800 he led a class of battle painting, from 1804 a class of landscape painting.
Reporting retirement work. Paired paintings "Milking a cow" and "The shepherd and the shepherdess returning from the flock."
Service in the staff of the governor of the southern provinces of Russia, Prince G.IA. Potemkin. Paintings created by the artist during a trip to Ukraine, Crimea, Georgia, Armenia. "View of Etchmiadzin in Armenia", etc.
The role of landscape painting in the battle works of the master - "Storm of Izmail", "Storm of Ochakov".
F.M. Matveev(1758-1826). Heroic landscape in the style of classicism in the works of Matveev. "View of the city of Tivoli near Rome", "Landscape with figures in antique clothes".
Sculpture of the second half of the 18th century.
Creativity F.I. Shubin
The rise of the national school of sculpture.
The Role of Ancient Heritage in the Works of Russian Sculptors of the Second Half of the 18th Century. Themes and artistic language characteristic of classicism.
M.I. Kozlovsky(1753-1802). Contemporaries in the form of ancient gods. Statue of Catherine II in the image of Minerva, Catherine II in the image of Themis. A.V. Suvorov in the form of Hercules ("Hercules on horseback") and Mars (monument to A.V. Suvorov). Mythological, literary and historical heroes of antiquity in the works of sculpture: "Apollo", "Sleeping Cupid", "Cupid with an arrow", "Hymeneus" "Narcissus" ("Boy drinking water"); terracotta based on the Iliad; "Vigil of Alexander the Great".
F.F. Shchedrin(1751-1825). Marsyas, Sleeping Endymion, Judgment of Paris, Venus, Diana.
F.G. Gordeev(1744-1810). "Prometheus".
monumental sculpture. Civic ideas and high figurativeness of sculptural monuments of the second half of the 18th century.
EM. Falcone. Monument to Peter I. (Help of the sculptor's student - M.-A. Kallo in the solution of the portrait of the emperor). M.I. Kozlovsky. Monument to A.V. Suvorov.
The second half of the 18th century is the heyday of the main genres of sculpture.
memorial sculpture. Artistic tombstone and memorial theme in Russian art. I.P. Martos(1754-1835). Evolution from the "loquacity" of early tombstones to the simplicity and conciseness of the artistic language of classicism. Tombstone of a statesman, diplomat Count N.I. Panin, tombstone of Princess E.S. Kurakina, tombstone of Princess E.I. Gagarina. Using the experience gained during their creation in the monument to citizen Minin and Prince Pozharsky.
decorative sculpture. Decorative sculpture of Peterhof. F.G. Gordeev. Bas-reliefs of the Grand Peterhof Palace and sculptures for cascades. F.F. Shchedrin. Participation in the creation of the sculptural complex of Peterhof fountains ("Neva"). I.P. Prokofiev (1758-1828). His works for Peterhof fountains are "Shepherd Akid", "Volkhov", "Tritons".
Portrait. Creativity of the sculptor-portraitist F.I. Shubin(1740-1805). Studying at the Academy of Arts and retirement (a relief portrait of I. I. Shuvalov and a bust of F. N. Golitsyn). A cycle of historical portraits - fifty-eight oval marble reliefs for the Chesme Palace.
Portraiture from nature is the main line of the sculptor's work. Busts - Vice-Chancellor Prince A.M. Golitsyn, General-in-Chief of His Serene Highness Prince G.G. Orlov, Field Marshal Count P.A. Rumyantsev-Zadunaisky, Minister of Public Education P.V. Zavadovsky, Field Marshal B.P. Sheremetev, Field Marshal His Serene Highness Prince G.A. Potemkin-Tavrichesky, Field Marshal Prince N.V. Repnin, General of Infantry P.A. Zubov, Admiral V.Ya. Chichagov, Secretary of State and Chief Chamberlain Count A.A. Bezborodko.
Memory work. Portrait of a great countryman - M.V. Lomonosov.
Portraits and statues of Russian emperors. Numerous portraits of Catherine II. Statue "Catherine II - Legislator". The proximity of this work to the picturesque portrait of Levitsky and the program created for this work by the architect Lvov. Uncompromising portraits of Paul I.
In the 60s. 18th century classicism firmly established in the fine arts of Russia. Antique subjects are widely used in all genres of painting.
The leading genre of Russian fine art in the second half of the 18th century was history painting. According to the ideas of that time, only the historical genre was able to capture the heroic images of the past, the great events of world and Russian history. Often, artists of this genre also turned to biblical and mythological subjects.
The most significant historical paintings were created in the second half of the 18th century. graduate of the Academy of Arts Anton Pavlovich Losenko (1737-1779). A peasant son, born in the Ukrainian town of Glukhov, thanks to his singing talent, in 1744 began to sing in the court choir in St. Petersburg. At the same time, he showed the ability to draw, which allowed him in 1753 to enter the training of the artist I.P. Argunov. In 1758 Losenko was admitted to the Academy of Arts. After graduating in 1760, he improved his painting skills in Rome and Paris. In 1772-1773. Losenko was the director of the Academy of Arts. His pedagogical activity was very fruitful: major artists of historical painting came out of his school. Along with works on ancient subjects (“Farewell of Hector to Andromache”), Losenko created the first Russian historical painting on a national theme - “Vladimir and Rogneda”. Within the framework of a conditionally academic system of images, the artist makes an attempt to convey a complex ethical conflict, living human feelings.
Among the outstanding masters of the historical genre were Ivan Akimovich Akimov (1754-1814)(“Grand Duke Izyaslav Mstislavovich, almost cut down by soldiers who did not recognize him in battle, opens up to them”, “Grand Duke Svyatoslav, kissing his mother and children upon his return from the Danube to Kyiv”, etc.) and Grigory Ivanovich Ugryumov (1764-1823)(“The solemn entry into Pskov of Alexander Nevsky after his victory over the German knights”, “The capture of Kazan”, “The election of Mikhail Fedorovich to the kingdom”, etc.).
Famous historical painters of the late XVIII century. there were also P. I. Sokolov (1753-1791) and M. I. Puchinov (1716-1797).
In the second half of the XVIII century. significant progress has been made in portrait genre. At the same time, the portrait skill of the painters was distinguished by a wide range. They created both solemn ceremonial and chamber and intimate portraits. In the middle of the 18th century, foreign masters worked in Russia: P. Rotary, G. Kh. Grost, A. Roslin, I.-B. Lampi, P. G. Gonzag and others. At the same time, Russian artists achieved fame: I. Ya. Vishnyakov, 1699-1761. (Portraits of Sarah Fermor, ruler of Anna Leopoldovna); A. P. Antropov, 1716 - 1795. (Portraits of Peter III, ladies of state A. M. Izmailova); serf artist I. P. Argunov, 1729-1802.(Portraits of B.P. Sheremetev, P. Zhemchugova).
Outstanding portrait masters were Fedor Stepanovich Rokotov (1735-1808), Dmitry Grigorievich Levitsky (1735-1822) and Vladimir Lukich Borovikovsky (1757-1825). They created a gallery of various expressive images of contemporaries - people of different rank, significance, lifestyle, age. These painters, being court artists, created portraits of Peter III, Catherine II, her nobles and favorites, famous statesmen of the era.
Talented portrait painters were close to the circles of the enlightened Russian intelligentsia, in particular, to N. I. Novikov and N. A. Lvov. It is not surprising that they created not only pompous ceremonial custom-made portraits of nobles, but also chamber portraits of educated and talented figures of Russian culture: N. I. Novikov, N. A. Lvov, G. R. Derzhavin, V. I. Maikov and others Their portraits reflect self-esteem, simplicity, cordiality of human relations.
The harmony of talent and female beauty, which attracted artists, manifested itself in the female portraits they created, which are distinguished by a subtle penetration into the inner appearance of a person, the beauty of color, and decorativeness. (Portraits of A. P. Struyskaya, V. E. Novosiltseva Rokotov; portraits of M. I. Lopukhina, the Gagarin sisters of Borovikovsky; portraits of pupils of the Smolny Institute of Noble Maidens Levitsky).
In the middle of the 18th century, a new genre for Russian fine art appeared - landscape painting. A landscape class was created at the Academy of Arts, from where the most talented masters of this genre came from. M. I. Makhaev (1718-1770), who made landscape sketches of the streets or individual buildings of St. Petersburg, F. M. Matveev (1758-1836), S. F. Shchedrin (1745-1804) should be attributed to the number of landscape painters.
A major Russian landscape painter was Fedor Yakovlevich Alekseev (1753-1824). The son of a watchman of the Academy of Sciences, from 1764 to 1773 he was brought up at the Academy of Arts. After graduating with honors, he was sent abroad to Venice. Upon his return in 1779. Petersburg, the artist was appointed as a decorator at the imperial theater directorate. Academician Alekseev was known as the author of "views" of St. Petersburg, Moscow and the cities of southern Russia.
In the second half of the XVIII century. in Russian painting, the genre of everyday life began to develop. However, genre painting was considered by the leadership of the Academy of Arts and the privileged strata of society as something vile, unworthy of the artist's brush. Despite this, after the peasant war led by E. Pugachev, both in literature, theater and music, and in painting of the 1770-1780s. began to show interest in the peasantry, its way of life, way of life. Often these were sentimental images of idyllic shepherds and shepherdesses who had nothing to do with real peasant life. However, there were exceptions.
Mikhail Shibanov, serf Prince G. A. Potemkin, was one of the first in Russian painting to develop the peasant theme. He painted the pictures “Peasant Dinner”, “Feast of the Wedding Pact”, etc. In Shibanov’s paintings there is no denunciation of serfdom, however, in these canvases there is no idealization of peasant life. The artist is distinguished by knowledge and understanding of the life and character of the Russian peasant.
The peasant theme was reflected in the work of the artist I. M. Tankov (1739 - 1799), the author of the painting “Feast in the Village” and I. A. Ermenev (1746? - after 1792.), who painted the watercolors “Peasant Lunch”, “Begging Singers " and etc.). For the first time in the history of Russian art, the artist conveyed the gloomy side of folk life, the squalor of poverty.
The 18th century was significant for Russia with noticeable changes and significant achievements in the field of art. Its genre structure, content, character, means of artistic expression have changed. And in architecture, and in sculpture, and in painting, and in graphics, Russian art entered the pan-European path of development. Back in the bowels of the 17th century, in the time of Peter the Great, the process of “secularization” of Russian culture took place. In the formation and development of a secular culture of a pan-European type, it was impossible to rely on the old artistic ways of expression, for which the new tasks were not up to the task. The foreign masters invited to the Russian service not only helped to create new art, but also were teachers of the Russian people. Another no less important way of obtaining professional training was sending Russian masters to study in Western Europe. So many Russian masters received high training in France, Holland, Italy, England, Germany. I think that it was at this stage that Russian art came into closer contact with the stylistic trends developed in the Western European art of modern times, through which he also had to go his way. However, at first, the process of restructuring the artistic consciousness of Russian masters proceeded with great difficulties; traditional ideas, the laws of medieval creativity in the form of monumental and decorative murals and icon painting still affected the method of their work.
In the second half of the 17th century, along with other forms of art in Russia, painting was undergoing major changes. To a certain extent, they prepare those fundamental reforms that take place in it at the beginning of the 18th century. Entering the position of the art of the new time (with a significant delay in comparison with other artistically advanced European countries), Russian painting in its own way reflects the general laws of this stage of development. Secular art comes to the fore. Initially, secular painting was established in St. Petersburg and Moscow, but already from the second half of the 18th century it was widely spread in other cities and estates. The traditional offshoot of painting - icon painting is still widely used in all sectors of society. Russian painting developed throughout the 18th century in close contact with the art of Western European schools, joining the public domain - works of art of the Renaissance and Baroque, and also widely using the experience of neighboring states. At the same time. As researchers have long established, art in general and painting in particular, throughout the 18th century, are connected by a single focus and have a pronounced national character. During this period, the greatest masters of their craft worked in Russia - representatives of the domestic art school and foreign painters.
1. Portrait of the first half of the XVIII century
In the early works, created at the turn of the century, elements of medieval portraiture are still preserved - parsunas, with their characteristic transfer of the social position of the model, static postures, flatness of the interpretation of forms, and interest in ornament. The parsuna played an important role - it was the transmitter of the main features of the new portrait method, which in Russian conditions was transformed in its own way. Portraits belonging to this line are distinguished by their large size, compositional schemes borrowed from the ceremonial canvases of Western Europe of the 17th century, impressiveness and imposingness, strict social marking and “important silence”.
The models depicted in such portraits embody an almost iconic indifferent anticipation. Painting in them combines voluminous and concrete personal writing with planar "dolicities" - as it was in the parsun. Parsuna brought Russian painting onto the road of easel art - it gave it not only similarities, but also picturesqueness, gave it a place in the emerging secular interior. But by the end of the 1710s. portraits in this style ceased to satisfy customers because of their heaviness, tongue-tiedness and archaism, which became apparent after Peter's first foreign trips. Customers have a new landmark - the art of the West (primarily France): paintings are bought abroad, foreign artists are invited to Russia, and Russians - to study.
The main line (Nikitin and Matveev) of the development of the portrait is steadily moving forward, and the parsuna is losing its attractiveness in the eyes of high-ranking customers. Nevertheless, the farther from Petersburg, the more clearly the features of the parsuna will manifest themselves in the provinces - throughout the entire 18th century, and even the first half of the 19th century. The peculiarity of this line of the portrait is its involvement in icon painting, which itself during this period, losing medieval spirituality, becomes compromise, bright and elegant. It will affect some artists close to the Chancellery from buildings.
1. The line lying aside from foreign pensioners is supplemented by artists who independently made their way from icon painting to portraiture, serf masters of home training and art lovers - amateur nobles.
2. Rossica is represented by foreign artists who worked in Russia during the entire 18th century. This line is heterogeneous in terms of national composition and quality level. It is closer to the mainstream of the Russian portrait, its task is to exhibit the local model in a pan-European way. Thanks to Russian art, Russian art is brought into contact with the art of neighboring countries - at the level of typology, style and the formation of general criteria for artistic quality.
3. The native school itself (Ivan Nikitin, Alexei Matveev, Ivan Vishnyakov, Alexei Antropov, Ivan Argunov). Their works are distinguished by skill and accuracy in the transfer of appearance, although they have not reached full perfection. (From the next generation, Rokotov, Levitsky, Borovikovsky belonged to it). This main line is distinguished by continuity. At the same time, it had internal unity - at first it was aimed at mastering the basic artistic principles of the New Age, then, having caught up with them, it began to develop in accordance with pan-European stylistic trends (baroque, rococo, classicism, sentimentalism, pre-romanticism).
Gradually, the portrait began to recreate the inner content of a person more and more deeply. In the first quarter of the 18th century, portraits appeared that faithfully captured the images of many prominent contemporaries. The largest artists of the first half of the 18th century were I.N. Nikitin and A.M. Matveev. They overcame iconographic influences faster than others and created truly artistic works of art of the new time.
Already the early portraits of Ivan Nikitich Nikitin were distinguished by great skill. Peter the Great was very proud of Nikitin and the artist repeatedly painted portraits of the emperor himself. The skill of the artist was clearly manifested in the portrait of Peter on his deathbed. This unfinished work bears traces of quick, bold writing, and is done in a sketchy manner by the confident hand of an experienced artist.
The most significant not only in the work of Nikitin himself, but of Noi in general in Russian portraiture of the first half of the 18th century, is the so-called “Portrait of the Floor Hetman”. The artist depicted an elderly man, as if tired from long labors. This is one of the few portraits in which a person does not pose, is not presented to the viewer in the "most pleasant light", but is full of deep inner life. The artist succeeded superbly in the coloristic solution of the canvas.
The portrait art of Nikitin is the pinnacle in the history of the development of Russian painting in the first half of the 18th century. None of his contemporary artists managed to achieve such a deep insight into the essence of human psychology, such artistry and professional skill.
Andrey Matveev was the first of the Russian masters to receive a full-fledged Western European art education. The young artist returned to Russia after the death of his royal patrons - Peter I and Catherine I. In August 1727 he arrived in St. Petersburg and was examined by Louis Caravaque, who noted that Matveev writes well "personality" and has more "strength in colors, than in the picture. Matveev was enrolled in the staff of the Chancellery from the buildings. In 1731, he received the title of master and headed the pictorial team of the Chancellery, the main state institution in charge of architectural and pictorial work in the country.
It is known from the documents that Matveev painted battle paintings for the Summer House, paintings for Peterhof, decorated the Anichkov and Admiralty Triumphal Gates, and even a signed sketch depicting "The Wedding to the Kingdom" (1732) was found for the first. The artist also participated in the painting of the Peter and Paul Cathedral, the royal residences in St. Petersburg, until the end of his days he painted icons for the church of Saints Simeon and Anna. Unfortunately, many of Matveev's works are known only from references, while others are not always indisputable in terms of authorship. The most interesting of the remaining legacy of Andrei Matveev is his portraits. Very few of them have survived to our times, among them: "Allegory of Painting" (1725), "Self-Portrait with his Wife" (1729), "Paired Portraits of the Princes Golitsins" (1728).
Of course, at the beginning of the 18th century, a number of other talented masters worked in the field of portraiture. The variety of forms of the portrait genre was manifested in the works of miniaturists - G.S. Musikiy and A.G. Ovsov, who created a series of portraits of Peter I and his inner circle. They became the first major masters whose miniatures have survived to this day. Both artists worked first in the Armory, and then moved to the new capital - St. Petersburg. Since they carried out, first of all, the orders of Peter I, it is natural that royal portraits predominate in their heritage. One of the works of G. Musikiy is a portrait of Peter I against the backdrop of St. Petersburg. Of no less interest is his earlier work of 1717 - a portrait of the royal family, which depicts Catherine, and figures of standing children: Elizabeth, Anna, Tsarevich Alexei and little Pyotr Petrovich. The compositional solution of the miniature suggests that the artist was well acquainted with the European ceremonial portrait - most likely through engravings. But for the European miniature, such group portraits were an innovation. And the merit of the master is that he first introduced this genre into Russian art. Musikisky in his first works is not yet very strong in drawing - the disproportion of the figures is noticeable, some stiffness and stiffness of the poses. Attention is attracted, first of all, by the color - the coloristic solution of the miniature is surprisingly festive, elegant. If we recall the famous products of the 17th century Usolsk masters, we involuntarily note the similarity of their color scheme with the works of Musikiysky. Apparently, the artist in the Armory saw the products of Usolsk craftsmen, which was reflected in his portrait miniatures.
Starting from the time of Petrovsky, the portrait in Russian art came out on top in terms of prevalence and quality. The portrait "actually took on the main burden of mastering the artistic principles of the New Age." In the works of this particular genre, previously unknown creative moves are tested - compositional schemes, coloristic techniques, style settings. Simultaneously with the portrait, other genres necessary for the absolutist state also developed - historical and allegorical compositions, thanks to which Russian culture entered the world of a previously unfamiliar system of personifications.
Introduction to the laws of easel painting in post-Petrine Russia was difficult. The artists needed not only to master a new understanding of the content, but also to learn how to competently build the picture plane, the art of perspective and anatomically correct rendering of the human body, as well as the basics of oil painting techniques and the laws of color.
A specific feature of the typology of the Russian portrait of the 18th century is the absence or extreme rarity of a group (including family) portrait, which in the same era was very indicative of England and France of the same time; as well as the lack of "interview scenes". Up to the 2nd floor. XVIII century there was no sculptural portrait.
2. Features of the Russian portrait of the middle of the XVIII century
From the middle of the 17th to the middle of the 18th century, the portrait was mainly the property of court circles - whether it was a royal memorial “parsuna”, a ceremonial imperial portrait or images of people who were somehow close to the supreme power. Only from the middle of the 18th century did the portrait “lower” among the masses of the ordinary local nobility, under the influence of the Enlightenment, the still rarest images of peasants and merchants appeared, and portraits of cultural figures were created. In the 1730s-1740s, the nobility was strengthened, which was further facilitated by the Reform on the Liberty of the Nobility. The portrait has become an indispensable means of both self-affirmation and aestheticization of life. By the 1760s, portrait art was already widely mastered not only at the imperial court, but also in remote landowner estates. In the 1760s-1780s, many features of the Russian portrait of the 18th century were finally determined. The period of formation, transition from the old forms of culture, apprenticeship with the West was completed.
The late Elizabethan reign (late 1750s - early 1760s) was characterized by the ideal of beauty associated with the personality of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna. This is a wide cheerful acceptance of reality, a sense of festivity, a triumph of nature. Often this ideal appears in the rounded corpulence of heavily rouged faces. Nevertheless, for many masters, this joy of being and physical contentment are complemented by a restrained attitude towards the depiction of a person, which goes back to the forms and traditions of the icon and parsuna. Vital energy, which is seen in powerful forms and bright colors, is restrained by "the frozen chiselling of detached faces and clear outlines of forms." A certain stiffness of the pose comes from the parsuna in such early portraits, and the color of the object is sometimes so saturated that a symbolic color characteristic of the medieval artistic system peeps behind it. “Dualities” (that which is below the face) are interpreted flatly, the canvas is created handicraft conscientiously, as a kind of thing, when interpreting the image of a person, traces of symbolic thinking remain - all this is a relic of the transition from the Middle Ages to the New Age. By the 1750s, in the Russian portrait, intimacy in the interpretation of the image was noticeably enhanced. For example, Anton Losenko cultivates the easel genre, and therefore decorativeness decreases in his portraits, the role of gesture increases, plot associativity arises, and the search for chamber space takes place.
The middle of the century - the time of the rise and revival of national traditions - in the field of painting is represented by the names of I.Ya. Vishnyakova, A.P. Antropova, I.P. Argunov. Ease and freedom in the construction of the composition, in the movement of the brush and the stroke of the Petrine pensioners, is replaced by the masters of the middle of the century by more traditional writing, deliberateness in the posing of the model.
The outstanding skill and talent of Ivan Yakovlevich Vishnyakov can be judged by the portraits of K. and N. Tishin and especially Sarah Fremor. Depicting a girl in the dress of a court lady, the artist, at the same time, captured a lively and real image of a teenager - awkwardness and stiffness of movements, some tension in the pose, angularity. Despite the static nature of the model, the conventionality in the interpretation of the figure, gesture, ornament, the portrait of Sarah Fremor captivates with its poetry. This, in my opinion, is one of the best paintings of the mid-century.
In the middle of the 18th century, Aleksey Petrovich Antropov was a major master of a picturesque portrait, combining a variety of artistic techniques. Portrait of a lady of state A.M. Izmailova (1759) is interesting for the expressive characterization of the model. It is distinguished by the national and historical typicality of the image, pictorial and plastic integrity. The portrait is simple in composition. It is built on a combination of sonorous and blue tones.
I.I. Argunov (1729-1802) - a serf of the Sheremetevs - a representative of a very talented family of architects and artists. He created numerous portraits of the Sheremetevs and people of their circle. Usually they did not pose for him, and Argunov, as he himself said, painted them, observing during solemn holidays in the palace. The best works of the artist include paired portraits of K.A. Khripunov, "foreign college of translator", and his wife (1757) - people of humble origin. Argunov depicts his models in close-up: they seem to be next to the viewer.
But the career of A.P. Antropova as a portrait painter developed under the direct influence of the political events that took place in Russia. Changes of reigns tangibly affected his work. On December 25, 1761, after the death of Elizabeth Petrovna, Peter III, her nephew and legal successor, ascended the Russian throne.
The Holy Synod, to decorate its front hall, orders A.P. Antropov a portrait of the new ruler of Russia. Such work was the responsibility of the artist, who was attached to the synodal department. For the first time, Antropov had the opportunity to show his painting skills by creating a full-length ceremonial imperial portrait. This gave him hope that when the royal environment changed, he would be able to gain access to the palace and, if he was lucky, achieve the title of court painter.
In February 1762, A.P. Antropov executed a small sketch, which is now in the Tretyakov Gallery. In the sketch, where the colors are beautifully and subtly chosen, Peter III is depicted in a conditional interior, which does not look like a reception hall for solemn audiences, but rather like private quarters. The figure of the new emperor is placed in a kind of picturesque frame: on the one hand, it is framed by a spiral column with garlands of leaves, and on the other, by a doorway with a drapery matched above it. On the left, on the pinkish wall, the artist places a portrait of Peter I in a carved frame - this detail was supposed to testify to the successive legitimacy of power from grandfather to grandson and veiledly indicate the program of the reign that had begun, because Peter III declared in his first manifesto that he would “follow the footsteps in everything wise sovereign, our grandfather Peter the Great.
We do not know what relationship the artist and the sovereign had; we do not know if Peter III posed for Antropov. One can guess, however, that the emperor did not like the sketch, who claimed the role of a great ruler and commander. And the painter departs from the original plan. The final portrait of Peter III is a ceremonial canvas that met all the canons of this genre. The attributes of majesty and royalty obligatory for the imperial portrait are introduced: on the table - a crown, a scepter, orb; on the chair is an ermine mantle. Peter III appears in an energetic pose, with his leg extended forward; with one hand he leans on the marshal's baton, and put the other on his belt. Due to the distorted perspective, the floor is given in a slightly unnatural perspective, and the figure of the king rises above the viewer. The space is expanded: a battle scene appeared in the window opening - a hint, required by the picturesque canon, of the outstanding military leadership abilities of Peter III, which, however, he did not possess. The artist obviously wanted to achieve a sublime and at the same time pompous effect.
In 1762, at the request of the former member of the Synod, Archimandrite of the Trinity-Sergius Monastery, Lavrenty Khotsyatovsky A.P. Antropov writes a reduced and truncated version of the same portrait of Peter III. Now it is stored in the Sergiev Posad Museum-Reserve. Here the sovereign is presented in a more relaxed pose. The royal regalia are half cut off by the frame of the picture. The ugly face of Pyotr Fedorovich is softened by black and white modeling. The author's copy turned out to be more successful in terms of painting than the original. Then A.P. Antropov paints another, fourth portrait of the monarch - in the atmosphere of a military camp. Before the October Revolution, the canvas was in the Winter Palace, then it moved to the Russian Museum.
The highest authorities definitely liked the Anthropo's interpretation of Peter III. An indirect confirmation of this can be the fact that simultaneously with A.P. Antropov was invited to write to Peter III by F.S. Rokotov. In April 1762, with unprecedented haste - in two and a half weeks - Rokotov performed a generational portrait of the sovereign with all the royal attributes. The picture did not make a favorable impression at court, perhaps because it was written hastily. The Rokotovsky version remained unclaimed, and all subsequent orders were transferred to A.P. Antropov.
However, the palace successes of the artist, as well as the reign of Peter III, turned out to be short-lived. Under the new tsar, dramatic changes took place in Russia's domestic and foreign policy. As a result of the coup on June 28, 1762, the wife of Peter III, the new Empress Catherine II, was proclaimed sole empress. A.P. Antropov was unlucky: the prospect of becoming a court painter at the court of Peter III was already looming before him, but Ekaterina Alekseevna, of course, did not want to give such a high and prestigious position to a person who enjoyed the favor of her hated husband.
However, skilled artists were needed. Subsequently, A.P. Antropov carried out many palace orders and repeatedly wrote to Mother Empress. The place of the court painter, however, was assigned to the Dane Vigilius Eriksen, who created the famous equestrian portrait of the queen and a portrait in front of a mirror.
Since 1768, Stefano Torelli became the court painter of Catherine II, who created magnificent allegorical canvases in her honor. For the sake of justice, it should be noted that in terms of their pictorial skill, foreign masters were higher than our Antropov.
3. Portrait of the end of the XVIII century
The painting of the last decades of the 18th century is distinguished by considerable diversity and completeness. First of all, this is due to the foundation of the Academy of Arts. The Russian school is now mastering those genres of painting that were previously represented only by the works of old and modern Western European masters. The greatest achievements of Russian painting in the last decades of the 18th century are associated with the art of portraiture. In the second half of the 18th century, portraiture reached its peak. At this time, the largest painters F.S. Rokotov, D.G. Levitsky and V.L. Borovikovsky, who created a brilliant gallery of portraits of contemporaries, works that glorify the beauty and nobility of human aspirations. The Russian portrait of that time happily combines great depth and significance in the depiction of the human person. Artists recreated the image of a person with the help of various pictorial means: exquisite colors and reflections, the richest system of multi-layered overlaying of paints, transparent glazes, subtle and virtuoso use of the texture of a colorful surface.
Creativity F.S. Rokotov (1735-1808) is one of the most charming and difficult to explain pages of our culture. Already at a fairly mature age, he was admitted to the Academy of Arts. His early works - portraits of G. G. Orlov (1762-1763), E. B. Yusupova (1756-1761) testify to his involvement in the Rococo culture. There are signs of this style in the coronation portrait of Catherine II (1763), which became a model for the image of a very demanding empress. Many more portraits came out from under the brush of the artist - the poet V.I. Maykov (1769-1770), almost the entire Vorontsov family - himself (late 1760s), his wife M.A. Vorontsova and children (1770s). In the period of the eighties of the eighteenth century, in the portraits of F.S. Rokotov, a shade of proud consciousness of his own significance prevails; this period includes: a portrait of a young general's wife V.E. Novosiltseva (1780), noble lady E.N. Orlova. Rokotov painted mainly chamber portraits. His works reflected the desire of the best, enlightened part of the Russian nobility, characteristic of that time, to follow high moral standards. The artist liked to depict a person without a ceremonial environment, not posing.
Even in the early works of Rokotov - portraits of Grand Duke Paul, the girl E. Yusupova and others, the ability not only to correctly convey the similarity, but also to endow the image with great spirituality.
Rokotov's work flourished in subsequent years, when the artist enriched and complicated the color even more, achieved in his portraits the transfer of an internally significant, elevated image. In later portraits, Rokotov emphasizes the intellectuality and spirituality of his models. Rokotov usually focuses all his attention on faces. People in his portraits almost always smile a little, often intently, sometimes mysteriously looking at the viewer. They are united by something in common, some kind of deep humanity and spiritual warmth. It is as if the portrayed people are hiding something, hiding something. They seem to be immersed in the mysterious picturesque environment of the background.
When the work of Rokotov flourished, the activity of another major portrait painter Dmitry Grigorievich Levitsky began, who created a series of truthful, deep-characterized portraits. The gallery of portraits of contemporaries created by the artist brought him well-deserved fame. Solid orders came in. One of them was a portrait of P.A. Demidov (1773). A descendant of the Tula blacksmiths, who turned into a fabulously wealthy breeder during the reign of Peter I, Prokofy Demidov was known as a great original, surprising not only St. Petersburg and Moscow, but also Europe with his eccentricities. Levitsky managed to convey the individual features of the person being portrayed, skillfully and subtly combine them with a deep understanding of the complex nature of his model. Demidov is presented in a dressing gown and cap, leaning his hand on a garden watering can. A proud posture is underlined by a solemn gesture pointing to pots of flowers, of which this minion of fortune was a lover. With all the parody of the image, apparently agreed with the customer, Levitsky managed to combine these features of extravagance with elements of a formal portrait (columns, drapery, a landscape overlooking the Orphanage in Moscow, huge donations for which made by Demidov were known in society). However, notes of bitter skepticism and irony slip through the face of the person depicted. The portrait testifies to the high skill of the artist, his ability to see the features of deep humanity behind the external, feigned.
In 1773-77. Levitsky was busy fulfilling the order of Empress Catherine II, who instructed him to paint seven portraits of pupils of the Smolny Institute for Noble Maidens. This portrait gallery is united by a common idea: the artist presented Smolensk women dancing or acting out theatrical scenes. The images are given against the background of landscapes or draperies, so that each of them is perceived as a kind of plot picture. In the portrait of E.I. Nelidova (1773), presented as a dancer, the elegance of movements is revealed in the graceful turn of the figure, and spontaneity and charm are expressed in the perky gleam of brown almond-shaped eyes and a sly smile. In addition to one-figure portraits of Smolyanka women, G.I. Alymova playing the harp (1776), E.I. Molchanova, sitting at a table with physical instruments (1776), A.P. Levshina (1775) and N.S. Borshchova (1776), shown dancing, - Levitsky also created paired portraits of F.S. Rzhevskaya and N.M. Davydova (1772?), E.N. Khovanskaya and E.N. Khrushchova (1773). Particularly successful is the last portrait, depicting teenage girls playing a scene from the comic opera "Caprices of Love, or Ninetta at Court". Playful ten-year-old Khrushcheva, who plays a male role, and shy Khovanskaya, timidly looking at her "cavalier", are seen by Levitsky in all immediacy, looking through memorized theatrical gestures. The unity of compositional techniques, rhythmic movements and subtle color solutions unite this original portrait suite. Among the official ceremonial portraits created by the artist, a special place is occupied by the painting "Catherine II - Legislator in the Temple of the Goddess of Justice" (1783). It expresses in allegorical form the idea of the Russian enlighteners about the ideal monarch. Catherine II is depicted in an ermine mantle, against the background of columns and draperies, burning incense from poppies in front of a statue of the goddess of Justice. Behind the balustrade - a seascape with ships, reminiscent of the victories of the Russian fleet in the Black Sea; at the feet of the empress is an eagle with a laurel branch in its beak, sitting on huge folios of the Code of Laws, as if confirming the role of Catherine II - the legislator. Such a concept of the image met the requirements of classicism - the style that dominated literature and art at the end of the 18th century. His ideals also determined the nature of the so-called Lvov-Derzhavin circle, to which Levitsky was close. Leading thinkers and writers N.A. Lvov, G.R. Derzhavin, V.V. Kapnist had a great influence on the artist. During this period, Levitsky created portraits of the philosopher D. Diderot (1773), who is now in Geneva, and the writer A.V. Khrapovitsky (1781). Masterfully painted portrait of N.A. Lvov (late 1770s), whose personality embodied the best features of a man of the Enlightenment: an exalted mind, talent, purity and nobility of thoughts.
Levitsky's portraits are very diverse. For the artist, all his models are people with a complex inner life. He did not flatter them, remaining objective in his characteristics.
Levitsky was a remarkable draftsman and colorist. His portraits always harmonize in color, golden light envelops the canvases. The artist often resorts to intense rich colors that make up a single and characteristic gamut for him, in which clarity and purity of tonal and color relationships reign.
The third outstanding master of the portrait genre of the late 18th century was Vladimir Lukich Borovikovsky. The fate of Vladimir Lukich was radically changed by two allegorical paintings made to decorate the Kremenchug Palace, one of the "travel palaces" erected on the route of Catherine II to the Crimea. The empress liked the pictures and flattered her vanity. One of them depicted Peter I in the guise of a farmer and Catherine II sowing the field, and on the other, the Empress in the guise of Minerva, surrounded by the sages of Ancient Greece. The royal praise opened the way for Borovikovsky to Petersburg.
The 30-year-old painter could no longer enter the Academy of Arts and therefore received private lessons from his illustrious countryman D. G. Levitsky, and from 1772 - from the famous Austrian painter who worked at the court of Catherine II, I.B. Lampi, and also copied the best examples of European painting and the work of his mentors.
This was enough for him to master professional skills to perfection. Around December 4, 1794, Lumpy addressed the Council of the Academy of Arts with a letter in which he asked to award his student V.L. Borovikovsky the title of academician. Obviously, “Portrait of Catherine II on a walk” was presented. This request indicates a high appreciation of the talents of a Russian student, which is given to him by a foreign artist.
From his teachers, he adopted a brilliant technique, ease of writing, compositional skill and the ability to flatter the person being portrayed. In the circle of the famous architect, poet and musician N.A. Lvov, in whose house he lived for ten years, Borovikovsky found himself among the prominent figures of artistic Russia, imbued with the ideas of symbolism. The new trend was in tune with the calm, elegiac-minded artist, whose simple lifestyle was not influenced by either fame or money. Vladimir Lukich was completely absorbed in art, and his mastery was quickly appreciated by the customers.
By 1790 he became one of the most famous portrait painters, in 1795 he received the title of academician, and seven years later he became an adviser to the Academy of Arts. He became a well-known and even fashionable portrait painter, orders from the most senior persons, up to members of the imperial family, rained down on him.
The heyday of his art was short-lived - just over a dozen years at the turn of the 18th - 19th centuries - but wonderful. It was then that he created a portrait of Paul I, Secretary of State D.P. Troshchinsky, which conveys the inner strength of this outstanding person who has come out of the bottom, as well as ceremonial portraits - an amazingly beautiful and exotic portrait of Murtaza Kulikhan, a magnificent portrait of A.B. Kurakin, expressively representing a man who was called the “diamond prince” for his love of luxury, and the “peacock” for his rare arrogance, a portrait of Derzhavin sitting in an armchair at a desk littered with manuscripts.
Nevertheless, his talent was most clearly revealed in a series of female portraits executed in the same years. They are not as spectacular as men's, small in size, sometimes similar in compositional solution, but they are distinguished by exceptional subtlety in the transfer of characters, elusive movements of mental life and are united by a gentle poetic feeling.
For beautiful female images, Borovikovsky created a certain style of portrait: a half-length image, a figure immersed in thought, leaning on a stand with his hand, and a quiet landscape serves as a background for the languid curve of the body in light, light clothes.
In the portraits, Borovikovsky sang the ability for lofty feelings, heartfelt feelings, which corresponds to the sentimental mood of that society and the trend in literature. In female portraits, the artist strove for a special poeticization of the model, for a kind of unconstrained and at the same time elegant, slightly idealized image of her.
The artist retained his brilliant skill and vigilance of the eye for a long time.
Borovikovsky brought up two students, one of whom was Alexei Venetsianov, who adopted a poetic perception of the world from his mentor.
By 1810, Borovikovsky's work began to turn towards a romantic direction. This subtlest poet of the sentimental female image and the greatest examples of his skill opened the way for the creative achievements of the artists of romanticism.
Conclusion
Throughout the 18th century, the Russian art of painting went a long way in becoming according to the laws of modern times. The needs of the era were reflected in the predominant development of secular painting - portrait, landscape, historical and everyday genres.
Since the beginning of the 18th century, from a rather primitive depiction of a human face, artists have brought their skills to extraordinary perfection. Learning from foreign painters, the domestic masters not only adopted their knowledge, but also surpassed them and added a deeply Russian flavor to their art.
Portraits of the beginning of the century depict mainly the social affiliation of a person, his best sides, his pomposity, sometimes fictional beauty. But throughout the century, the state, the public mood, as well as the attitude of the artist towards the depicted person, changed greatly. The masters no longer set themselves the task of making the portrait look like a model. They were not so much interested in the solemnity of the presentation, but in the inner world of a person, his essence, his predisposition to spirituality. By the end of the 18th century, painters convey the soul of their models, the subtlest moods, and the variability of characters.
The 18th century had enormous weight not only in the history of the development of the Russian state, but also made gigantic adjustments to Russian art. For the first time, we can not only read about the great people of the past, but also see the faces of those on whom our future depended. The portrait, as a direction in art, seems to me one of the most important not only for people, but also for the history of their people.
Russian artists of the 18th century were able to embody the appearance, characters, and spiritual world of their contemporaries in paint and marble. It was in the portrait that the art of this time created its best works.
Among the many Russian and foreign artists who worked in Russia, the outstanding portrait masters 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 sought to portray a new ideal of a person - open and energetic. Cheerfulness, festivity was emphasized by bright colors. The dignity of the depicted, their corpulence 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 work of A.P. Antropov, there is still a noticeable connection with icon painting. The master paints 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 features, positive or negative, they do not possess (portraits of M.A. Rumyantseva, A.K. Vorontsova, Peter III).
Among the most famous works of the painter Antropov are portraits:
- Izmailov;
- A.I. and P.A. Kolichyov;
- Elizabeth Petrovna;
- Peter I;
- Catherine II in profile;
- ataman F. Krasnoshchekov;
- portrait book. Trubetskoy
I.P. Argunov - portrait painter of the 18th century
I.P. Argunov "Self-portrait"
Developing the concept of the national portrait, I.P. Argunov quickly and easily mastered the language of European painting and abandoned the old Russian traditions. Stand out in his heritage are the ceremonial retrospective portraits that he painted from lifetime images of the ancestors of P.B. Sheremetev. In his work, the painting of the next century is foreseen. He becomes the creator of a chamber portrait, in which great attention is paid to the high spirituality of the image. This was the intimate portrait, which became more common 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. Rokotova. He conveys the play of feelings, the variability of the human character in his dynamic images. The world seemed to the painter spiritualized, and so are his characters: 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-dress portrait, when a person was depicted waist-deep against the backdrop of architectural buildings or a landscape. Among his first works are portraits of Peter III and Grigory Orlov, the seven-year-old Prince Pavel Petrovich and Princess E.B. Yusupova. They are elegant, decorative, colorful. The images are painted in the Rococo style with its sensuality and emotionality. Thanks to the works of Rokotov, one can learn the history of his time. The entire advanced noble elite strove to be captured on the canvases of the great painter's brush.
Chamber portraits of Rokotov are characterized by: bust image, turn to the viewer by ¾, creation of volume by complex light and shade molding, harmonious combination of tones. With the help of these expressive means, the artist creates a certain type of canvas, which depicted the honor, dignity, spiritual grace of a person (portrait of the "Unknown Man 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 Rokotovsky type of woman developed (portraits of A.P. Struyskaya, E.N. Zinovieva and many others).
In addition to those already mentioned, the works of F.S. Rokotov brought fame:
- IN AND. Maykov;
- Unknown in pink;
- V.E. Novosiltseva;
- P.N. Lanskoy;
- Surovtseva;
- A.I. and I.I. Vorontsov;
- Catherine II.
D.G.Levitsky
D.G.Levitsky Self-portrait
It was said that the portraits of D. G. Levitsky reflected the whole century of Catherine. Whomever Levitsky portrayed, he acted as a subtle psychologist and certainly conveyed sincerity, openness, sadness, as well as the national characteristics of people.
His most outstanding works: a portrait of A.F. Kokorinov, a series of portraits "Smolyanka", portraits of Dyakova and Markerovsky, a portrait of Agashi. Many of Levitsky's works are considered intermediate between ceremonial and chamber portraits.
D.G. Levitsky "Portrait of A.F. Kokorinov"
Levitsky combined in his work the accuracy and truthfulness of the images of Antropov and the lyrics of Rokotov, 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. Lvova
- N. I. Novikova
- A. V. Khrapovitsky
- the Mitrofanovs
- Bakunina
V.L.Borovikovsky - master of sentimental portrait
Portrait of V.L. Borovikovsky, art. Bugaevsky-blagodatny
The personality of the domestic master of this genre V.B. Borovikovsky is associated with the creation sentimental portrait. His miniatures and oil portraits depicted people with their experiences, emotions, conveyed the uniqueness of their inner world (portrait of M.I. Lopukhina). Women's images had a certain composition: a woman was depicted against a natural background, waist-deep, she leaned on something, holding flowers or fruits in her hands.
V.L.Borovikovsky "Portrait of Paul I in the costume of the Order of Malta"
Over time, the images of the artist become typical for the entire era (portrait of General F. A. Borovsky), and therefore the artist is also called the historiographer of his time. Peruvian artist owns portraits:
- V.A. Zhukovsky;
- "Lizanka and Dashenka";
- G.R. Derzhavin;
- Paul I;
- A.B. Kurakina;
- "Beardless with daughters."
For the development of Russian painting, the 18th century was a turning point. The portrait becomes the leading genre . Artists adopt painting techniques and basic techniques from their European colleagues. But the focus is on a person with his own experiences and feelings.
Russian portrait painters tried not only to convey the similarity, but also to reflect on their canvases the soulfulness and inner world of their models. If Antropov and Argunov strove, having overcome conventions, to truthfully depict a person, then 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, they sang beauty in their works, but bodily beauty was only a reflection of the humanity and spirituality inherent in the Russian people.
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