Assessing the full scale of a great creative personality is often an impossible task, especially for contemporaries. Many artists tried to express the significance of Pushkin's genius by means of fine art.
Among them is Orest Adamovich Kiprensky. The portrait of Pushkin by the artist is a rare example of a picturesque masterpiece of the era of romanticism, which has timeless significance.
Master of romantic portrait
The painter of the classical academic school, born in 1782, was the illegitimate son of a Russian landowner. Kiprensky was one of the first Russian artists to receive real European recognition. The Academy of Arts of Florence ordered him a self-portrait, located in the Uffizi Gallery. The artist died in 1836 in Rome, being a professor at the Imperial Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg, a member of the Neapolitan Academy.
Kiprensky’s legacy is diverse in artistic value. It contains paintings on mythological subjects, full of manner sentimentality. But the best paintings are a combination of outstanding pictorial skill and subtle psychologism. Portraits of the adoptive father of the artist - A.K. Schwalbe, the hero of World War II E.V. Davydov, poet V.A. Zhukovsky, fabulist I.A. Krylova is a real Kiprensky. Portrait of Pushkin - one of the highest ups of the artistic talent of the master.
Friend at Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum
The poet and journalist Baron Anton Antonovich Delvig (1798-1831) was one of Pushkin's closest friends. From lyceum times they highly appreciated the poetic gift and human qualities of each other. Delvig faster than the rest realized the greatness of Pushkin's literary genius. In 1827, he ordered a picture of a friend for himself, and it was in his house that he painted the Kiprensky portrait of Pushkin. Delvig's composition of elegies and idylls became an example for young Pushkin, and this largely predetermined the formation of the great poet.
The early death of Anton Antonovich shocked his great friend. Pushkin took care of the orphaned family and until the end of his life recalled Delvig in poetry. He did not forget the picture that Kiprensky painted. The portrait of Pushkin passed to the heirs of Delvig and was already then very expensive. But Alexander Sergeyevich bought it and kept it until his death.
"A minute - and the verses will flow freely ..."
The poet is depicted waist-high, in a strict black frock coat with a plaid lining over his shoulder. Napoleonic arms folded on the chest. In the background is a figurine of the muse of lyric poetry Erato with a lyre in his hands. The face and arm with the legendary long nails are lit more strongly and immediately attract attention.
Many call this portrait a monument. There are all the attributes of monumentality and solemnity: a magnificent pose, symbols of belonging to high art. But not only Kiprensky strove for this. The portrait of Pushkin is very deep in content. In the poet’s view, there is intelligence and life experience, inspiration and indomitable disposition, recognition of one’s talent and independence.
A lot is seen in the appearance of the poet to us - descendants who know the future fate of a genius. Kiprensky painted the portrait of Pushkin when the poet had ten years to live. This decade included the unprecedented creative take-offs of the Boldin autumn and the great ideas that remained unfulfilled. Ahead are happy family years and financial turmoil, reverent reverence for some and the malicious hatred of others. There will be a painful death and great immortality. Isn’t that what we see in Pushkin’s gaze?
"You re-created, dear wizard,
Me, the pet of pure muses ... "
Those who saw the poet live noted the amazing accuracy of the brush of the master who painted this portrait of Pushkin. Kiprensky was able to convey all the nuances of the poet's appearance and his huge soul. The poet’s father, Sergei Lvovich, called the painting an expression of the very essence of the appearance and spiritual content of his great son.
The appearance of the poet was known to the broad masses of that time only by a small youthful portrait attached to the first edition of the "Prisoner of the Caucasus" (1822).
Portraits of Pushkin (Kiprensky and Tropinin - outstanding masters) were painted almost simultaneously. They gave the Russian reader the opportunity to consider the appearance of their idol. Engraving copies were made from them, which soon appeared in many houses of Russia and abroad. It was from them that strangers began to recognize the poet.
The portrait of Vasily Andreyevich Tropinin was highly appreciated by contemporaries. Similar to the work of Kiprensky with a general elevation of the artistic image, he was distinguished by greater intimacy and romantic poetry. This portrait was commissioned by Pushkin himself for a gift to a friend - S. A. Sobolevsky, and was to emphasize the inherent value of private life inherent in the era of romanticism. But even on it the poet looks primarily a bearer of high ideas, devoid of mental laziness and blissful peace.
Live Pushkin
Pushkin liked to joke about his “Arapian” facial features, and although he really liked the portrait of Kiprensky, he considered him flattering and called the artist “a cute wizard”. But the value of the masterpiece is difficult to understate. Kiprensky not only created an inspired image of genius, he showed the face of a man with a difficult and stressful life, whose mind and work laid the foundations of the modern language and culture of subsequent generations of our people.