Ivan Andreevich Krylov is a great fabulist who is always relevant. New sayings, catchwords, quotes appear. They will be a little on hearing and disappear, and a crow with cheese, especially after it has become plasticine, is always with us.
Many Russian artists captured it on their canvases. The portrait of Ivan Andreyevich Krylov by Karl Bryullov, like the great fabulist himself (1769-1844), is known to almost every inhabitant of our country.
Beloved by all
The fabulist, poet, playwright and publicist lived a long, calm and well-fed life, as evidenced by more than one portrait of Krylov. He was kindly and patronized by the royal family. According to some reports, Nicholas I in 1841 agreed to the transformation of the Russian Academy of Sciences, provided that the first academician was Krylov. And the empress, worried about the illness of the fabulist, wanted to personally look after him. He retired with a boarding house of 6 thousand rubles, and his total income was 11,700 rubles. bank notes per year.
First portraits
Actually, any portrait of Krylov, and there are quite a few of them, both famous and little-known authors, and even amateurs, has preserved for posterity the face of a person who is smart, thinking, but not alarmed and not worried, dignified and calm.
Volkov Roman Maksimovich, a representative of academism, painted a portrait of Krylov in 1812 (oil on canvas, size - 685 x 700 cm, stored in the Tretyakov Gallery). A full forty-year-old man, leaning on books with a pen in his hand, with a smooth face without the famous whiskers, is very easily recognizable.
The famous Orestes of Kiprensky also painted a fabulist. There is a portrait of Krylov’s brush by this artist, dated 1816, and a pencil drawing called “Krylov and the Unknown.”
Not very well-known to the general public portrait painters
It should be noted that the joker and the glutton, the witty mocker and the generally cheerful person were loved by others. His jokes were remembered, there were a lot of jokes from his life. Next in chronological order is a portrait of Gippius Gustav Fomich (1792-1856), an excellent artist. From the large canvases of his brush belongs the picture of Vladimir, choosing a religion for Russia. I.A. Krylov in the portrait is still without a whisker.
Artist Eggink Ivan Egorovich, quite popular at that time, also painted a portrait of Krylov in 1834. This work is well known, as it is published along with the famous portraits of Karl Bryullov, who captured the academician in 1839 and in the year of his death - in 1844.
Portraitist I.E. Eggink was awarded the title of academician for this work, which adorned the conference hall of the Academy for a long time. The portrait is really very good: it depicts a Russian gentleman in the best sense of the word, living in wealth, loving wealth, which makes it possible to do what you love. Looking at the face of a worthy person recognizable at first glance, you understand that he knew the value of his talent and his relevance to his place in society. A well-groomed face framed by famous whiskers, silk clothes, a book with a golden sawn-off edge and a sheet in his left hand with a fable “Cornflower”, which Krylov wrote in gratitude to the empress. I.E. Eggink emphasized in his work and perpetuated the sympathy that exists between the great Russian fabulist and the Romanov dynasty.
In addition to the above, the works of P.A. Venison of 1824 and N. Legashev of 1840.
National treasure
However, the most famous portrait of Ivan Krylov was created by the great Karl Bryullov, who at the time of his writing was already the most venerable and all-powerful painter of Russia, the most fashionable and sought-after. The famous fabulist on the canvas of 1839 does not look as well-groomed as in the portrait of Eggink. We can say that one feels tired in the face of this person, and the clothes look more sloppy, and the hand is not so polished. Obviously, the great Bryullov did not sin against the truth: Krylov was excellent by the sloven and glutton, and did not constrain himself by anything. And on the canvas visible and a huge belly, and wrinkled sleeves. But this is the most wonderful portrait of the great fabulist, especially good eyes that look directly into the soul of the viewer. So millions know him. This canvas measuring 415 x 500 cm belongs to the public domain and is stored in the Tretyakov Gallery.