Tropinin, portrait of Pushkin. V. A. Tropinin, portrait of Pushkin: description of the painting

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

The fate of any painting that catches our eye in art galleries and museums is always interesting. Of particular curiosity, of course, are portraits. After all, they depict people who once lived or are living now with their own character, their own destiny, whose spirit was captured and immortalized on canvas by the artist. Whether it is a person unknown to us or famous, 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 the portrait of A. S. Pushkin will be in the center of our attention. Tropinin Vasily Andreevich became one of the many artists who captured the great Russian poet on canvas. How did the fate and creative path of the artist develop before this acquaintance? 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 birthplace 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, but Tropinin's father was a serf of Count Minich, and when his daughter - Natalya AntonovnaMinich - became the wife of Count Carrot, the young artist was transferred as a dowry to the new owner.

When Count Morkov sent Tropinin to St. Petersburg to study confectionery, he secretly attended lectures at the Academy of Arts. His innate talent for painting contributed to the fact that Tropinin was allowed to be a volunteer at the Academy. However, he never received an education and had to go with his master to Ukraine.

Gradually, he increasingly attracted the attention of the public with his truly talented work. Finally, in 1823, he became free, received the title of academician and began his life in Moscow, not far from the Bolshoy 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 path

Tropinin's early works are characterized by the intimacy of images, gentle, but at the same time very restrained color range, which he used when drawing sketches-portraits of his masters - the Carrot family.

In the works of the period 1820-1830. you can see the sculptural clarity of volumes, the energetic and attentive characterization of the model, the full sound of color that Tropinin began to use. The portrait of Pushkin, referring to this period, just fully demonstrates all of the above.

In the paintings of the 1830s-1840s. there is an increase in genre features, a complication of the composition. Tropinin pays great attention to various details, which contributes to the creation of sharp, typical images of his contemporaries. Worksof that time are also characterized by outwardly romantic tendencies, mostly not characteristic of his work.

The main goal of the artist was to show the typicality of the characters depicted by him, conveying the inner attractiveness and not showing their obvious belonging to a particular class. Drawing specific people, he tried to show everything that was typical for people of this circle. This 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 in developing Russian democratic art of the 19th century and shaping Moscow artistic traditions.

History of the creation of the portrait

It is known that Pushkin himself was not very fond of posing for artists. It is for this reason that there are so few images of the poet written from nature. However, after his return from Mikhailovsky exile, at the end of the Decembrist case, two such portraits were painted in 1827, which later became classics of Russian painting and the best images of Pushkin. The first was painted by O. A. Kiprensky, and V. A. Tropinin, whose portrait of Pushkin is recognized as the most realistic image, created the second.

Contrary to the popular version, the portrait was painted by order of the poet himself, and not by his friend Sergei Alexandrovich Sobolevsky, who wanted to receive a portrait of Pushkin in his usual form before leaving, and not in full dress. This became clear from Sobolevsky's letter,published in 1952, which said that the poet secretly commissioned a painting and gave it to a friend as a gift.

It was easy to decide on the choice of the artist, since Vasily Andreevich was already known as an excellent portrait painter at that time. However, in the process of work, the original idea had to be abandoned, which contradicted the usual, well-established system, to which Tropinin was an adherent. The final version of Pushkin's portrait depicted not the intimate ease and naturalness of the posing person, as Sobolevsky wanted, but the poetic disorder with which inspiration is so often associated in romantic art. The deep inner significance and creative intensity of the poet was perfectly conveyed.

Tropinin tried to show all this to the viewer by creating a portrait of Pushkin. The description of the painting once again proves that he succeeded. The poet is sitting, his posture is natural and unconstrained. The right hand with two rings on the fingers lies on the table, next to the open book. He wears a spacious dressing gown with a blue collar and a long blue scarf around his neck. The background and clothes are united by a common golden and brown color, due to which the face and the 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 high spirituality of the poet.

The fate of the canvas

The life story of the painting is also interesting. Sobolevsky took a small copy of the portrait from Avdotya Petrovna Elagina,to take it with you. And although it was done 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, when he returned from abroad five years later, he discovered that the original had been replaced with a low-quality copy.

The original portrait appeared in the mid-50s in one of the change shops. In 1909, he got into the collection of the Tretyakov Gallery, and after the revolution, in 1937, he moved to the All-Union, now the All-Russian Museum of A. S. Pushkin in St. Petersburg.

Now the portrait is in the Pushkin Memorial Museum-Apartment on the Moika Embankment, 12, which is part of the museum complex.

Criticism of work

Contemporaries unanimously recognized the similarity of Tropinin's portrait with the real Pushkin. But one of the critics noted that the artist could not fully convey the view of the poet. This statement can hardly be fair, since Pushkin's intense and intent gaze from the portrait expresses true inspiration in moments of creative impulse.

Unlike Kiprensky's work, Tropinin's portrait is more modest, but not inferior to the first one 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. The portrait of Kiprensky was painted in the summer of 1827 by order of Pushkin's friend, A. A. Delvig. Pushkin is inspired by it, with a deep, but absent-minded look, deeply focused. Pushkin by Kiprensky 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 form of an ordinary person in a home environment and clothes. This image is closer and warmer to the viewer.

More images of Pushkin

In addition to the classic portraits of Tropinin and Kiprensky, there are other images of Pushkin. The very first of these was a miniature by an unknown artist, which depicts the poet 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, knowing the features of his face well, 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 with the fact that any portrait of Pushkin, whose photo we see on the Internet or in books, can replace the aesthetic pleasure of contemplating the original exhibited in an art gallery. Only there you can feel the unique color and spirit emanating from the canvas, and fully understand the artist's intention.