The fate of any painting that catches our eyes in art galleries and museums is always interesting. Of particular interest are undoubtedly portraits. After all, they depict people who once lived or now live with their own character, their own destiny, whose spirit the artist caught and immortalized on canvas. Whether it is an unknown person or a famous one, it is always curious to plunge deeper into the fate of both the master who created the masterpiece and the person depicted in the picture.
Today in the center of our attention will be the portrait of A.S. Pushkin. Tropinin Vasily Andreevich became one of the many artists who captured on the canvas of the great Russian poet. What was the fate and career of the artist before this meeting? Under what circumstances was the portrait painted and where is it now? Let's find out about it.
A few words about the artist
The homeland of Vasily Tropinin, who is rightly considered one of the most outstanding portrait painters of his time in Russia, is the village of Karpovo, Novgorod province. Paradoxically, the father of Tropinin was the serf of Count Minikh, and when his daughter, Natalya Antonovna Minikh, became the wife of Count Morkov, the young artist was transferred to the dowry of the new owner.
When Count Morkov sent Tropinin to St. Petersburg to study confectionery, he secretly attended lectures at the Academy of Fine Arts. His natural talent for painting contributed to the fact that Tropinin was allowed to be an Academy volunteer. However, he never received an education and must go to Ukraine with his master.
Gradually, he increasingly attracted the attention of the public with his truly talented works. Finally, in 1823 he became free, received the title of academician and began his life in Moscow, not far from the Bolshoi Kamenny Bridge. It was there that Tropinin painted a portrait of Pushkin, which later became one of the most famous images of the poet.
Creative way
Tropinin's early works are characterized by an intimacy of images, a delicate, but at the same time very seasoned, colorful gamut, which he used when drawing sketches-portraits of his masters - the Morkov family.
In the works of the period 1820-1830. You can see the sculptural clarity of the volumes, the energetic and attentive characterization of the model, the full soundness of the colors that Tropinin began to use. The portrait of Pushkin, relating to this period, just in full demonstrates all of the above.
In the paintings of the 1830-1840s. there is an increase in genre features, a complication of composition. Tropinin pays great attention to various details, which contributes to the creation of acutely characteristic, typical images of his contemporaries. The works of that time are also characterized by outwardly romantic tendencies, basically not characteristic of his work.
The main goal of the artist was to show the typicality of the characters depicted by him, conveying internal attractiveness and not showing their obvious belonging to a particular class. Drawing concrete people, he tried to show all that was typical for people of this circle. Such is the picture “Lacemaker”, permeated with sincerity and warmth of feelings for a simple person from the people.
The preparatory drawings on which the artist Tropinin worked in the process are also artistically valuable. His paintings played an important role, developing Russian democratic art of the 19th century and forming Moscow art traditions.
History of the portrait
It is known that Pushkin himself did not really like to pose for artists. It is for this reason that there are so few written from nature images of the poet. However, after his return from the Mikhailovsky exile, at the end of the Decembrists' case, in 1827 two such portraits were painted, which later became the classics of Russian painting and the best images of Pushkin. The first was written by O. A. Kiprensky, and V. A. Tropinin, whose portrait of Pushkin was recognized as the most realistic image, created the second.
Contrary to the popular version, the portrait was commissioned by the poet himself, and not by his friend Sergei Alexandrovich Sobolevsky, who wanted to get a portrait of Pushkin in his usual form before leaving, and not in full parade. This became clear from a letter from Sobolevsky, published in 1952, which stated that the poet secretly ordered a painting and presented it to a friend as a gift.
It was easy to determine the artist’s choice, since Vasily Andreevich at that time was already known as an excellent portrait painter. However, in the process of work, it was necessary to abandon the original plan, which contradicted the familiar, well-established system, the adherent of which was Tropinin. The portrait of Pushkin in the final version depicted rather than the intimate ease and naturalness of the posing as Sobolevsky wanted, but the poetic mess with which inspiration is so often associated in romantic art. The deep inner significance and creative tension of the poet was perfectly conveyed.
He tried to show the viewer creating a portrait of Pushkin, Tropinin. The description of the picture proves once again that he succeeded. The poet sits, his pose is natural and laid-back. The right hand with two rings on the fingers lies on the table, next to the opened book. She is wearing a spacious bathrobe with a blue collar and a long blue scarf around her neck. Background and clothes are united by a common golden and brown color, due to which the face and lapel of the shirt, which is the center of the composition, stand out. Tropinin did not aim to embellish Pushkin's appearance, but he successfully recreated and captured the poet's high spirituality.
The fate of the canvas
The life story of the picture is also interesting. Sobolevsky took a small copy from the portrait of Avdotya Petrovna Elagina in order to carry it with him. And although it was performed professionally, the whole essence of the portrait was lost. As the researchers write, she did not convey the inner strength and movement that the original carries.
Leaving Russia, Sobolevsky left the portrait for storage by the same Avdotya Elagina. However, having returned from abroad five years later, he discovered the substitution of the original for a low-quality copy.
An authentic portrait appeared in the mid-50s in one of the money-changers. In 1909 he was in the collection of the Tretyakov Gallery, and after the revolution, in 1937, he moved to the All-Union, now All-Russian Museum of A. S. Pushkin in St. Petersburg.
Now the portrait is in the Memorial Museum-Apartment of Pushkin on the embankment of the Moika River, 12, which is part of the museum complex.
Criticism of work
Contemporaries unanimously recognized the similarity of the Tropinin portrait with the real Pushkin. But one of the critics noted that the artist was not able to fully convey the look of the poet. This statement can hardly be fair, since Pushkin’s intense and gaze from the portrait expresses genuine inspiration in moments of creative impulse.
In contrast to the work of Kiprensky, the portrait of Tropinin is more modest, but not inferior to the first either in pictorial power or in expressiveness.
Portrait of Tropinin and portrait of Kiprensky
Both of these portraits were created in the same year and show two different images of the poet. Kiprensky's portrait was painted in the summer of 1827 by order of Pushkin's friend, A. A. Delvig. On it, Pushkin is inspired, with a deep but diffused look, deeply focused. Pushkin Kiprensky's work is filled with solemnity and significance.
This is fundamentally different from what Tropinin wrote. The portrait of Pushkin by his brush, as we have already said, depicts the poet in the image of an ordinary person in a home setting and clothes. This image is closer and warmer for the viewer.
Other images of Pushkin
In addition to the classic portraits of Tropinin and Kiprensky, there are other images of Pushkin. The very first of them was a miniature of the work of an unknown artist, on which the poet is depicted at the age of about three years.
After that, many portraits were painted and copies and lists were made from the classical images of the poet. Pushkin himself, well knowing the features of his face, painted self-portraits in profile, the first of which appeared in the process of preparing for the publication of the first collection of poems.
However, it is difficult to argue that any portrait of Pushkin, whose photos we see on the Internet or books, can replace the aesthetic pleasure from contemplating the original, exhibited in an art gallery. Only there you can feel the unique flavor and spirit emanating from the canvas, and fully understand the artist’s intention.