Dmitry G. Levitsky, artist: biography and creativity

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

The author who outlined the history of Russia in faces, Dmitry Grigorievich Levitsky, was an artist of the "gallant" century, and outwardly he himself was a person of a "non-general expression": expressive, passionate, slightly bilious. The painter had a rare gift, he captured all the realities of the eighteenth century for their most distant descendants to study. Before us, the artist Levitsky reveals the era in all its glory: the faces of kings and courtiers, philosophers and secular lions, cold beauties and writers, industrialists and diplomats, aristocrats and merchants, officials and military men, parents and their children, and these portraits are able to tell more authentically than any words about the past that has long passed and will never return.

History Painter

Artist Levitsky gave art lovers an invaluable gift - hundreds and hundreds of portraits depicting stupid and smart, evil and kind, cold and sensual faces, each with its own character, with its own biography. Theserepresentatives of the century of Catherine the Great personify the very essence of a very difficult and very creative time. The artist Levitsky did not write a single picture in a purely historical genre, although he more than completely fulfilled the mission of the historian.

Fate first ex alted him, endowing him with honor and glory, then hid him in the most distant and unvisited corner: his contemporaries quickly forgot the artist Levitsky, whose portraits they had just admired. The public had their own business - calculations, intrigues, is it up to painting! No one even knows where exactly the mound at the Smolensk cemetery is located, under which lies a wonderful man who immortalized the appearance of his era.

Biography

The artist Dmitry Levitsky was born around 1735 (the exact date has not been established) in a small village in the Poltava region. The clan was an old priestly one, which originated from Vasily Nos, well-known in those parts. Father, Grigory Kirillovich, a talented and educated person, studied engraving in Poland for many years and became an excellent master.

It was in Poland that he received a new surname, under which he settled in Kyiv, and hired his own parish in the church to familiar priests. His work was mainly devoted to the spiritual principle, since in Kyiv he collaborated with the Theological Academy and worked in the printing house of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra.

Gift

Agafya's wife (nee Levitskaya, whose surname the priest-engraver took) bore him four sons and a daughter. The eldest son got the brightest glory. The entire biography of the artistLevitsky says that it was he who inherited from his father the gift of composition, which differed from all his contemporaries, accurate drawing in all details, as well as confident work from nature.

The circle of the clergy and highly educated intelligentsia surrounded the boy from birth, because he grew up well-read, intelligent and well-educated. In addition, the character of the young artist D. Levitsky was: until a certain point in his life, he was accompanied by confidence in his own strengths and abilities. And the fact that he was talented never caused disputes.

The Beginning of Mastery

According to some reports, in 1752 the young man met the famous painter Alexei Petrovich Antropov, and this acquaintance had an impact on the life of the artist D. G. Levitsky. At this time, they were supposed to work together on the painting of St. Andrew's Church in Kyiv. And six years later, the young man came to St. Petersburg and not only became a student of this illustrious master, but also lived in his house for the next six years. As an assistant to Antropov, Levitsky painted the Triumphal Gate for the coronation of Catherine II. And two years later he restored this building on his own.

In 1767, he even became rich by completing two iconostasis and more than seventy images for the Kiroioannovskaya and Catherine's churches in Moscow, together with the artist Vasilevsky. There is no information about other teachers. But there is such a fact: already the very first portraits of celebrities by the artist Levitsky radically differed from the style of the artist Antropov. The manner was absolutelynew and independent, more in tune with the canvases of Western European masters than with the vision of his dear teacher. Everything was different: ease, lightness, not characteristic of Russian painting of that time, a range of halftones, glazing, especially softening intense colors, and such a light-air environment, characteristic of Levitsky's works.

First thaw

It was a time when the arts flourished: grandiose palaces were built, the influence of Western schools was enormous, as the best architects, musicians, and artists were invited to the country. The new aesthetics absorbed everything with ease, leaving unshakable the directness of the spirit and the very he althy beginning that could give rise to Rokotov and Levitsky, whose work is life itself. At the same time, the artist in the society of that time meant no more than a good cook or watchmaker. Of course, the portrait painter Levitsky lived most of his life among the highest nobility, in the radiance of diamonds.

And this, most likely, is the biggest dissonance - dependence on artistic material does not lead to anything good. Antropov was a good man, but somewhat petty, it was not easy with him. He hated the Academy of Arts and objected in every possible way to the lessons of two masters. Levitsky quite quickly managed to stop depending on the teacher purely financially, and therefore he subsequently took such lessons after all. Ten years later, the skill was finally polished, and the Frenchman Langrene and the Italian Valeriani helped in this - both of the academicians. In 1770, the realglory.

Girls

In 1770, Levitsky received a gold medal from the Academy of Arts for a portrait of the architect Kokorinov, which he presented to an exhibition organized there. Celebrities participated - Losenko, Groot, but Levitsky was unconditionally given the first place for the perfection of form and spiritual fullness. That is why in 1773 the artist received an order from the empress herself and painted portraits of girls - pupils of the Smolny Institute. It was the first and so far the only school for girls. Previously, noblewomen studied with governesses, while the poor did not study at all. It was a good initiative of the Empress - to open an institute for noble maidens in the Smolny Monastery.

In all the portraits, the artist's talent unfolded as far as possible. Levitsky proved to be not only an excellent psychologist, but also an excellent decorative painter. The portraits were made as ceremonial allegorical paintings: Borshchov's pupil personified the theater, Molchanova - science, Alymova - music, and so on. The entire eighteenth century in its aesthetic system is reflected in these portraits.

Masonry

In less than twenty years, the portraits of celebrities by the artist Levitsky were at best forgotten, and sometimes even played against him. The Empress changed her favorites from time to time, she always treated Freemasonry more than negatively. And Levitsky was a freemason, just like some of his patrons. The main customers for a long time were Chancellor Prince Bezborodko and PresidentAcademy of Arts Count Betskoy. Under many princes and counts, the chairs once shook. The chancellor lost all his state power to Potemkin, and the aged Betskoy was already useless for the state.

A case has been opened against the publisher of "Trutnya" Nikolai Novikov, and it is difficult to separate this name from the name of Levitsky, even we know Novikov from the portrait painted by the artist. Both of them were Freemasons. That's when Levitsky fell not just out of favor. She brought obscurity with her. Throughout the last quarter of his life, Levitsky almost did not work, his canvases of this period can be counted on the fingers. The canvases are excellent as always. But they are few. Very little. And then, already in extreme old age, Levitsky became blind.

When joy is lost

The educator and writer Novikov in the mid-nineties literally opened the artist's eyes to his life and the meaning of this very life. He was, of course, a wonderful friend. It became dazzlingly clear to the artist that his life was lived in lies, hypocrisy and falsehood, which not only surrounded him, but he himself was their parent every hour and every day. The deception seemed to him phantasmagoric, and what horrified him most of all was his own participation in it.

Further on, life went on as before for some time. After breakfast, Levitsky stood at the easel so that the canvases left the workshop one by one, and the noble customers rejoiced and thanked. But the painter could no longer rejoice. The happiness of creativity, creation is gone, and there was only dissatisfaction and emptiness with him. Then new ways were tried - the people, folk themes. Appearedportrait of the artist's daughter in folk wedding attire. But alas. Years of work to order has done its job. There was no more truth in him than before. It turned out to be salon-like, not folk.

Style

The artist did not succeed in spiritualized images, because the whole soul turned out to be emasculated by these radiant portraits, where both coldness, and sweetness, and artificiality are inevitable. And all because concessions, even the smallest ones, are unacceptable in art, and also there should not be any half-truths there. This could not be replaced by excellent craftsmanship, or mastery of color, or magnificent drawing, or an excellent sense of tone. But after all, all this made the portraits of celebrities by the artist D. G. Levitsky so significant and so beautiful!

Masons completely ruined the artist. He now felt a constant anguish, a breakdown, and the hours of work to order became unbearable. Levitsky was drawn to reading, to reflection, to solitude. He was not ready for the role of a fighter. He was just sad. The noble customers felt this from the very beginning, and the court forgot the artist almost instantly. Two or three years passed before the moment when real poverty knocked on the door.

Together with the era

The Academy had to leave with a ridiculous annual pension of two hundred rubles. This handout was so insignificant that it did not look like a boon, but an insult. It is understandable - Levitsky was objectionable. He did not leave because of poor he alth, it was a pretext. The leadership of the Academy has changed, the former benefactors have disappeared. Painterleft with a large family and advancing blindness without means. The struggle for existence was humiliating, difficult and very long.

His contemporaries described in their memoirs how a blind old man spent long hours kneeling in the church at the Academy of Arts. He died at the age of eighty-seven, and by this time he was completely forgotten as an artist. Over the last quarter of his century - from the beginning of the 1800s, he left us portraits of the breeders Bilibins and the maid of honor Protasova from major works. That's almost all. And how prolific this brush was earlier! Catherine's era has dried up, so her singer fell silent.