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Vasily Tropinin – biography and paintings of the artist in the Romanticism genre – Art Challenge. Artist B

Vasily Tropinin – biography and paintings of the artist in the Romanticism genre – Art Challenge. Artist B

16.06.2019

Vasily Andreevich Tropinin (March 19, 1776, Karpovo village, Novgorod province - May 3, 1857, Moscow) - Russian painter, master of romantic and realistic portraits.

Vasily Andreevich Tropinin was born on March 30, 1776 in the village of Karpovo, Novgorod province, into the family of a serf, Andrei Ivanovich, who belonged to Count Anton Sergeevich Minikh. The count's daughter married the outstanding military leader I.M. Morkov, and the village of Tropinina and he himself became the property of Morkov. Vasily was hated by the other serfs, since his father was the headman, but Vasily never complained about the beatings and bullying of the serfs, including because he had been drawing people since childhood and discovering their characteristic features in his drawings.

Around 1798, Vasily was apprenticed to a confectioner in St. Petersburg, since confectionery also required the ability to depict human and animal figures. After his training in confectionery, Count Morkov’s cousin convinced him to send the young man, who had a natural talent and a penchant for drawing, as a volunteer to the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts. Here he studied with S.S. Shchukin. But when Vasily twice took first place in the Academy competitions and, according to the tradition established at the Academy, should have received his freedom, instead in 1804 he was recalled to the new estate of Count Morkov - the Podolsk village of Kukavka in Ukraine - and became at the same time a servant, a shepherd, an architect and artist of the count. A free settler married him, and husband and wife were supposed to have equal status by law, but instead of granting freedom to Tropinin, the count registered his wife as his serfs, and their children were to become eternal serfs of Morkov and his heirs. But Tropinin, as a kind person, wrote in his memoirs that he was grateful to the owner, since Ukraine made him a great artist.

He had a son - Arseny. Until 1821 he lived mainly in Ukraine, where he painted a lot from life, then moved to Moscow with the Morkov family.

In 1823, at the age of 47, the artist finally gained freedom - under the influence of new trends, the count released him free of charge. After some time, his relatives also become free. In September 1823, he presented the paintings “The Lacemaker”, “The Old Beggar” and “Portrait of the Artist E. O. Skotnikov” to the Council of the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts and received the title of appointed artist. In 1824, for “Portrait of K. A. Leberecht” he was awarded the title of academician.

Since 1833, Tropinin has been working on a voluntary basis with students of a public art class that opened in Moscow (later the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture). In 1843 he was elected an honorary member of the Moscow Art Society.

In total, Tropinin created more than three thousand portraits. He died on May 3 (15), 1857 in Moscow. He was buried at the Moscow Vagankovskoe cemetery.

In 1969, the “Museum of V. A. Tropinin and Moscow artists of his time” was opened in Moscow.

05/03/1857 (05/16). – Portrait painter Vasily Andreevich Tropinin died

Self-portrait with brushes and palette against the backdrop of a window overlooking the Kremlin (1844)

Vasily Andreevich Tropinin (03/19/1776–05/3/1857), 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 the headman of the serfs, then a manager, and for honest service he received manumission from the count, but manumission did not apply to his children; they continued to be considered serfs.

Vasily received his primary education (through the efforts of his father) in Novgorod, where he studied at a public school for four years. It was there that the boy developed a passion for drawing. When Minikha's daughter Natalya Antonovna married Count Irakli Ivanovich Morkov, young Tropinin was included in her dowry and entered the service of the new owner. Count Morkov did not favor his serf's hobby of drawing and sent Vasily to St. Petersburg to study confectionery. In the capital, Tropinin, under the supervision of Count Alexei Ivanovich Morkov's cousin, continued to paint in his free time. Soon Alexey Ivanovich was surprised to learn that Vasily had been secretly attending lectures at the Academy of Arts since 1798.

After viewing the serf’s drawings, the young count decided at all costs to persuade his cousin to send Tropinin to study at the Academy of Arts, and ultimately achieved his consent, promising his relative that he would reimburse all costs. At that time, according to the Academy's charter, serfs could only be free listeners for an appropriate fee. For six years Tropinin studied art in plaster and painting classes. The future painter learned the basics of artistic craft in the workshop of the famous artist - Professor Stepan Semenovich Shchukin. Vasily received gold and silver medals for his student drawings. Tropinin at the Academy of Arts became friends with the future famous engraver Yegor 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 continued to be a serf, promised to obtain freedom for Tropinin. But, as soon as Count Irakli Morkov learned 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 altar images 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 his master's property. Life in burned-out Moscow gradually came back to life after Napoleon's expulsion. In 1813, militias began to return from the war, and in 1814, Russian troops from foreign campaigns. Tropinin took up painting again. In the count's house, which was rebuilt after the fire, he had a workshop where he painted portraits of his owners, their relatives and noble acquaintances. The large canvas of the Morkov family depicts a father with his sons-warriors and eldest daughters-brides, happy to meet after the end of the Patriotic War.

Family of Counts Morkovs, 1813, Tretyakov Gallery

In 1818, Tropinin painted a portrait of the historian Nikolai Mikhailovich Karamzin, which was engraved and opened the collected works of the writer. The nobles, following the old fashion, again revived portrait galleries in their homes instead of the canvases burned in the Moscow fire. Therefore, Tropinin painted portraits of the count’s neighbors, numerous military men, his loved ones (son, sister Anna), and Muscovites. In these works one can notice his mastery of the full range of painting techniques related to portraiture. 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 shadow modeling, and color. Although no art exhibitions were held in Moscow, the master quickly gained fame as a good portrait painter. The interest of lovers of fine art in his personality was aroused by flattering lines in the Notes of the Fatherland: “Tropinin, a serf of Count Morkov. He also studied at the Academy of Arts and has a happy talent and inclination for painting. His coloring is similar to Titian’s.”

Many enlightened and noble people, learning that the painter Tropinin was a serf, were extremely outraged by this. The young nobles, with whom Count Morkov had various affairs, considered it their duty to publicly demand that he grant freedom to the talented serf. There is information that once at the English Club, a certain Dmitriev, having won a large sum from the count at cards, publicly invited him to exchange the debt for freedom for Tropinin. But Morkov did not want to lose his personal artist: he did not let Vasily Andreevich go anywhere and took care of him in his own way.

And yet, Count Morkov was forced to yield to public opinion: in May 1823, as an Easter gift, he presented Tropinin with a certificate of freedom. Now he could start a new free life, but it was necessary to decide on his status, place of work and residence. Morkov, who still had Tropinin’s wife and son as serfs (they received their freedom only after five years), invited Vasily Andreevich to stay in his count’s house and promised to seek a place for him 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 the Imperial Academy of Arts with a request to award him the title of artist. In September 1823, for paintings submitted to the Academy: a portrait of E.O. Skotnikov, the paintings “The Lacemaker” and “The Old Beggar”, he received the title of “appointed” to academician. In the painting “The Lacemaker,” the problems of conveying the illusion of space and light-tonal painting are convincingly resolved. The cuteness of the model and 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, to receive the title of academician, an artist must perform 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 medalist professor K.A. Leberecht and was awarded the title of academician of portrait painting. At the same time, 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 public service.

From 1824 until the end of his life (year of death 1857), Vasily Tropinin lived and worked in Moscow. Tireless portraiture made the artist the most famous and leading portrait painter of the ancient capital. In the 1820s, the artist worked on portraits of university professors and other notable persons of Moscow. The images of prominent city dignitaries he made decorated the halls of the Council of Guardians, the Racing Hunt Society, the Agricultural Society and others. His brush captured a number of victorious heroes of the Patriotic War of 1812. They were used as iconographic material by the English artist Doe when creating the Military Gallery of the Winter Palace. Among private commissioned works, in 1827 a portrait of Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin was painted at the request of the great poet’s friend, Sobolevsky. Contemporaries noted the striking resemblance of the poet depicted in the portrait to the living Pushkin.

In addition to commissioned portraits, the artist painted his friends, acquaintances and acquaintances. These friendly works of the artist include portraits: engraver E.O. Skotnikov, owner of the framing workshop P.V. Kartashev, sculptor I.P. Vitali, amateur guitarist P.M. Vasiliev, engraver N.I. Utkina. At the beginning of 1836, in winter, Muscovites solemnly welcomed K.P. Bryullov. An acquaintance took place between the author of the painting “The Last Day of Pompeii” and the portrait painter Tropinin. In his modest workshop, Vasily Andreevich painted a portrait of Karl Pavlovich Bryullov as a sign of friendship and recognition of talent.

In the early 1850s, the unprecedented popularity of Vasily Tropinin began to fade. Many out-of-town and foreign portrait painters frequented wealthy Moscow to earn money, offering their services cheaper and working faster than the older artist. But the habit of daily work did not allow Vasily Andreevich Tropinin to leave his brush. He continued to paint, try different versions of portrait compositions, trying to compete with the masters of the salon style. Therefore, “Portrait of the spouses Nikolai Ivanovich and Nadezhda Mikhailovna Ber” (1850, National Art Museum of the Republic of Belarus, Minsk) was made in a fashionable spirit.

Noble gentlemen are presented in luxurious clothes and free poses against the backdrop of the rich surroundings of their own home. A marble sculpture of a plump angel, a vase of flowers, velvet drapery, an oriental carpet on the floor - all these elements of the ceremonial decor are intended not so much to show the wealth of the customers, but to demonstrate the skill of the artist, who so realistically conveyed the decoration of the room. Tropinin, even in his declining years, wanted to remain true to his principles of depicting the happy life of those 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 of blooming roses, takes a pallet from the table and playfully looks at the viewer. A sweet, slightly embarrassed face, an open look, smoothly combed hair and a stately figure of the girl, as well as large pink buds against the background of the dark color of the room convey the spontaneity and liveliness of the young lady and, of course, the romantically upbeat mood of the entire canvas.

Tropinin created a series of paintings that reflected the images of the “inconspicuous” residents of Moscow. These are poor people, retired veteran soldiers, old men and women. The artist wrote them mainly for himself. However, in the respect with which they are captured on the canvas, one can feel the genuine, unostentatious democracy and humanism of a wonderful master painter. Servant boys and boys with books, seamstresses and laundresses, goldsmiths and lacemakers, guitarists and girls with flowers - in each of these images you can feel a unique personality. It is no less significant that all these works are distinguished by the nobility of the color scheme, a subtle understanding of color shades, and the integrity of the coloristic solution. Even in European painting of those times, it is difficult to find a master who would preserve the taste and quality of impeccable handmade 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 on Nalivkovsky Lane. In it, the outstanding Russian portrait painter died on May 3, 1857. Tropinin was buried at the Vagankovskoye cemetery in Moscow. The painter lived a long creative life and created more than 3,000 portraits, in which he strives for a living, spiritual characterization of a person as a unique personality with a romantic sense of the moving elements of life. In his portraits, expressive details and a landscape background are often of great importance, and the composition becomes more complex. Portraits of his son (1818), (1827), composer P.P. are widely known. Bulakhov (1827), artist (1836), self-portrait (1846), paintings “Lacemaker”, “Gold Seamstress”, “Guitar Player”.

An important part of Tropinin's legacy is his drawings, especially his pencil portrait sketches, which stand out for their sharp observations. The soulful sincerity and poetic, everyday, harmonic harmony of his images were more than once perceived as a specific feature of the Old Moscow art school.

At the end of his life, Vasily Tropinin’s paintings showed fidelity to nature and an analytical view of the world, as a result of which the artist found himself at the origins of a trend in Russian art called critical realism, which was later developed by graduates of the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture - Vasily Grigorievich Perov and Nikolai Vasilyevich Nevrev. Thus, Tropinin had a huge influence 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 Andreevich Tropinin lived and worked for thirty years, a memorial plaque was installed. Since 1969, there has been a Museum of Tropinin and Moscow artists of his time in Zamoskvorechye. Numerous works by the 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 in the Russian Federation.

Works of Vasily Andreevich Tropinin

(1776-1857) Vasily Andreevich Tropinin belonged to the generation that produced the first Russian romantics. Until the age of 45, Tropinin was a serf artist on the Ukrainian estate of Count Morkov and combined the duties of a pastry chef and senior footman with his painting classes. Due to the whim of the landowner, he was unable to complete his education at the Academy of Arts. Tropinin's youth was spent self-taught, despite obstacles, mastering technical skills and achieving professional excellence. Count Morkov, who decided to have a painter in his house, in 1799 considered it advantageous for himself to appoint a capable serf as an “outside student” of the Academy of Arts. It was here that Tropinin studied portraiture with S.S. Shchukin. At an academic exhibition in 1804, Tropinin’s work “A Boy Longing for a Dead Bird” attracted the attention of the Empress herself. Tropinin studied brilliantly and soon received silver and gold medals. The President of the Academy S. Stroganov began to work for the release of the talented young man, but did not have time: the serf Tropinin received an order from the owner to move from St. Petersburg to Morkov’s new estate - Podolia, in Ukraine. There, Tropinin was reminded that he was a serf, appointed to the position of pastry chef and footman, and also charged with making copies of paintings by Western European and Russian artists, who subsequently decorated the count’s house, as well as painting the local church and painting icons for it. Tropinin was also commissioned to paint picturesque portraits of the owners. Gentle and kind by nature, Tropinin endured the vicissitudes of fate with humility, did not become embittered, did not fall into depression from the awareness of the discrepancy between his own talent and the position he occupied; on the contrary, he perceived his stay in Ukraine as a continuation of his studies, a kind of internship. “I studied little at the Academy, but I learned in Little Russia: there I wrote from life without rest, and these works of mine seem to be the best of all those I have written so far,” he later recalled. The coloring of these works is soft, muted - grayish, ocher, and green tones predominate.

"Portrait of Arseny's son". The artist worked on this portrait with a special spirit. It's like he's pouring out his soul. With intimate intimacy, he reveals his belief in the bright destiny of man, in the value of the human personality. The world of a young dream appears before the viewer, illuminated by a particularly piercing and aching trust. It’s as if the master is revealing to us his secret, a precious secret that the artist carefully keeps... The boy’s face appears, illuminated by a reverent light. Just now he was busy with children's games and fun, so his shirt collar was unbuttoned, his hair was slightly scattered, but now something caught his attention, and he is unusually serious. Somewhere in the distance unknown to us, this curly-haired boy, with delicate, inspired features, is looking . The head is turned to the left. The gaze of wide open, concentrated eyes is directed there. There is so much grace and nobility and inner beauty in the appearance of this child! Everything is harmonious in this canvas: slightly raised eyebrows, a gentle but restless gaze, a chaste, softly outlined mouth, a rounded chin. Everything, every last detail in the canvas is filled with the artist’s love for his brainchild, his hope/. In 1821, Tropinin said goodbye to Kukavka forever. Returning to Moscow was joyful for him. Having gained respect and popularity in Moscow, the artist, nevertheless, remained a serf, which caused surprise and discontent in the circles of the enlightened nobility. They especially bothered about A.A. Tropinin. Tuchkov - general, hero of 1812 and collector, P.P. Svinin, N.A. Maikov. However, Count Morkov was in no hurry to give freedom to his serf painter, whose talent and human qualities he greatly appreciated. This happened only in 1823. Tropinin's wife and son Arseny remained in serfdom for another five years.

"The Lacemaker"(1823) is one of Tropinin’s most popular works. A pretty girl weaving lace is depicted at the moment when she looked up from her work for a moment and turned her gaze to the viewer, who thus becomes involved in the space of the picture. .

The lace, bobbins, and needlework box were carefully and lovingly painted. The feeling of peace and comfort created by Tropinin convinces of the value of every moment of everyday human existence. Tropinin painted many similar paintings. They usually depict young women doing needlework - goldsmiths, embroiderers, spinners. Their faces are similar, the features of the artist’s female ideal are clearly visible in them - a gentle oval, dark almond-shaped eyes, a friendly smile, a flirtatious look. For this and other works in 1823 V.A. Tropinin was awarded the title of “appointed academician.”

The long-awaited freedom came only in 1823, when Tropinin was already forty-seven years old; The flowering of his talent dates back to this time. It was during this period that his own, independent artistic system arose, uniquely reworking the legacy of classicism and painting techniques of the 18th century, and the genre of intimate everyday portrait created by Tropinin finally took shape.

At the beginning of 1827, Pushkin ordered a portrait from Tropinin as a gift to his friend Sobolevsky. “A portrait of a person is written for the memory of people close to him, people who love him,” Tropinin himself said; This somewhat naive statement contains, in essence, a whole program that characterizes Tropinin’s tasks and his attitude to reality. Tropinin’s portraits convey the intimate, “homely” appearance of the people of his era; Tropinin’s characters do not “pose” in front of the artist and the viewer, but are captured as they were in private life, around the family hearth. “Sobolevsky was dissatisfied with the smoothed and pomaded portraits of Pushkin that appeared then. He wanted to preserve the image of the poet as he was, as he was more often, and he asked Tropinin, one of the best portrait painters of that time in Moscow, if not Russia, to draw him Pushkin in a dressing gown, disheveled, with the treasured ring on his finger,” says , according to Tropinin himself, one of his contemporary memoirists. This, apparently, was the original intention of the portrait. The artist’s job was simply to capture Pushkin’s appearance with all possible accuracy and truthfulness, without setting himself the complex tasks of psychological analysis and revealing the inner content of the image. In the sketch, written directly from life, Tropinin came closest to realizing Sobolevsky’s wishes. He gave an unpretentious, but undoubtedly quite accurate and similar image of Pushkin - “in a dressing gown and r disheveled,” as Sobolevsky requested. But in the very appearance of the poet there was something that distinguished him so much from ordinary Muscovites, Tropinin’s usual models, that the solution to the image could not enter into the already established, familiar Tropinin system. While working on the portrait, Tropinin, in essence, moved very far from his original plan. This does not mean, of course, that he moved away from the truthful reproduction of nature. There is no doubt that Pushkin posed not only for a sketch, but also for a portrait, and recreating the living appearance of the poet continued to be Tropinin’s main task. The similarities in the portrait are no less than in the sketch, but the very understanding of the image has become different. From the original plan, only the external attributes of “homeliness” remained - a robe, an unbuttoned shirt collar, disheveled hair, but all these details were given a completely new meaning: they are perceived not as evidence of the intimate ease of the poser, but rather as a sign of that “poetic disorder” , with which romantic art so often associated the idea of inspiration. Tropinin wrote not the “private man Pushkin,” as Sobolevsky asked him to do, but an inspired poet, catching in his appearance an expression of deep inner significance and creative tension. In its figurative structure, the portrait of Pushkin echoes the works of contemporary romantic painting by Tropinin, but at the same time Tropinin managed to create a romantic image without sacrificing the realistic accuracy and truthfulness of the image. Pushkin is depicted sitting, in a natural and relaxed pose. The right hand, on which two rings are visible, is placed on a table with an open book. Apart from this book, the portrait does not contain any accessories associated with Pushkin’s literary profession. He is dressed in a loose dressing gown with blue lapels, and a long blue scarf is tied around his neck. The background and clothing are united by a common golden-brown tone, in which the face, shaded by the whiteness of the shirt lapel, especially stands out - the most intense colorful spot in the picture is also its compositional center. The artist did not seek to “embellish” Pushkin’s face and soften the irregularity of his features; but, conscientiously following nature, he was able to recreate and capture his high spirituality. Contemporaries unanimously recognized in Tropinin’s portrait an impeccable resemblance to Pushkin. In Pushkin's gaze, intense and intent, the content of the portrait characteristic is expressed with the greatest force. True inspiration shines in the wide-open blue eyes of the poet. In accordance with the romantic plan, Tropinin sought to give his gaze the expression that he assumed in moments of creativity. In comparison with the famous portrait of Pushkin by Kiprensky, the Tropinin portrait seems more modest and, perhaps, intimate, but is not inferior to it either in expressiveness or in pictorial power. The portrait of Pushkin undoubtedly occupies one of the first places both in the iconography of the poet and in the work of Tropinin. In this portrait, the artist most clearly expressed his ideal of a free person. He painted Pushkin in a dressing gown, with his shirt collar unbuttoned and a tie-scarf casually tied. Tropininsky's Pushkin is not at all down to earth - he is so regally majestic that it seems impossible to disturb his thoughts. Particularly impressive, almost monumental, the image of the poet is given by his proud bearing and stable posture, thanks to which his dressing gown is like an antique toga.

N and the 1830-1840s saw the largest number of portraits painted by Tropinin. They said about the artist that he rewrote “literally the whole of Moscow.” He paints portraits of the city's top officials, statesmen, nobles, merchants, actors, writers, and artists.

" Self-portrait" Tropinin was painted by the artist in later years of his life. Before us is an elderly master, calmly looking ahead. Tropinin, as it were, sums up the life he has lived, showing himself a calm man, despite the storms he has experienced, who has achieved a strong position, stable fame, which differs significantly from the loud and fleeting success of the St. Petersburg masters. The master depicts himself at the window of the workshop with a marvelous view of the ancient Kremlin. He calmly leans on the mace - an ancient painter's tool, so convenient in working on a painting that requires precision drawing and a smooth surface of the painting. Vasily Andreevich has a palette and brushes in his hands, he stands against the backdrop of his favorite view with the signs of his profession - this is how he will forever remain in the memory of descendants, to whom his calm and affectionate gaze as a good-natured and hospitable Moscow resident is directed. Tropinin conveys the cold color of the chair and his suit in the interior of the workshop, immersed in the late afternoon darkness, as if eternity is entering the room. Outside the window, the warm light of a gentle pink sunset spreads - the Moscow evening comes, when bells fill the city with crimson ringing and black rooks circle in flocks among the clear sky.

Vasily Andreevich Tropinin lived a long creative life. His art was in intense interaction with the aesthetic ideals of the era. He died on May 3, 1857, and was buried at the Vagankovskoye cemetery.

Tropinin Vasily Andreevich (1776-1857), painter.

Born on March 30, 1776 in the village of Karpov, Novgorod province. Serf of Count B.K. Minikh, then Count A. Morkov.

Tropinin's outstanding abilities, demonstrated in childhood, prompted Morkov to enroll the young man in the Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg (1798), where his teacher was the famous portrait painter S. S. Shchukin.

In 1804, Tropinin submitted his first painting, “Boy with a Dead Bird,” to the competition. The artist failed to complete the course of study - at the whim of the landowner, he was recalled from St. Petersburg.

Until 1821 he lived in Ukraine. Having received freedom only at the age of 47 (1823), he moved to Moscow, where he worked until the end of his life.

Tropinin perfectly mastered the heritage of Russian portrait painters of the 18th century, but at the same time managed to develop a unique painting style. With great warmth and love, he reveals the inner world of the people he portrays.

Among the best works are portraits of his wife (1809), I. I. and N. I. Morkov (1813), son (1818), Emperor Nicholas I (1825), N. M. Karamzin, A. S. Pushkin (1827), Y. V. Gogol, composer P. P. Bulakhov (1827), V. A. Zubova (1834), K. P. Bryullov (1836) , self-portrait (1846). They are distinguished by a delicate color and clarity of volumes.

In the paintings “The Lacemaker” (1823), “The Gold Seamstress”, “The Guitarist”, and the sketch “The Old Beggar”, Tropinin created expressive images of people from the people with their spiritual beauty.

The painter several times sought the title of member of the Academy of Arts, but received it only in 1824 for the portrait of the medalist Lebrecht, notable for its harmony and completeness of execution. In total, Tropinin left more than 3 thousand works, having a significant influence on portraiture of the Moscow school.

To the 240th anniversary of his birth

MASTER OF RUSSIAN PORTRAIT

Russian artist Vasily Andreevich Tropinin (1776-1857)

Tropinin lived a long creative life. His art was in intense interaction with the aesthetic ideals of that era. Being “the last son of the 18th century,” at the end of his life he grasped the main trends of the mid-19th century - fidelity to nature, an analytical view of the world - and came close to the critical realism of the second half of the century. In Tropinin’s portraits, contemporaries noted his ability to convey the “characteristic” of each life type. The artist’s paintings are of particular value also because in terms of the accuracy of the selection of social types of Russian society of the mid-19th century and the depth of their reconstruction, they have no analogues in the domestic art of their time. Tropinin stood at the origins of a whole independent movement in Russian art, associated with a careful, serious analysis of folk character. This direction developed in the second half of the 19th century in the work of the Itinerants.

Artist and fine arts researcher A.N. Benois wrote about Tropinin: “What gives Tropinin a particularly honorable place in the history of Russian painting is that he sowed the seeds of that realism on which the purely Moscow protest against alien and cold, academic, St. Petersburg art subsequently grew and became stronger. All his “garden girls”, “lacemakers”, “seamstresses”, “milkmaids”, “guitarists” and others foreshadowed with their “genre” antics and almost anecdotal flirting the subsequent wandering of Muscovites in “types” and “stories” and were a direct parallel that spontaneity of looking at nature, which was the most precious feature, for example, in Venetian’s work.”

Tropinin was born in the Novgorod province into a peasant family and until 1823 remained a serf of Count I.I. Morkova. In 1798, the young man, who had a penchant for drawing, became a volunteer student at the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts, but in 1804 he was recalled by his landowner. In 1812-18, Tropinin lived with the Morkovs in Moscow, where he completed two family group portraits

Family portrait of the Counts Morkovs

Portrait of Morkovs. Etude. Early 1810s

and a portrait of the historian N.M., filled with inner significance. Karamzin.

A fire in 1812 destroyed many of his early works. Since 1821, the artist lived permanently in Moscow, where he quickly gained fame as a portrait painter. In 1823, Tropinin received his freedom from Morkov, and later was awarded the title of academician of the Academy of Arts. Refusing official posts, he settled in an apartment with a workshop in a house on the corner of Lenivka and Volkhonka streets, where he worked most of his life. It was here in the winter of 1826-27 that A.S. came to pose for his portrait. Pushkin.

Tropinin portrayed Pushkin as a friend of each of us, touched something personal. Contemporaries began vying with each other to talk about the striking similarity of the portrait to the original. The portrait fully conveys both the appearance and spiritual essence of the poet. The 1820-30s were the time of Tropinin’s creative heyday. The artist was able to express some specific features of the mentality of Moscow society, which contrasted the free style of communication with the official regulation of St. Petersburg life. Portraits of the 1820s - N.A. Maykova, P.A. Bulakhov and, especially, Pushkin - are distinguished by romantic inspiration, internal dynamics, and bright emotionality of the color system. Tropinin masterfully conveyed the individuality of the models and often, with the help of sharply characteristic details, emphasized their special Moscow flavor (for example, the portrait of V.A. Zubov).

Remaining until the mid-19th century the main Moscow portrait painter, Tropinin created more than three thousand portraits, depicting representatives of the Moscow nobility, merchants, creative intelligentsia (sculptor I.P. Vitali, watercolorist P.F. Sokolov, actor P.S. Mochalov, playwright A. V. Sukhovo-Kobylina). In 1832, the artist moved to the left wing of the same estate - to Lenivka. The unique result of Tropinin’s work and his inextricable connection with Moscow are expressed in “Self-portrait against the backdrop of the Kremlin.”

It is believed that the window depicted in the painting is the window of the artist’s workshop on Lenivka. Since 1833, he began to study with students of a public art class that opened in Moscow (later the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture). In 1843, Tropinin was elected an honorary member of the Moscow Art Society. In 1855, he bought a small house surrounded by an orchard on Bolshaya Polyanka (not preserved). Tropinin died in 1857 and was buried at the Vagankovskoye cemetery.

At house number 9 on Volkhonka Street there is a memorial plaque dedicated to Tropinin. Surprisingly, the plaque was installed on a house built twenty-one years after Tropinin’s death on the site of the main house of the estate, in which the artist did not live. In 1969, a museum of Tropinin and Moscow artists of his time was opened in Moscow (Shchetininsky lane, 10). The museum's collection includes several thousand items. In addition to paintings by Tropinin, there are works by I.P. Argunova, F.S. Rokotova, D.G. Levitsky, V.L. Borovikovsky and other artists.

Vasily Tropinin Museum

Video about the museum:

http://vk.com/video159262563_171446529

“Candy artist” may sound a little impolite. But not in relation to Tropinin! He honed his skills in the St. Petersburg confectionery, where he was sent from the count's estate to study, because products for good houses required both culinary and artistic taste. Tropinin's works can still be seen on candy boxes!
Romantic portraits - the Lacemaker, the Guitarist, the curly-haired Arseny, the artist's son - rhyme completely with chocolate. For their warm color, Dutch style, clear, naturalistic drawing of cute characters, these images were loved even in Soviet times. The artist painted many simple people - peasants, townspeople, artisans, and in each he saw an inherent peculiarity and beauty.

However, Tropinin had an Academic School; he managed to study in St. Petersburg, but was recalled by Count Morkov to his estate in Ukraine, along with his family. He was a servant, architect, shepherd and artist under the count. Such versatility of activities turned out to be useful for the artist, as he himself admitted in his memoirs. He painted the count's acquaintances, the courtyard servants, and the poor. He was released from serfdom already known. He presented his work in St. Petersburg, received the title of academician and a teaching position in an art class. During his life he painted more than a thousand portraits.

Tropinin V.A. Portrait of Alexander Fedorovich Zaikin. 1837. From the collection of the Primorsky Art Gallery

Tropinin V.A. Portrait of A.F. Zaikin. Etude. Around 1837. From the collection of the State Historical Museum

Self-portrait

. “Portrait of F.P. Krasheninnikov" (1824)

“Portrait of A.V. Vasilchikova"

Portrait of Konstantin Georgievich Ravich. . 1823

“Portrait of N.I. Morkova”

V.A. Tropinin. Portrait of A.I. Tropinina (the artist’s mother). 1820

Portrait of a sister

Portrait of the artist's son

V.A. Tropinin. Portrait of the artist's son(?) at an easel. 1820s

V.A. Tropinin. Portrait of K.P. Bryullov. 1836

“Portrait of Alexander Alexandrovich Sapozhnikov”

Portrait of E.V. Meshkova, née Bilibina

Portrait of the writer L. N. Kozhina. . 1836.

Portrait of E.V. Mazurina
1844, oil on canvas, 67.2 x 57.2 cm (oval)
Museum of V.A. Tropinin and Moscow artists of his time, Moscow

The most famous works mentioned are “The Lacemaker”, “The Guitarist”, “Portrait of a Son” and the portrait of Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin - included in most textbooks, known throughout the world, was painted by the artist Tropinin in a serfdom. You can demonstrate and realize your talent and work anywhere. And quite successfully, as we see in the example of Vasily Tropinin.

guitar player

Lacemaker, 1823. Tretyakov Gallery

“The genre itself as a new phenomenon in Russian art, and the position of the artist himself, his attitude, his understanding of the purpose and objectives of the genre were most clearly manifested in one of the very first works of this type of painting - the famous “The Lacemaker” (1823). The nature of the genre determined and the very nature of the composition. It was as if we, together with the artist, looked into where this beautiful young girl was working. And at our unexpected visit, she, as if for a moment, took her mind off her bobbins and looked at us carefully, as is typical in Tropinin’s portraits . But in her gaze there is neither coquetry nor curiosity. On the contrary. In these wide open eyes there is some kind of secret world, some kind of fullness of feelings and thoughts that are closely intertwined in her soul, like this thin, transparent lace that is not displayed as evidence of her work, but is seen as a small fragment, lost in the wide folds of white fabric - the basis. This picture is not about the social characteristics of work, but about its creative beginning, giving birth to beauty, enriching the world around us. A thin nose, beautiful outlines of swollen lips, small curls of hair coming out from behind the ears, and some kind of deeply hidden temperament, the power of life in these eyes and in this look. And this girl herself is, as it were, woven entirely from the feeling of beauty that the artist brought into the painting of her face, and into this smooth, exquisite curve of her hand, these fingers, easily, gracefully fingering the bobbins, and into this fabric, falling in beautiful breaks. And the girl’s face, touched by a gentle blush, and the pistachio tint of her dress, beautifully in harmony with the muslin scarf, as if woven from the sun’s rays, and her hands, finely painted with transparent glaze, and the very object of her work - all this is flooded with light here. It can be said that the portrait lives and breathes, revealing, as the critic of that time wrote, “a pure, innocent soul”
(M. Petrova. Master of Russian portrait)

Boy with a gun. Portrait of the prince M. A. Obolensky. Around 1812