Artist Egorov: biography, personal life, creativity

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

Artist Yegorov Alexei Yegorovich is a Russian painter and draftsman, as well as a professor of historical painting. As a teacher at the Academy of Arts, he was able to have a huge impact on domestic art. Such talented artists as Basin, Markov, K. P. Bryullov and others grew up under his wing.

Short biography: early years

The place of birth and the origin of the future artist were unknown. However, according to Yegorov's childhood memories, it can be concluded that the child definitely had Asian roots: a rich silk robe, a wagon and embroidered boots were combined with a Tatar appearance.

Being a Kalmyk, captured by the Cossacks, he ended up in an orphanage in the city of Moscow. Date of birth falls on 1776.

In 1782, on March 14, at a young age of only 6 years, Alexei enters the Academy of Arts and becomes a student of Ivan Akimov, a Russian painter working in the direction of classicism. In the institution, student Alexei quickly gains fame as the best draftsman from nature, which is documented by the medals awarded to him(small and large silver) and the badge "For good behavior and success".

Youth

In 1797, the artist Egorov completed a training course and in 1798 he was already appointed as a teacher in this institution. Exactly in the 19th century, he received the title of academician and after 3 years (1803) went on an internship to Rome, where he practiced with Vincenzo Camuccini, a painter and graphic artist of Italy.

Being a foreigner of domestic tastes and traditions, as well as a real Russian hero in his youth, the artist Alexei Yegorov is very popular while in Italy.

Almost everyone knew him. From some lips came a description of him as one of the greatest Russian draftsmen, and someone said that Yegorov is a real "Russian bear".

Mature years

In 1807, the biography of the artist Yegorov again leaves for his native Russia, when he returns to St. Petersburg and is immediately appointed deputy, and then an academician for his excellent achievements in the painting "The Entombment".

At the same time, the artist Egorov takes the place of a drawing teacher and teaches this skill to Empress Elizabeth Alekseevna and Alexander I. The latter, sincerely loving Alexei, gave him the nickname "famous", since the artist was able to write a large-scale work in just 28 days "Prosperity of the world", which depicted about 100 life-size figures.

If we talk about Egorov, touching on his role as a teacher, then we can say that the personality of an ancient philosopher was traced in him: not only a sense of duty, but also warm human relations, such as brotherhood and friendship, connected the teacher with his students. Respect and love on the part of the wards reached the point that the students were ready to give him an overcoat or a stick, light a lantern and accompany the whole class home.

In fact, Egorov helped to correct students' mistakes with the help of personal instructions with advice and could only rarely reproach with a short and sharp word.

Recent years

Toward the end of the life of the artist Egorov suffers a severe blow: in 1840 he was dismissed from service for the dissatisfaction of Emperor Nikolai Pavlovich with Yegorov's work "The Holy Trinity", which was supposed to decorate the walls of the cathedral in Tsarskoye Selo. The "pension" for his work was the annual payment of a reward in the amount of 1,000 rubles, 4,000 of which were withheld for paying for Tsarskoe Selo icons.

Egorov was helped not to lose heart by his former students. Despite the dismissal from the Academy, the artists Markov, Bryullov, Shamshin and others came to the professor's house for advice, instructions, demonstrated new works and listened to his opinion, still cherishing their beloved teacher.

Thanks to the support and faith in him, Alexey worked in painting until the end of his days.

On September 22, 1851, the news swept through St. Petersburg: the artist Alexei Yegorov died, saying before his death: "My candle has burned out." He was buried at the Smolensk Orthodoxcemetery, but in the 30s of the XIX century it was transferred to the Alexander Nevsky Lavra.

Private life

Alexey Egorov was married to the daughter of the sculptor Martos - Vera Ivanovna. Despite his teaching talent, he was not at all involved in the education of his daughters, considering the education of girls to be tyranny and useless. In his opinion, the priority was the financial situation: if there is a dowry, there will be suitors.

The artist Egorov painted images of angels, including with his daughters, with the youngest he even depicted odalisques (women - harem concubines).

In marriage he had four children:

1. Hope (was married to D. N. Bulgakov);
2. Evdokia (was married to A. I. Terebenev);
3. Sofia;
4. son Evdokim.

Creativity

Being a deeply believing Christian, Alexei found his calling in religious painting. All paintings by the artist Yegorov were painted on biblical and divine themes.

During the Roman internship, Antonio Canove and Egorov's teacher Vincenzo Camuccini never ceased to be amazed at his mastery, which combined the rigor of style with individuality. In the paintings, the artist preferred simplicity and clarity, and in colors - naturalness.

Some of the most famous paintings by the artist Egorov:

• "Holy Family";



• "Saint Simeon the God-bearer";



• "Torture of the Savior".

All three works are in the Russian Museum.

Egorov said that with the help of church painting he preaches God's word, therefore, for those who want to paint portraits of themselves, he offered the services of other artists. However, he also had exceptions: he nevertheless painted portraits for Princess Evdokia Galitsyna, General Dmitry Shepelev, the son of engineer Alexei Tomilov and others.

The artist Egorov is one of the largest figures of the Russian academic school and a representative of the classicism movement. He preferred to work in free-form line drawing, in chalk or ink pen, either on brown paper or on a tinted base. Egorov also paid more attention to the rhythmic construction of the picture, practically without modeling the form.

Depending on the artistic task, he could reproduce the lines rough, broken, jerky or soft and rounded.

Egorov created works for such institutions as Kazan Cathedral, Trinity Cathedral, Tauride Palace, Zion Cathedral in Tiflis, Small and Palace Churches in Tsarskoye Selo.