F. I. Tyutchev: portraits of a creative person

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Russian poetry is impossible to imagine without Tyutchev. Without his sincerely touching lines about the last love, which is "both bliss and hopelessness", subtle psychological sketches of the emotional state of the human soul, landscape paintings that are filled with the energy of thought, movement, their own life. And Tyutchev's words about sympathy and grace - how often we repeat them in moments of anxiety and sadness!

Diplomat, philosopher, writer

The first impressionist poet in our literature, Fyodor Ivanovich, had a brilliant ability to catch and convey in a precisely found word instant impressions and changes in the mood of man and nature, the subtlest states of the soul. Love and philosophical lyrics - these are the topics in which Tyutchev found the most complete expression of himself. His portraits are far from the image of a romantic that readers mentally create for themselves. Bald patches, tousled hair, glasses…

Thin, not at all handsome, if you follow the generally accepted canons. However, this impression arises only at first glance. And if you look more closely, the great Tyutchev appears before us in a completely different way. portraitswell convey the splendor of the high forehead of the poet - the forehead of a thinker, philosopher; and wise sadness in the eyes; and a light, barely perceptible ironic grin at the corners of his mouth. We involuntarily fall under the colossal charm of the personality of this amazing person. And it is forgotten, the external unsightliness ceases to be noticed. It is worth picking up the treasured volume and reading your favorite lines - and it seems that Tyutchev is personally talking to us. His portraits are images of a serious, life-wise man who has seen a lot, experienced ups and downs of the greatest happiness and the most bitter misfortunes, but who has not lost either the taste for life or the desire to live, love, create.

Contemporary opinions

The poet A. Pletnev called the poet out of the ordinary. What was Tyutchev like? His portraits, according to Pletnev, convey the mind and irony, seriousness and kindness, spiritual complexity and uniqueness of the artist, multiplied by the versatility and inconsistency of the era in which he worked. This remark refers to a watercolor made from Tyutchev in 1838. The diplomat and then little-known poet is 35 years old. Much has already been written by him, but there are even better poems ahead that made his name immortal.

Another contemporary of the artist, writer and public figure Meshchersky, emphasized that each portrait of Fyodor Tyutchev reflected some negligence in external attributes, combined with the refinement of the internal appearance. “A powerful spirit with physical weakness,” is the opinion of his biographer Aksakov about the poet. Any society revived as soon as Fyodor Ivanovich appeared there. His brilliant, well-aimed,witty phrases were picked up and repeated in different salons. Tyutchev's word captivated, fascinated, encouraged, consoled, delighted. After all, he was a poet not only in literature, but also in life.

Tyutchev iconography

Speaking about the appearance of the poet, through which his inner world so clearly looks through, we can rely not only on the works of artists who captured him, but also on photographs. The very first portrait of Fyodor Ivanovich Tyutchev is for children. A ruddy baby, more like an angel than an ordinary child, can tell us little about the brilliant future of this person. Drawn for a family chronicle, this portrait is of little interest to us.

Another thing - the work of non-professional artist Rechberg. A still young man without the usual glasses looks at us tenaciously and with a certain amount of irony. It is clear that, first of all, Tyutchev positions himself as a diplomat, rather than as a poet. He emphasizes his official status as a representative of Russia, the Russian state, considering this status to be primary. Tyutchev thought of himself as a poet secondarily.

From diplomat to writer

Photographic portraits of Fyodor Ivanovich in the 1850s-1860s, made by master Levitsky, give us an idea of a respectable, secular, successful person. Later ones bear a clear seal of suffering associated with the death of E. Denisyeva, Tyutchev's last beloved.

The above is the work of the artist Aleksandrovsky. Instead of the usual strict black suit and white shirtwe see a different appearance: an unbuttoned frock coat, a plaid thrown over his shoulder. A touch of romanticism and poetry is clearly felt. By right, this is one of the best images of the poet, although it was written after the death of Tyutchev.