Romanticism and realism were characteristic of Russian fine arts. However, the officially recognized method was classicism. The Academy of Arts became a conservative and inert institution that discouraged any attempt at creative freedom. She demanded strict adherence to the canons of classicism, encouraged painting on biblical and mythological subjects. Young talented Russian artists were not satisfied with the framework of academicism. Therefore, they often turned to the portrait genre.
The painting embodied the romantic ideals of the era of national rise. Rejecting the strict, non-derogable principles of classicism, the artists discovered the diversity and uniqueness of the surrounding world. This was not only reflected in the already familiar genres - portrait and landscape - but also gave impetus to the birth of everyday painting, which became the focus of attention of masters of the second half of the century. In the meantime, the primacy remained with the historical genre. It was the last refuge of classicism, but even here romantic ideas and themes were hidden behind the formal classicist "facade".
Romanticism - (French romantisme), an ideological and artistic trend in European and American spiritual culture of the late 18th - 1st half. 19th centuries Reflecting disappointment in the results of the French Revolution of the late 18th century, in the ideology of the Enlightenment and social progress. Romanticism contrasted utilitarianism and the leveling of personality with the striving for unlimited freedom and “infinite”, the thirst for perfection and renewal, the pathos of personal and civil independence. A painful discord between the ideal and social reality is the basis of the romantic worldview and art. The assertion of the intrinsic value of the spiritual and creative life of an individual, the image of strong passions, the image of strong passions, a spiritualized and healing nature, for many romantics - heroics of protest or struggle coexist with the motives of "world sorrow", "world evil", the "night" side of the soul, clothed in forms of irony, grotesque poetics of a double world. Interest in the national past (often its idealization), the traditions of folklore and culture of one's own and other peoples, the desire to create a universal picture of the world (primarily history and literature), the idea of \u200b\u200ba synthesis of arts found expression in the ideology and practice of Romanticism.
In the visual arts, Romanticism manifested itself most clearly in painting and graphics, less clearly in sculpture and architecture (for example, false Gothic). Most of the national schools of Romanticism in the visual arts developed in the struggle against the official academic classicism.
In the depths of the official-state culture, there is a layer of “elite” culture serving the ruling class (aristocracy and the royal court) and possessing a special susceptibility to foreign innovations. Suffice it to recall the romantic painting of O. Kiprensky, V. Tropinin, K. Bryullov, A. Ivanov and other major artists of the 19th century.
Kiprensky Orest Adamovich, Russian artist. An outstanding master of Russian fine art of romanticism, he is known as a wonderful portrait painter. In the painting "Dmitry Donskoy on the Kulikovo Field" (1805, Russian Museum), he demonstrated a confident knowledge of the canons of the academic historical picture. But early on, the area where his talent is revealed most naturally and naturally is the portrait. His first pictorial portrait ("A. K. Schwalbe", 1804, ibid.), Written in the "Rembrandt" manner, stands out for its expressive and dramatic cut-and-shadow system. Over the years, his skill - manifested in the ability to create, first of all, unique individual-characteristic images, selecting special plastic means to shade this characteristic - gets stronger. They are full of impressive vitality: a portrait of the boy A.A. Chelishchev (circa 1810-11), paired images of the spouses F.V. and E.P. Rostopchin (1809) and V.S. and D.N. Khvostovs (1814, all Tretyakov Gallery). The artist increasingly plays with the possibilities of color and cut-and-shadow contrasts, landscape background, symbolic details ("E. S. Avdulina", about 1822, ibid.). The artist knows how to make even large ceremonial portraits lyrically, almost intimately at ease ("Portrait of the Life-Hussar Colonel Evgraf Davydov", 1809, Russian Museum). His portrait of a young, fanned by poetic glory A.S. Pushkin is one of the best in creating a romantic image. In Kiprensky's work, Pushkin looks solemn and romantic, in an aura of poetic glory. “You flatter me, Orest,” sighed Pushkin, looking at the finished canvas. Kiprensky was also a virtuoso draftsman, who created (mainly in the technique of Italian pencil and pastel) examples of graphic mastery, which often surpassed his pictorial portraits with open, excitingly light emotionality. These are everyday types ("The Blind Musician", 1809, Russian Museum; "Kalmychka Bayusta", 1813, Tretyakov Gallery), and the famous series of pencil portraits of participants in the Patriotic War of 1812 (drawings depicting E. I. Chaplitsa, A. R. Tomilov, P.A.Olenin, the same drawing with the poet Batyushkov and others; 1813-15, Tretyakov Gallery and other collections); the heroic beginning here takes on a soulful connotation. A large number of sketches and textual evidence show that the artist throughout his mature period gravitated towards creating a large (in his own words from a letter to A.N. Olenin in 1834), "spectacular, or, in Russian, a striking and magical picture" where the results of European history would be depicted in allegorical form, as well as the destiny of Russia. “Newspaper Readers in Naples” (1831, Tretyakov Gallery) - which looks just like a group portrait - in fact is a secretly symbolic response to revolutionary events in Europe.
However, the most ambitious of Kiprensky's pictorial allegories remained unfulfilled or disappeared (like the "Anacreon Tomb" completed in 1821). These romantic searches, however, received a large-scale continuation in the works of K. P. Bryullov and A. A. Ivanov.
The realistic style was reflected in the works of V.A. Tropinin. The early portraits of Tropinin, painted in a restrained colorful scale (family portraits of Counts Morkovs in 1813 and 1815, both in the Tretyakov Gallery), still entirely belong to the tradition of the Age of Enlightenment: in them the model is the unconditional and stable center of the image. Later, the coloring of Tropinin's painting becomes more intense, the volumes are usually sculpted more clearly and sculpturally, but most importantly, a purely romantic feeling of the mobile element of life grows insinuatingly, only a part, a fragment of which the hero of the portrait seems to be a fragment of (Bulakhov, 1823; K. G. Ravich , 1823; self-portrait, circa 1824; all three are in the same place). Such is A.S. Pushkin in the famous portrait of 1827 (All-Russian Museum of A.S. Pushkin, Pushkin): the poet, putting his hand on a stack of paper, as if "hears the muse", listens to the creative dream surrounding the image with an invisible halo ... He also painted a portrait of A.S. Pushkin. The viewer is presented with a wise life experience, not very happy man... In the portrait of Tropinin, the poet is charming at home. Some special old Moscow warmth and coziness emanates from the works of Tropinin. Until the age of 47, he was in serf captivity. That is why, probably, the faces of ordinary people are so fresh, so spiritualized in his canvases. And endless youth and charm of his "Lacemaker". Most often V.A. Tropinin turned to the image of people from the people ("The Lacemaker", "Portrait of a Son", etc.).
The artistic and ideological quest of Russian social thought, the expectation of changes were reflected in the paintings of K.P. Bryullov "The Last Day of Pompeii" and A.A. Ivanov "The Appearance of Christ to the People".
The painting "The Last Day of Pompeii" by Karl Pavlovich Bryullov (1799-1852) is a great work of art. In 1830, the Russian artist Karl Pavlovich Bryullov visited the excavations of the ancient city of Pompeii. He walked along the ancient pavements, admired the frescoes, and that tragic night of August 79 AD rose in his imagination. BC, when the city was covered with hot ash and pumice of the awakened Vesuvius. Three years later, the painting "The Last Day of Pompeii" made a triumphant journey from Italy to Russia. The artist found amazing colors to depict the tragedy of the ancient city, dying under the lava and ash of the erupting Vesuvius. The picture is imbued with lofty humanistic ideals. It shows the courage of people, their selflessness, shown during a terrible catastrophe. Bryullov was in Italy on a business trip to the Academy of Arts. In this educational institution, training in the technique of painting and drawing was well organized. However, the Academy was clearly guided by the ancient heritage and heroic themes. Academic painting was characterized by decorative landscape, theatricality of the overall composition. Scenes from modern life, an ordinary Russian landscape were considered unworthy of the artist's brush. Classicism in painting received the title of academicism. Bryullov was associated with the Academy with all his work.
He possessed a powerful imagination, a keen eye and a faithful hand - and he gave birth to living creations, consistent with the canons of academism. Truly with Pushkin's grace, he knew how to capture on canvas and the beauty of the naked human body, and the trembling of a sunbeam on a green leaf. His paintings "Horsewoman", "Bathsheba", "Italian Morning", "Italian Noon", numerous ceremonial and intimate portraits will forever remain unfading masterpieces of Russian painting. However, the artist has always gravitated towards large historical themes, towards the depiction of significant events in human history. Many of his plans in this regard were not implemented. Bryullova never left the idea of \u200b\u200bcreating an epic canvas based on a plot from Russian history. He begins the painting "The Siege of Pskov by the Troops of King Stephen Batory". It depicts the climax of the siege of 1581, when the Pskov warriors and. the townspeople launch an attack on the Poles who have broken through into the city and throw them back behind the walls. But the picture remained unfinished, and the task of creating truly national historical paintings was carried out not by Bryullov, but by the next generation of Russian artists. Pushkin's one-year-old, Bryullov outlived him by 15 years. In recent years, he was ill. From a self-portrait, painted at that time, a reddish man with delicate features and a calm, thoughtful gaze looks at us.
In the first half of the XIX century. the artist Alexander Andreevich Ivanov (1806-1858) lived and worked. He devoted his entire creative life to the idea of \u200b\u200bspiritual awakening of the people, embodying it in the painting "The Appearance of Christ to the People." For more than 20 years he worked on the painting "The Appearance of Christ to the People", in which he put all the power and brightness of his talent. In the foreground of his grandiose canvas, the courageous figure of John the Baptist catches the eye, pointing the people to the approaching Christ. His figure is given in the distance. He has not come yet, he is coming, he will definitely come, says the artist. And the faces and souls of those who wait for the Savior brighten and purify. In this picture, he showed, as Ilya Repin later said, "an oppressed people longing for the word of freedom."
In the first half of the XIX century. Russian painting includes a household plot.
Alexey Gavrilovich Venetsianov (1780-1847) was one of the first to turn to him. He dedicated his work to portraying the life of peasants. He shows this life in an idealized, embellished form, paying tribute to the then fashionable sentimentalism. However, Venetsianov's paintings "The threshing floor", "At the harvest. Summer ”,“ On arable land. Spring ”,“ Peasant Woman with Cornflowers ”,“ Zakharka ”,“ Morning of the Landowner ”reflecting the beauty and nobility of ordinary Russian people, served to assert the dignity of a person, regardless of his social status.
His traditions were continued by Pavel Andreevich Fedotov (1815-1852). His canvases are realistic, filled with satirical content, exposing the mercantile morality, way of life and customs of the top of society ("The Courtship of a Major", "Fresh Cavalier", etc.). He began his career as a satirist as an officer-guard. Then he made funny, mischievous dawns of army life. In 1848 his painting The Fresh Cavalier was presented at an academic exhibition. It was a daring mockery not only of the stupid, self-righteous bureaucracy, but also of academic traditions. The dirty robe in which the protagonist of the picture put on was very much reminiscent of an antique toga. Bryullov stood in front of the canvas for a long time, and then said to the author half-jokingly half-seriously: "Congratulations, you have defeated me." Other paintings by Fedotov ("Breakfast of an Aristocrat", "The Courtship of a Major") are also of a comedic and satirical character. His last paintings are very sad ("Anchor, still anchor!", "The Widow"). Contemporaries justly compared P.A. Fedotov in painting with N.V. Gogol in literature. Exposing the ulcers of feudal Russia is the main theme of Pavel Andreevich Fedotov's work.

Russian painting of the second half of the 19th century

Second half of the 19th century marked the flourishing of Russian fine arts. It became a truly great art, was imbued with the pathos of the people's liberation struggle, responded to the needs of life and actively invaded life. Realism has finally taken root in the visual arts - a true and comprehensive reflection of the life of the people, the desire to rebuild this life on the basis of equality and justice.
The conscious turn of the new Russian painting towards democratic realism, nationality, modernity became apparent in the late 50s, together with the revolutionary situation in the country, with the social maturity of the diverse intelligentsia, with the revolutionary enlightenment of Chernyshevsky, Dobrolyubov, Saltykov-Shchedrin, with the popular poetry of Nekrasov. In "Sketches of the Gogol Period" (in 1856) Chernyshevsky wrote: "If painting is now generally in a rather miserable position, the main reason for this must be considered the alienation of this art from contemporary aspirations." The same idea was cited in many articles of the Sovremennik magazine.
The central theme of art was the people, not only oppressed and suffering, but also the people - the creator of history, the people-fighter, the creator of all the best in life.
The assertion of realism in art took place in a stubborn struggle against the official direction, the representative of which was the leadership of the Academy of Arts. The figures of the academy instilled in their students the idea that art is higher than life, put forward only biblical and mythological themes for the work of artists.
But painting was already beginning to join modern aspirations - first of all in Moscow. Even a tenth of the Moscow School did not enjoy the privileges of the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts, but it depended less on its ingrained dogmas, the atmosphere in it was more lively. Although the teachers at the School are mostly academics, the academics are secondary and hesitant - they did not suppress with their authority as in the Academy of F. Bruni, the pillar of the old school, which once competed with Bryullov's painting "The Brazen Serpent".
In 1862, the Council of the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts decided to equalize all genres in rights, abolishing the primacy of historical painting. The gold medal was now awarded regardless of the theme of the painting, considering only its merits. However, the "liberties" within the walls of the academy did not last long.
In 1863, young artists participating in the academic competition submitted a petition "for permission to freely choose subjects for those who wish this, in addition to the given theme." The academy council refused. What happened next is called in the history of Russian art "the revolt of the fourteen." Fourteen students of the history class did not want to paint pictures on the proposed theme from Scandinavian mythology - "Feast in Valgaal" and demonstratively submitted a petition to leave the academy. Finding themselves without workshops and without money, the rebels united into a kind of commune - like the communes described by Chernyshevsky in the novel “What is to be done?” - an Artel of Artists, headed by the painter Ivan Nikolaevich Kramskoy. Artel workers took orders for the execution of various art works, lived in the same house, gathered in the common room for conversations, discussing paintings, reading books.
Seven years later, the Artel broke up. By this time, in the 70s, on the initiative of the artist Grigory Grigorievich Myasoedov, an association arose - "The Association of Artistic Movable Inserts", a professional and commercial association of artists who held similar ideological positions.
The Wanderers Association, unlike many later associations, did without any declarations and manifestos. Its charter only stated that the members of the Partnership should manage their material affairs themselves, not depending on anyone in this regard, as well as organize exhibitions themselves and take them out to different cities (“move” across Russia) in order to acquaint the country with Russian art. Both of these points were of significant importance, asserting the independence of art from the authorities and the will of artists to communicate widely with people not only from the capital. The main role in the creation of the Partnership and the development of its charter belonged to Kramskoy, Myasoedov, Ge - from Petersburgers, and from Muscovites - Perov, Pryanishnikov, Savrasov.
The "Wanderers" were united in their rejection of "academicism" with its mythology, decorative landscapes and pompous theatricality. They wanted to portray living life. Genre (everyday) scenes took the leading place in their work. The peasantry enjoyed particular sympathy for the "Itinerants". They showed his need, suffering, oppression. At that time - in the 60-70s. XIX century - the ideological side of art was valued higher than the aesthetic. Only over time did the artists remember the intrinsic value of painting.
Perhaps the greatest tribute to ideology was given by Vasily Grigorievich Perov (1834-1882). Suffice it to recall his paintings such as "The arrival of the police officer", "Tea drinking in Mytishchi." Some of Perov's works are imbued with genuine tragedy ("Troika", "Old parents at the grave of their son"). Perov's brush belongs to a number of portraits of his famous contemporaries (Ostrovsky, Turgenev, Dostoevsky).
Some of the "Wanderers" canvases, painted from nature or under the impression from real scenes, have enriched our understanding of peasant life. SA Korovin's painting "In the World" shows a clash at a village gathering between a rich man and a poor man. VM Maksimov captured the rage, tears, and grief of the family division. The solemn festivity of peasant labor is reflected in the painting by G. G. Myasoedov "Mowers".
In the work of Kramskoy, the main place was occupied by portrait painting. He wrote to Goncharov, Saltykov-Shchedrin, Nekrasov. He owns one of the best portraits of Leo Tolstoy. The writer's gaze does not leave the viewer, from whatever point he looks at the canvas. One of the most powerful works of Kramskoy is the painting "Christ in the Desert".
The first exhibition of the "Wanderers", which opened in 1871, convincingly demonstrated the existence of a new trend that had developed over the course of the 60s. There were only 46 exhibits on it (in contrast to the cumbersome exhibitions of the Academy), but carefully selected, and although the exhibition was not deliberately programmed, the general unwritten program loomed quite clearly. All genres were presented - historical, everyday, landscape portrait - and the audience could judge what was new in them by the "Itinerants". Only sculpture was unlucky (there was only one, and even then an unremarkable sculpture by F. Kamensky), but this type of art was "unlucky" for a long time, actually the entire second half of the century.
By the beginning of the 90s, among the young artists of the Moscow school, there were, however, those who adequately and seriously continued the civic wandering tradition: S. Ivanov with his cycle of paintings about immigrants, S. Korovin - the author of the painting "On the World", where it is interesting and the dramatic (really dramatic!) collisions of the pre-reform village are thoughtfully revealed. But it was not they who set the tone: the coming to the fore of the "World of Art", equally far from itinerant movement and the Academy, was approaching. What did the Academy look like at that time? Her previous artistic rigoristic attitudes weathered away, she no longer insisted on the strict requirements of neoclassicism, on the notorious hierarchy of genres, she was quite tolerant of the everyday genre, she only preferred that it be “beautiful” and not “muzhik” (an example of “beautiful” non-academic works - scenes from the ancient life of the then popular S. Bakalovich). For the most part, non-academic products, as was the case in other countries, were bourgeois-salon products, their "beauty" - vulgar beauty. But it cannot be said that she did not put forward talents: the aforementioned G. Semiradsky was very talented, V. Smirnov, who died early (who managed to create an impressive big picture "The Death of Nero"); one cannot deny certain artistic merits of painting by A. Svedomsky and V. Kotarbinsky. Repin spoke approvingly of these artists, considering them to be the bearers of the "Hellenic spirit" in his later years, they impressed Vrubel, just like Aivazovsky, also an "academic" artist. On the other hand, none other than Semiradsky, during the reorganization of the Academy, decisively spoke out in favor of the genre, pointing to Perov, Repin and V. Mayakovsky as a positive example. So there were enough points of convergence between the "Wanderers" and the Academy, and the then vice-president of the Academy, I.I. Tolstoy, on whose initiative the leading "Wanderers" were called to teach.
But the main thing that does not allow us to completely discount the role of the Academy of Arts, primarily as an educational institution, in the second half of the century is the simple fact that many outstanding artists... These are Repin, and Surikov, and Polenov, and Vasnetsov, and later - Serov and Vrubel. Moreover, they did not repeat the "riot of fourteen" and, apparently, benefited from their apprenticeship.
Respect for drawing, for the constructed constructive form took root in Russian art. The general orientation of Russian culture towards realism became the reason for the popularity of Chistyakov's method - one way or another, Russian painters before Serov, Nesterov and Vrubel, inclusive, honored the "unshakable eternal laws of form" and were wary of "de-reification" or submission to the colorful amorphous element, no matter how they loved color.
Among the Itinerants invited to the Academy were two landscape painters - Shishkin and Kuindzhi. It was at that time that the hegemony of landscape began in art, both as an independent genre, where Levitan reigned, and as an equal element of everyday, historical, and partly portrait painting. Contrary to the forecasts of Stasov, who believes that the role of the landscape will decrease, in the 90s it has increased more than ever. The lyrical “landscape of mood” prevailed, tracing its lineage from Savrasov and Polenov.
"The Wanderers" made real discoveries in landscape painting. Alexey Kondratyevich Savrasov (1830-1897) managed to show the beauty and subtle lyricism of a simple Russian landscape. His painting "The Rooks Have Arrived" (1871) forced many contemporaries to take a fresh look at their native nature.
Fyodor Alexandrovich Vasiliev (1850-1873) lived a short life. His work, which was cut short at the very beginning, enriched Russian painting with a number of dynamic, exciting landscapes. The artist especially succeeded in transitional states in nature: from sun to rain, from calm to storm.
Ivan Ivanovich Shishkin (1832-1898) became the singer of the Russian forest, the epic breadth of Russian nature. Arkhip Ivanovich Kuindzhi (1841-1910) was attracted by the picturesque play of light and air. The mysterious light of the moon in rare clouds, the red reflections of the dawn on the white walls of Ukrainian huts, oblique morning rays breaking through the fog and playing in the puddles on the muddy road - these and many other picturesque discoveries are captured on his canvases.
Russian tops landscape painting The 19th century reached in the work of Savrasov's student Isaac Ilyich Levitan (1860-1900). Levitan is a master of calm, quiet landscapes. A very timid, shy and vulnerable man, he knew how to rest only alone with nature, imbued with the mood of his beloved landscape.
Once he came to the Volga to paint the sun, air and river expanses. But there was no sun, endless clouds were crawling across the sky, and the dull rains stopped. The artist was nervous until he got involved in this weather and discovered the special charm of the lilac colors of the Russian bad weather. Since then, the Upper Volga, the provincial town of Ples, has become firmly established in his work. In those parts, he created his "rainy" works: "After the Rain", "Gloomy Day", "Over Eternal Peace". There were also painted serene evening landscapes: "Evening on the Volga", "Evening. Golden reach ”,“ Evening bell ”,“ Quiet abode ”.
IN last years life Levitan drew attention to the work of French impressionist painters (E. Manet, C. Monet, C. Pizarro). He realized that he had a lot in common with them, that their creative searches were going in the same direction. Like them, he preferred to work not in the studio, but in the open air (in the open air, as the artists say). Like them, he brightened the palette, banishing dark, earthy colors. Like them, he strove to capture the fleetingness of being, to convey the movements of light and air. In this they went further than him, but almost dissolved volumetric forms (houses, trees) in light-air flows. He avoided it.
“Levitan's paintings require slow examination, - wrote a great connoisseur of his work KG Paustovsky, - They do not stun the eye. They are modest and accurate, like Chekhov's stories, but the longer you look at them, the more pleasant the silence of provincial townships, familiar rivers and country roads becomes.
In the second half of the 19th century. has to creative flourishing I. E. Repin, V. I. Surikov and V. A. Serov.
Ilya Efimovich Repin (1844-1930) was born in the city of Chuguev, in the family of a military settler. He managed to enter the Academy of Arts, where his teacher was P.P. Chistyakov, who brought up a whole galaxy of famous artists (V.I.Surikov, V.M. Vasnetsov, M.A.Vrubel, V.A.Serov). Repin also learned a lot from Kramskoy. In 1870, the young artist traveled along the Volga. He used numerous sketches brought from the trip for the painting "Barge Haulers on the Volga" (1872). She made a strong impression on the public. The author immediately rose to the ranks of the most famous masters.
Repin was a very versatile artist. A number of monumental genre paintings belong to his brush. Perhaps no less impressive than "Burlaki" is the "Religious Procession in Kursk Province". The bright blue sky, the clouds of road dust penetrated by the sun, the golden glow of crosses and vestments, the police, the common people and the crippled - everything fit on this canvas: the greatness, strength, weakness and pain of Russia.
In many of Repin's paintings, revolutionary themes were touched upon ("Refusal of Confession", "They Didn't Expect", "The Arrest of a Propagandist"). The revolutionaries in his paintings behave simply and naturally, avoiding theatrical poses and gestures. In the painting "Refusal of Confession", the condemned to death seemed to deliberately hid his hands in his sleeves. The artist clearly sympathized with the heroes of his paintings.
A number of Repin's canvases are painted in historical themes ("Ivan the Terrible and his son Ivan", "Zaporozhian Cossacks composing a letter to the Turkish Sultan", etc.). Repin created a whole gallery of portraits. He painted portraits of scientists (Pirogov and Sechenov), writers Tolstoy, Turgenev and Garshin, composers Glinka and Mussorgsky, artists Kramskoy and Surikov. At the beginning of the XX century. he received an order for the painting "The ceremonial meeting of the State Council." The artist managed not only compositionally to place such a large number of those present on the canvas, but also to give a psychological description of many of them. Among them were such well-known figures as S.Yu. Witte, K.P. Pobedonostsev, P.P. Semyonov Tyan-Shansky. Nicholas II is hardly noticeable in the picture, but very subtly painted.
Vasily Ivanovich Surikov (1848-1916) was born in Krasnoyarsk, into a Cossack family. The heyday of his work falls on the 80s, when he created three of his most famous historical paintings: "The Morning of the Strelets' Execution", "Menshikov in Berezovo" and "Boyarynya Morozova".
Surikov knew well the way of life and customs of past eras, was able to give vivid psychological characteristics. In addition, he was an excellent colourist (master of color). Suffice it to recall the dazzlingly fresh, sparkling snow in the painting "Boyarynya Morozova". If you go closer to the canvas, the snow, as it were, "crumbles" into blue, blue, pink strokes. This pictorial technique, when two three different strokes from a distance merge and give the desired color, was widely used by the French impressionists.
Valentin Aleksandrovich Serov (1865-1911), the son of the composer, painted landscapes, canvases on historical themes, worked as a theater artist. But the fame was brought to him, first of all, by portraits.
In 1887, 22-year-old Serov was vacationing in Abramtsevo, a dacha of the patron S. I. Mamontov near Moscow. Among his many children, the young artist was his own man, a participant in their noisy games. Once, after dinner, two people accidentally lingered in the dining room - Serov and 12-year-old Verusha Mamontova. They were sitting at a table on which peaches remained, and during the conversation Verusha did not notice how the artist began to sketch her portrait. The work dragged on for a month, and Verusha was angry that Anton (that was Serov's home name) forced her to sit in the dining room for hours.
At the beginning of September "Girl with Peaches" was finished. Despite its small size, the painting, painted in rose-gold tones, seemed very "spacious". There was a lot of light and air in it. The girl, who sat down at the table as if for a minute and fixed her gaze on the viewer, enchanted her with clarity and spirituality. Yes, and the whole canvas was fanned with a purely childish perception of everyday life, when happiness is not aware of itself, and there is a whole life ahead.
The inhabitants of the "Abramtsevo" house, of course, understood that a miracle had happened before their eyes. But only time gives final estimates. It put "Girl with Peaches" among the best portrait works in Russian and world painting.
The next year Serov was able to almost repeat his magic. He painted a portrait of his sister Maria Simonovich ("A girl illuminated by the sun"). The name stuck a little inaccurate: the girl sits in the shade, and the glade in the background is illuminated by the rays of the morning sun. But in the picture everything is so fused, so united - morning, sun, summer, youth and beauty - that it is difficult to think of a better name.
Serov became a fashionable portrait painter. Posed in front of him famous writers, entertainers, painters, entrepreneurs, aristocrats, even kings. Apparently, not everyone he wrote had a heart for him. Some high society portraits, with filigree technique of execution, turned out to be cold.
For several years Serov taught at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. He was a demanding teacher. Opponent of the frozen forms of painting, Serov at the same time believed that creative searches should be based on a firm mastery of the technique of drawing and pictorial writing. Many outstanding masters considered themselves Serov's students. This is M.S. Saryan, K.F. Yuon, P.V. Kuznetsov, K. S. Petrov-Vodkin.
Many paintings by Repin, Surikov, Levitan, Serov, "Itinerants" were included in the collection of Tretyakov. Pavel Mikhailovich Tretyakov (1832-1898), a representative of an old Moscow merchant family, was an unusual person. Thin and tall, with a thick beard and a low voice, he looked more like a saint than a merchant. He began collecting paintings by Russian artists in 1856. His hobby grew into the main work of his life. In the early 90s. the collection reached the level of a museum, absorbing almost the entire wealth of the collector. Later it became the property of Moscow. The Tretyakov Gallery has become a world famous museum of Russian painting, graphics and sculpture.
In 1898, the Russian Museum was opened in St. Petersburg, in the Mikhailovsky Palace (the creation of K. Rossi). It received works by Russian artists from the Hermitage, the Academy of Arts and some imperial palaces. The opening of these two museums, as it were, crowned the achievements of the Russian painting XIX century.

The leading direction of architecture and sculpture in the first third of the 19th century was classicism. In painting it was developed primarily by academic artists in the historical genre (AE Egorov - "The Torture of the Savior", 1814, State Russian Museum; V.K.Shebuev - "The Feat of the Merchant Igolkin", 1839, State Russian Museum; F.A.Bruni - " Death of Camilla, sister of Horace ", 1824, State Russian Museum;" Bronze Serpent ", 1826-1841, State Russian Museum). But the true successes of painting lay, however, in a different direction - romanticism. The best aspirations of the human soul, the ups and downs of the spirit were expressed by the romantic painting of that time, and above all the portrait. In the portrait genre, the leading place should be assigned to Orest Kiprensky (1782-1836).

Kiprensky was born in the Petersburg province and was the son of the landowner A.S. Dyakonov and serf. From 1788 to 1803 he studied, starting from the Educational School, at the Academy of Arts, where he studied in the class of historical painting with Professor G.I. Ugryumov and the French painter G.-F. Doyen, in 1805 he received the Great Gold Medal for the painting "Dmitry Donskoy after the Victory over Mamai" (RM) and the right to a pensioner's trip abroad, which was carried out only in 1816. In 1809-1811. Kiprensky lived in Moscow, where he helped Martos in the work on the monument to Minin and Pozharsky, then in Tver, and in 1812 he returned to St. Petersburg. The years after graduation from the Academy and before leaving abroad, fanned with romantic feelings, are the highest flowering of Kiprensky's creativity. During this period, he moved among the free-thinking Russian noble intelligentsia. Knew K. Batyushkov and P. Vyazemsky, V.A. Zhukovsky, and in later years - Pushkin. His intellectual interests were also wide, it was not for nothing that Goethe, whom Kiprensky portrayed already in his mature years, noted him not only as a talented artist, but also as an interesting thinking person. Complex, thoughtful, changeable in mood - this is how the portrayed by E.P. Kiprensky appear before us. Rostopchin (1809, Tretyakov Gallery), D.N. Khvostova (1814, Tretyakov Gallery), boy Chelishchev (c. 1809, Tretyakov Gallery). In a free pose, looking pensively to the side, casually leaning his elbows on a stone slab, stands Colonel E.B. Davydov (1809, RM). This portrait is perceived as a collective image of the hero of the war of 1812, although it is quite specific. The romantic mood is enhanced by the image of a stormy landscape, against which the figure is presented. The coloring is built on sonorous, taken in full force colors - red with gold and white and silver - in the clothes of a hussar - and on the contrast of these colors with the dark tones of the landscape. Opening various facets of the human character and the spiritual world of man, Kiprensky each time used different possibilities of painting. Each portrait of these years is marked by a painting maestria. Painting is free, built, as in the portrait of Khvostova, on the subtlest transitions of one tone to another, at different color aperture, then on the harmony of contrasting clean large light spots, as in the image of the boy Chelishchev. The artist uses bold color effects to influence the modeling of the form; pasty painting promotes the expression of energy, enhances the emotionality of the image. According to D. V. Sarabyanova, Russian romanticism has never been such a powerful artistic movement as in France or Germany. There is neither extreme excitement nor tragic hopelessness in him. In Kiprensky's romanticism there is still much from the harmony of classicism, from the subtle analysis of the "twists" of the human soul, so characteristic of sentimentalism. "The present century and the past century", colliding in the work of the early Kiprensky, who formed as a creative person in the best years of military victories and the bright hopes of Russian society, made up the originality and inexpressible charm of his early romantic portraits.

In the late Italian period, due to many circumstances of his personal fate, the artist rarely succeeded in creating anything equal to his early works. But even here one can name such masterpieces as one of the best lifetime portraits of Pushkin (1827, Tretyakov Gallery), painted by the artist in the last period of his stay at home, or a portrait of Avdulina (c. 1822, RM), full of elegiac sadness.

An invaluable part of Kiprensky's work is graphic portraits, made mainly with soft Italian pencil, tinted with pastels, watercolors, and colored pencils. It depicts General E.I. Chaplitsa (State Tretyakov Gallery), A.R. Tomilova (State Russian Museum), P.A. Olenin (State Tretyakov Gallery). The emergence of quick pencil portraits-sketches in itself is significant, characteristic of the new era: they easily capture any fleeting change in the face, any spiritual movement. But a certain evolution is also taking place in the graphics of Kiprensky: in the later works there is no spontaneity and warmth, but they are more virtuoso and more refined in execution (portrait of S.S.Shcherbatova, it.car., Tretyakov Gallery).

Pole A.O. Orlovsky (1777–1832), who lived in Russia for 30 years and brought to Russian culture themes typical of Western romantics (bivouacs, horsemen, shipwrecks. “Take your quick pencil, draw, Orlovsky, sword and slash,” wrote Pushkin). He quickly assimilated on Russian soil, which is especially noticeable in graphic portraits. In them, through all the external attributes of European romanticism with its rebelliousness and tension, something deeply personal, hidden, intimate appears (Self-portrait, 1809, State Tretyakov Gallery). Orlovsky, on the other hand, has a certain role in "tracing" the paths to realism thanks to his genre sketches, drawings and lithographs depicting St. Petersburg street scenes and types, which gave rise to the famous quatrain of P.A.

Former Russia, I am removing

You will pass on to posterity

You grabbed her alive

Under the folk pencil.

Finally, romanticism finds its expression in the landscape. Sylvester Shchedrin (1791-1830) began creative way a student of his uncle Semyon Shchedrin from classical compositions: a clear division into three planes (the third plan is always architecture), on the sides of the curtain. But in Italy, where he left the St. Petersburg Academy, these features were not consolidated, did not turn into a scheme. It was in Italy, where Shchedrin lived for more than 10 years and died in the prime of his talent, that he revealed himself as a romantic painter, became one of the best painters in Europe along with Constable and Corot. He was the first to open plein air painting for Russia. True, like the Barbizon people, Shchedrin painted only sketches in the open air, and completed the picture ("decorated", by his definition) in the studio. However, the motive itself changes accents. So, Rome in his canvases is not the majestic ruins of ancient times, but a living modern city of common people - fishermen, merchants, sailors. But this everyday life under the brush of Shchedrin acquired a sublime sound. Sorrento harbors, Naples embankments, Tiber at the castle of St. Angels, people fishing, just talking on the terrace or relaxing in the shade of trees - everything is conveyed in a complex interaction of a light-air environment, in a delightful fusion of silver-gray tones, usually combined by a blow of red - in clothes and a headdress, in the rusty foliage of trees where one red branch got lost. In the last works of Shchedrin, an interest in cut-and-shadow effects became more and more distinct, foreshadowing a wave of new romanticism by Maxim Vorobyov and his students (for example, moonlit night"). As portrait painter Kiprensky and battle painter Orlovsky, landscape painter Shchedrin often writes genre scenes.

Strange as it may sound, the genre found a certain refraction in the portrait, and above all in the portrait of Vasily Andreyevich Tropinin (1776 - 1857), an artist who had only freed himself from serfdom by the age of 45. Tropinin lived a long life, and he was destined to learn true recognition, even fame, to receive the title of academician and become the most famous artist of the Moscow portrait school of the 1920s and 1930s. Starting with sentimentalism, though more didactically sensitive than Borovikovsky's sentimentalism, Tropinin acquired his own style of depiction. In his models there is no romantic impulse of Kiprensky, but they are captivated by simplicity, artlessness, sincerity of expression, truthfulness of characters, reliability of everyday details. The best of Tropinin's portraits, such as the portrait of his son (c. 1818, Tretyakov Gallery), the portrait of Bulakhov (1823, Tretyakov Gallery), are marked by high artistic perfection. This is especially evident in the portrait of Arseny's son, an unusually sincere image, the liveliness and spontaneity of which is emphasized by skillful lighting: the right side of the figure, the hair is pierced, flooded with sunlight, skillfully conveyed by the master. The range of colors from golden ocher to pink-brown is unusually rich, the widespread use of glazes still reminds of the pictorial traditions of the 18th century.

Tropinin in his work follows the path of giving naturalness, clarity, and balance to simple compositions of a bust portrait image. As a rule, the image is given against a neutral background with a minimum of accessories. This is exactly how Tropinin A.S. Pushkin (1827) - sitting at the table in a free pose, dressed in a home dress, which emphasizes the natural appearance of the appearance.

Tropinin is the creator of a special type of portrait-painting, that is, a portrait in which the features of the genre have been introduced. "Lacemaker", "Spinner", "Guitarist", "Zolotoshveika" are typed images with a certain plot plot, which, however, have not lost their specific features.

With his work, the artist contributed to the strengthening of realism in Russian painting and had a great influence on the Moscow school, according to D.V. Sarabyanova, a kind of "Moscow Biedermeier".

Tropinin only introduced the genre element into the portrait. The real ancestor of the genre of genre was Alexei Gavrilovich Venetsianov (1780-1847). A surveyor by education, Venetsianov left the service for the sake of painting, moved from Moscow to St. Petersburg and became a student of Borovikovsky. He made his first steps in the "arts" in the genre of portraiture, creating surprisingly poetic, lyrical, sometimes fanned with romantic mood images in pastel, pencil, oil (portrait of B.S. Putyatina, State Tretyakov Gallery). But soon the artist abandoned portrait painting for the sake of caricature, and for one top-down caricature "The Nobleman" the very first issue of the "Journal of Caricatures for 1808 in Faces" he had conceived was closed. Etching by Venetsianov was, in fact, an illustration to Derzhavin's ode and depicted the petitioners crowding in the reception, while in the mirror a nobleman was seen in the arms of a beauty, it is assumed that this is a caricature of Count Bezborodko).

At the turn of the 10-20s, Venetsianov left St. Petersburg for the Tver province, where he bought a small estate. Here he found his main theme, devoting himself to the depiction of peasant life. In the painting "The Barn" (1821–1822, RM), he showed a labor scene in the interior. In an effort to accurately reproduce not only the postures of the workers, but also the lighting, he even ordered to cut one wall of the barn. Life as it is - this is what Venetsianov wanted to portray, painting peasants peeling beets; a landowner giving an assignment to a courtyard girl; sleeping shepherdess; a girl with a knot in her hand; peasant children admiring the butterfly; scenes of harvest, haymaking, etc. Of course, Venetsianov did not reveal the most acute collisions of the life of the Russian peasant, did not raise the "painful questions" of our time. This is a patriarchal, idyllic way of life. But the artist did not introduce poetry into him from the outside, did not invent it, but drew it from the life of the people he depicted with such love. In Venetsianov's paintings there are no dramatic ties, dynamic plot, they, on the contrary, are static, "nothing happens" in them. But man is always in unity with nature, in eternal labor, and this makes Venetsianov's images truly monumental. Is he realistic? In the understanding of this word by the artists of the second half of the 19th century - hardly. In his concept there is a lot of classicistic ideas (it is worth remembering his "Spring. On arable land", State Tretyakov Gallery), and especially from sentimental ("Harvesting. Summer", State Tretyakov Gallery), and in his understanding of space - and from romantic. And, nevertheless, the work of Venetsianov is a certain stage on the path of the formation of Russian critical realism of the 19th century, and this is also the enduring significance of his painting. This also determines its place in Russian art in general.

Painting by A.G. Venetsianova Morning of the landowner

Venetsianov was an excellent teacher. The Venetsianov school, the Venetianists - is a whole galaxy of artists of the 1920s – 1940s who worked with him both in St. Petersburg and on his Safonkovo \u200b\u200bestate. This is A.V. Tyranov, E.F. Krendovsky, K.A. Zelentsov, A.A. Alekseev, S.K. Zaryanko, L.K. Plakhov, N.S. Krylov and many others. Among the students of Venetsianov there are many people from peasants. Under the brush of the Venetians, not only scenes of peasant life were born, but also urban ones: Petersburg streets, folk types, landscapes. A.V. Tyranov painted scenes in the interior, and portraits, and landscapes, and still lifes. The Venetians were especially fond of "family portraits in the interior" - they combined the concreteness of images with the detail of the narrative, conveying the atmosphere of the environment (for example, Tyranov's painting "Workshop of the Chernetsov Brothers Artists", 1828, which combines portrait, genre and still life)

The most talented student of Venetsianov is undoubtedly Grigory Soroka (1813-1864), artist tragic fate... (Soroka was freed from serfdom only by the reform of 1861, but as a result of a lawsuit with the former landowner he was sentenced to corporal punishment, could not bear the thought of it and committed suicide.) Under the brush of Soroka and the landscape of his native lake Moldino, and all the objects in the study of the estate in Ostrovki, and the figures of the fishermen frozen over the surface of the lake are transformed, filled with the highest poetry, blissful silence, but also nagging sadness. This is the world of real objects, but also the ideal world imagined by the artist.

Russian historical painting of the 1930s – 1940s developed under the sign of romanticism. One researcher (MM Allenov) Karl Pavlovich Bryullov (1799-1852) called "the genius of compromise" between the ideals of classicism and the innovations of romanticism. Glory came to Bryullov at the Academy: even then ordinary sketches were transformed by Bryullov into complete paintings, as was the case, for example, with his "Narcissus" (1819, RM). After graduating from the course with a gold medal, the artist left for Italy. In his pre-Italian works, Bryullov turns to biblical subjects ("The Appearance of Three Angels to Abraham at the Oak of Mamvri", 1821, State Russian Museum) and antique ("Oedipus and Antigone", 1821, Tyumen Regional Museum of Local Lore), is engaged in lithography, sculpture, writes theatrical scenery, draws costumes for performances. The paintings "Italian Morning" (1823, whereabouts unknown) and "Italian Noon" (1827, RM), especially the first, show how closely the painter approached the problems of the plein air. Bryullov himself defined his task as follows: "I illuminated the model in the sun, assuming the lighting from behind, so that the face and chest are in shadow and are reflected from the fountain, illuminated by the sun, which makes all the shadows much more pleasant compared to simple lighting from the window."

Thus, Bryullov was interested in the tasks of plein air painting, but the artist's path, however, lay in a different direction. Since 1828, after a trip to Pompeii, Bryullov has been working on his equal work - "The Last Day of Pompeii" (1830–1833). Real event ancient history - the death of the city during the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD. e. - made it possible for the artist to show the greatness and dignity of a person in the face of death. Fiery lava is approaching the city, buildings and statues are crumbling, but the children do not leave their parents; the mother protects the child, the young man rescues his beloved; the artist (in which Bryullov portrayed himself) carries away the colors, but, leaving the city, he looks with wide open eyes, trying to capture a terrible sight. Even in death, a person remains beautiful, as a woman thrown from a chariot by mad horses is beautiful in the center of the composition. In Bryullov's painting, one of the essential features of his painting was clearly manifested: the connection between the classicistic stylistics of his works with the features of romanticism, with which Bryullov's classicism unites the belief in the nobility and beauty of human nature. Hence, the amazing "livability" of the plastic form that retains its clarity, the drawing of the highest professionalism, prevailing over other expressive means, with the romantic effects of pictorial lighting. And the very theme of inevitable death, inexorable fate is so characteristic of romanticism.

As a certain standard, an established artistic scheme, classicism in many respects limited the romantic artist. The conventionality of the academic language, the language of the "School", as the Academies were called in Europe, was fully manifested in "Pompey": theatrical poses, gestures, facial expressions, lighting effects. But it must be admitted that Bryullov strove for historical truth, trying as accurately as possible to reproduce specific monuments discovered by archaeologists and amaze the whole world, to visually fill the scenes described by Pliny the Younger in a letter to Tacitus. Exhibited first in Milan, then in Paris, the painting was brought to Russia in 1834 and was a resounding success. Gogol spoke of her enthusiastically. The significance of Bryullov's work for Russian painting is determined by the well-known words of the poet: "And the" Last Day of Pompeii "became the first day for the Russian brush."

In 1835 Bryullov returned to Russia, where he was greeted as a triumphant. But he was no longer engaged in the actual historical genre, for the "Siege of Pskov by the Polish king Stefan Bathory in 1581" was not completed. His interests lay in a different direction - portraiture, to which he turned, having left historical painting, like his great contemporary Kiprensky, and in which he showed all his creative temperament and brilliance of skill. You can trace a certain evolution of Bryullov in this genre: from the ceremonial portrait of the 1930s, which can be exemplified not so much by a portrait as by a generalized image, for example, the brilliant decorative canvas "Horsewoman" (1832, Tretyakov Gallery), which depicts a pupil of Countess Yu. P. Samoilova Giovanina Paccini has a generic name for a reason; or a portrait of Yu.P. Samoilova with another pupil, Amatsilia (circa 1839, State Russian Museum), until the portraits of the 1940s were more intimate, tending towards subtle, multifaceted psychological characteristics (portrait of AN Strugovshchikov, 1840, State Russian Museum; Self-portrait, 1848, State Tretyakov Gallery). In the face of the writer Strugovshchikov, one can read the tension of inner life. Fatigue and bitterness of disappointment emanate from the artist's self-portrait. A sadly thin face with penetrating eyes, an aristocratic thin hand hung limply. In these images there is a lot of romantic language, while in one of the last works - a deep and heartfelt portrait of the archaeologist Michelangelo Lanci (1851) - we see that Bryullov is no stranger to the realistic concept in the interpretation of the image.

After the death of Bryullov, his students often used only the formal, purely academic principles of writing carefully developed by him, and the name of Bryullov had to endure a lot of blasphemy from critics of the democratic, realistic school of the second half of the 19th century, especially V.V. Stasov.

The central figure in mid-century painting was undoubtedly Alexander Andreevich Ivanov (1806-1858). Ivanov graduated from the St. Petersburg Academy with two medals. He received a Small Gold Medal for the painting Priam Asking Achilles for the Body of Hector (1824, Tretyakov Gallery), in connection with which critics noted the painter's careful reading of Homer, and the Large Gold Medal for the work Joseph Interpreting Dreams to His Prisoners to the butler and the baker ”(1827, RM), full of expression, expressed, however, simply and clearly. In 1830 Ivanov went through Dresden and Vienna to Italy, in 1831 he went to Rome and only a month and a half before his death (he died of cholera) he returned to his homeland.

The path of A. Ivanov has never been easy, winged glory has not flown after him, as for “the great Karl”. During his lifetime, his talent was appreciated by Gogol, Herzen, Sechenov, but there were no painters among them. Ivanov's life in Italy was filled with work and reflections on painting. He did not seek neither wealth nor secular entertainment, spending his days in the walls of the studio and on sketches. Ivanov's worldview was influenced to a certain extent by German philosophy, first of all Schellingianism with its idea of \u200b\u200bthe prophetic destiny of an artist in this world, then the philosophy of the historian of religion D. Strauss. Passion for the history of religion led to an almost scientific study of sacred texts, the result of which was the creation of the famous biblical sketches and an appeal to the image of the Messiah. Researchers of Ivanov's work (DV Sarabyanov) rightly call his principle "the principle of ethical romanticism," that is, romanticism, in which the main emphasis is shifted from the aesthetic to the moral. The artist's passionate faith in the moral transformation of people, in the improvement of a person seeking freedom and truth, led Ivanov to the main theme of his work - to the painting, to which he devoted 20 years (1837 - 1857), "The Appearance of Christ to the People" (State Tretyakov Gallery, author's version - Timing).

Ivanov went to this work for a long time. He studied painting by Giotto, Venetians, especially Titian, Veronese and Tintoretto, wrote a two-figure composition "The Appearance of Christ to Mary Magdalene after the Resurrection" (1835, Russian Museum), for which the St. Petersburg Academy gave him the title of academician and extended the period of retirement in Italy for three years.

The first sketches of "The Appearance of the Messiah" date back to 1833, in 1837 the composition was transferred to a large canvas. Further work went on, as can be judged by the numerous remaining sketches, sketches, drawings, along the line of concretizing the characters and the landscape, searching for the general tone of the picture.

By 1845, the "Appearance of Christ to the people" was essentially over. The composition of this monumental, programmatic work is based on a classicistic basis (symmetry, the placement of the expressive main figure of the foreground - John the Baptist - in the center, the bas-relief arrangement of the entire group as a whole), but the traditional scheme is in a peculiar way rethought by the artist. The painter strove to convey the dynamism of construction, the depth of space. Ivanov long sought this solution and achieved it thanks to the fact that the figure of Christ appears and approaches people who receive baptism from John in the waters of the Jordan, from the depths. But the main thing that strikes in the picture is the extraordinary truthfulness of the various characters, their psychological characteristics, which impart tremendous credibility to the entire scene. Hence the convincingness of the spiritual rebirth of the heroes.

Ivanov's evolution in his work on "The Phenomenon ..." can be defined as a path from a concrete-realistic scene to a monumental-epic canvas.

Changes in the worldview of Ivanov the thinker, which took place over the years of work on the painting, led to the fact that the artist did not finish his main work. But he did the main thing, as Kramskoy said, “awakened the inner work in the minds of Russian artists”. And in this sense, the researchers are right when they say that Ivanov's painting was a “foreshadowing of hidden processes” that were taking place then in art. Ivanov's findings were so new that the viewer simply was not able to appreciate them. No wonder N.G. Chernyshevsky called Alexander Ivanov one of those geniuses “who decisively become people of the future, donate ... to the truth and, having approached it already in mature years, are not afraid to start their activities again with the dedication of youth "( Chernyshevsky N.G. Notes on the previous article // Contemporary. 1858. T. XXI. November. P. 178). Until now, the painting remains a real academy for generations of masters, like Raphael's "School of Athens" or Michelangelo's Sistine ceiling.

Ivanov had his say in mastering the principles of plein air. In landscapes painted outdoors, he managed to show all the power, beauty and intensity of the colors of nature. And the main thing is not to shatter the image in pursuit of an instant impression, to strive for precision of detail, but to preserve its synthetics, so characteristic of classical art. Each of his landscapes breathes with harmonious clarity, whether he depicts a lonely pine tree, a separate branch, the sea or the Pontic swamps. This is a majestic world, conveyed, however, in all the real richness of the light-air environment, as if you feel the smell of grass, vibrations of hot air. In the same complex interaction with the environment, he depicts the human figure in his famous sketches of naked boys.

In the last decade of his life, Ivanov came up with the idea of \u200b\u200bcreating a cycle of biblical-evangelical murals for any public building, which should depict the subjects of the Holy Scriptures in an ancient Eastern flavor, but not ethnographically straightforward, but sublimely generalized. Unfinished, watercolored biblical sketches (Tretyakov Gallery) occupy a special place in Ivanov's work and at the same time organically complete it. These sketches provide us with new possibilities of this technique, its plastic and linear rhythm, watercolor stains, not to mention the extraordinary creative freedom in the interpretation of the plots themselves, showing the full depth of Ivanov the philosopher, and about his greatest gift as a monumentalist ("Zechariah before the Angel", "The Dream of Joseph", "Prayer for the Cup", etc.). Ivanov's cycle is proof that a work of genius in sketches can be a new word in art. "In the 19th century - a century of deepening analytical splitting of the former integrity of art into separate genres and individual painting problems - Ivanov is a great genius of synthesis, committed to the idea of \u200b\u200buniversal art, interpreted as a kind of encyclopedia of spiritual quests, collisions and stages of growth of the historical self-knowledge of man and mankind" (Allenov M.M. Art of the first half of the XIX century // Allenov M.M., Evangulova O.S., Lifshits L.I. Russian art of the X - early XX century. M., 1989.S. 335). A monumentalist by vocation, Ivanov lived, however, at a time when monumental art was rapidly declining. The realism of Ivanov's forms did not correspond much to the asserting art of a critical nature.

The socio-critical trend, which became the main one in the art of the second half of the 19th century, as early as the 40s and 50s, made itself felt in graphics. An undoubted role here was played by the "natural school" in literature, associated (rather conditionally) with the name of N.V. Gogol.

The album of lithographed caricatures "Yeralash" by N.М. Nevakhovich, who, like Venetian's "Journal of Caricatures", was devoted to the satire of morals. Several plots could fit on one large-format page, often the faces were portrait, quite recognizable. Yeralash was closed on the 16th issue.

In the 40s, the publication of V.F. Timm, illustrator and lithographer. “Ours, written off from nature by the Russians” (1841–1842) is a depiction of the types of St. Petersburg street flanders from smart flanders to janitors, cabbies, etc. Timm also illustrated Pictures of Russian Manners (1842–1843) and made drawings for the poem by II Myatlev about Mrs. Kurdyukova, a provincial widow who travels through Europe out of boredom.

The book of this time is becoming more accessible and cheaper: illustrations began to be printed from a wooden board in large editions, sometimes with the help of polytypes - metal castings. The first illustrations for the works of Gogol appeared - “One hundred drawings from the poem by N.М. Gogol's "Dead Souls" by A.A. Agina, engraved by E.E. Vernadsky; The 50s were marked by the activities of T.G. Shevchenko as a draftsman ("The Parable of the Prodigal Son," cruel manners in the army). Cartoons and illustrations for books and magazines by Timm and his associates Agin and Shevchenko contributed to the development of Russian genre painting in the second half of the 19th century.

But the main source for genre painting in the second half of the century was the work of Pavel Andreevich Fedotov (1815–1852). He devoted only a few years of his short, tragic life to painting, but he managed to express the very spirit of Russia in the 1940s. The son of a Suvorov soldier, admitted to the Moscow Cadet Corps for his father's merits, Fedotov served for 10 years in the Finnish Guards Regiment. Having retired, he is engaged in the battle class of A.I. Sauerweid. Fedotov began with everyday drawings and caricatures, with a series of sepias from the life of Fidelka, a lady's dog who died in the Bose and mourned by its mistress, with a series in which he declared himself as a satirical writer of everyday life - Russian Daumier from the period of his Caricatures (in addition - sepia tone "Fashion Shop", 1844-1846, State Tretyakov Gallery; "An artist who married without a dowry in the hope of his talent", 1844, State Tretyakov Gallery, etc.). He studied both Hogarth's prints and the Dutch, but most of all - from Russian life itself, open to the gaze of a talented artist in all its disharmony and contradiction.

The main thing in his work is everyday painting. Even when he paints portraits, it is easy to find genre elements in them (for example, in the watercolor portrait "The Players", State Tretyakov Gallery). His evolution in genre painting - from the caricature to the tragic, from overloading in details, as in The Fresh Cavalier (1846, Tretyakov Gallery), where everything is “told”: the guitar, the bottles, the mocking servant, even the papillots on the head of the hapless hero to the ultimate laconicism, as in "The Widow" (1851, Ivanovo Regional Art Museum, version - State Tretyakov Gallery, State Russian Museum), to the tragic sense of the meaninglessness of existence, as in his last painting "Anchor, still anchor!" (about 1851, Tretyakov Gallery). The same evolution in the understanding of color: from a color that sounds half-hearted, through clean, bright, intense, saturated colors, as in "Major's Matchmaking" (1848, Tretyakov Gallery, version-RM) or "Breakfast of an Aristocrat" (1849-1851, Tretyakov Gallery ), to the exquisite color scheme of "The Widow", which betrays the objective world as if dissolving in the diffused light of the day, and the integrity of the single tone of his last canvas ("Anchor ..."). This was the path from simple everyday life to the implementation in clear, restrained images of the most important problems of Russian life, for what is, for example, "Major's matchmaking" if not denouncing one of the social facts of the life of his time - marriages of impoverished nobles with merchant "money bags"? And "The Choppy Bride", written on a plot borrowed from I.A. Krylov (who, by the way, appreciated the artist very much), if not a satire on a marriage of convenience? Or the denunciation of the emptiness of a socialite throwing dust in the eyes - in "Breakfast of an aristocrat"?

The power of Fedotov's painting is not only in the depth of the problems, in the amusing plot, but also in the tremendous skill of execution. Suffice it to recall the full of charm chamber “Portrait of N.P. Zhdanovich at the harpsichord "(1849, RM). Fedotov loves the real world of objects, writes out every thing with delight, poeticizes it. But this delight in front of the world does not obscure the bitterness of what is happening: the hopelessness of the "widow's" position, the lies of the marriage deal, the longing of the officer's service in the "bear's corner". If Fedotov's laugh breaks out, it is the same Gogolian "laughter through tears invisible to the world." Fedotov ended his life in the "house of sorrow" at the fatal 37th year of his life.

Fedotov's art completes the development of painting in the first half of the 19th century, and at the same time, completely organically - thanks to its social acuteness - the Fedotov trend opens up the beginning of a new stage - the art of critical, or, as they say, democratic realism.

Russian artistic culture, the origins of which began with classicism, which acquired a powerful folk sound, as high classicism, which was reflected in the painting of the 19th century, gradually moved from romanticism to realism in Russian fine art. Contemporaries of that time especially appreciated the direction of Russian artists in which the historical genre predominated with an emphasis on national themes.

But at the same time, there were no significant changes in the art of the historical direction in comparison with the masters of the second half of the 18th century and from the very beginning of the history of Russian portraiture. Often in their works, many masters dedicated to the true heroes of ancient Russia, whose exploits inspired the writing of historical paintings. Russian painters of that time approved their own principle of describing portraits and paintings, having developed their own directions in depicting a person, nature, testifying to a completely independent figurative concept.

Russian artists in their paintings reflected various ideals of national upsurge, gradually abandoning the strict principles of classicism imposed by academic foundations. The 19th century was marked by a high flourishing of Russian painting, in which Russian painters left an indelible mark for posterity in the history of Russian fine art, imbued with the spirit of a comprehensive reflection of the life of the people.

The largest researchers of Russian painting of the 19th century in general, note the outstanding role in the high flowering of the works of the great Russian masters and fine arts. Unique works created by domestic masters have always enriched Russian culture.

Famous painters of the 19th century

(1782-1836) Kiprensky's superbly and delicately painted portraits brought him fame and true recognition among his contemporaries. His works Self-portrait, A. R. Tomilov, I. V. Kusov, A. I. Korsakov 1808 Portrait of a boy Chelishchev, Golitsin A. M. 1809 Portrait of Denis Davydov, 1819 Girl with a wreath of poppy a successful 1827 portrait of AS Pushkin and others. His portraits reflect the beauty of excitement, a refined inner world of images and states of mind. Contemporaries compared his work with the genres of lyric poetry, poetic dedication to friends. (1791-1830) Master of Russian landscape romanticism and lyrical understanding of nature. In more than forty of his paintings, Shchedrin depicted views of Sorento. Among them are the paintings of the Sorrento Neighborhood. Evening, New Rome "Castle of the Holy Angel", the Mergellina Embankment in Naples, the Great Harbor on the island of Capri, etc.

Completely surrendering to the romance of the landscape and the natural environment of perception, Shchedrin, as it were, makes up for with his paintings the fallen interest of his fellow tribesmen of that time in the landscape. Shchedrin knew the dawn of his creativity and recognition.

(1776-1857) A remarkable Russian portrait painter, a native of serfs. His famous paintings are: The Lacemaker, also Portrait of Pushkin A.S., engraver E.O. Skotnikova, An old man - a beggar, distinguished by a light color Portrait of a son, 1826 Spinner, Gold embroidery, these works especially attracted the attention of contemporaries. 1846 Tropinin developed his own independent figurative style of portrait, which characterizes the specific Moscow genre of painting. At that time, Tropinin became the central figure of the Moscow elite.

(1780-1847) The ancestor of the peasant genre, His famous portrait of the Reaper, painting\u003e The Reapers, The Girl in the Headscarf, Spring on the Arable Land, The Peasant Woman with Cornflowers, Zakharka and others. Particularly can be emphasized about the painting Barn, which attracted the attention of Emperor Alexander I, he was touched by the vivid images of peasants, truthfully conveyed by the author. He loved ordinary people, finding in this certain lyrics, this was reflected in his paintings showing the difficult life of the peasant. his best works were created in the 1920s. (1799-1852) Master of historical paintings, The Last Day of Pompeii in turmoil, the doomed inhabitants flee from the fury of the Vesuvius volcano. The painting made a stunning impression on his contemporaries. He masterfully paints secular paintings, the Horsewoman and portraits using the bright coloristic moments in the composition of the picture, Countess Yu. P. Samoilova. His paintings and portraits are composed of contrasts of light and shadow. ... Influenced by traditional academic classicism, Karl Bryullov endowed his paintings with historical accuracy, romantic spirit and psychological truth. (1806-1858) An excellent master of the historical genre. For about two decades, Ivanov worked on his main painting The Appearance of Christ to the People, emphasizing his passionate desire to depict the coming to earth of Jesus Christ. At the initial stage, these are the paintings of Apollo, Hyacinth and Cypress 1831-1833, the Appearance of Christ to Mary Magdalene after the Resurrection in 1835. During his short life, Ivanov created many works, for each picture he writes many sketches of landscapes and portraits. Ivanov is a man of extraordinary mind, he always tried to show the element in his works popular movements... (1815-1852) Master of the satirical direction, who laid the foundation for critical realism in the genre of everyday life. Fresh Cavalier 1847 and Choosy Bride 1847,

The crisis of serfdom hinders the development of the capitalist system. In secular circles, freedom-loving ideas are born, the Patriotic War of 1812 is going on, and Russian troops are also participating in the liberation of European states from Napoleon, the uprising of the Decembrists in 1825 against tsarism, all this has an impact on painting.

What is the difference between painting in the era of the genius A.S. Pushkin?

Probably the embodiment of the light and humane ideals of a freedom-loving people ...

Along with classicism, a romantic trend develops, realism is formed.

The romantic direction of Russian painting was the beginning of the development in the following decades - realism. This is how the rapprochement goes russian artists, romantics with real life, which was the essence of the movement of artists of this time. The wide spread of exhibitions at the same time speaks of the rapprochement of the Russian people with the world of art, people of all classes tend to visit exhibitions. It is believed that the painting by K.P. Bryulov's "The Last Day of Pompeii" served such a rapprochement. The people of St. Petersburg of all classes were eager to see her.

Russian painting becomes multinational, paintings acquire national shades, students of different nationalities are taken to the Academy. Natives of Ukraine, Belarus, the Baltics, Transcaucasia and Central Asia study here.

In the first half of the 19th century, painting is represented by all genres: portrait, landscape, still life, historical painting.

Famous Russian artists in the first half of the 19th century:

Masterpieces of Russian painting

• Painting by Bryullov K.P. "The last day of Pompeii"

• Painting by Aivazovsky I.K. "The Ninth Wave"

• Painting by Bruni F.A. "Brazen serpent"

• Painting by Venetsianov A.G. "Threshing floor"

• Painting by V.A. Tropinin "Lacemaker"

The path of Russian artistic culture, beginning with classicism, ran in the first half of the 19th century through romanticism to realism. Those painters who followed the beaten path of classicism, which acquired an academic tone in painting by the beginning of the 19th century, did not reach great heights. True, their art was highly valued by their contemporaries; the historical genre in which they worked was considered the highest at the Academy. True, some changes took place in historical painting as well. They consisted in the fact that national themes were gaining more and more weight.

One of the most famous historical painters of the beginning of the century Andrey Ivanov - the father of the great Alexander Ivanov - most often devoted his works to heroes from ancient history Russia - to Mstislav the Brave or a young Kievite. Another artist of the early 19th century Dmitry Ivanov dedicated his painting to Martha Posadnitsa, who at that time, in the minds of the progressive people of the early 19th century, was a consistent fighter for the Novgorod freemen. Historical characters in all these works acted as true heroes. Their exploits were supposed to serve as a pretext for comparing history with modernity.

And nevertheless, historical painting in something essential did not advance in comparison with the masters of the late 18th century.

Classicism as a trend in Russian artistic culture is now acquiring a powerful civil resonance. In scientific literature, this period is usually referred to as high classicism.

High classicism reflected in painting, but here the artists' desire to bring art closer to life was more fruitful. Typical for the painters of this time was the romantic assertion of the beauty of the unique, individual, and unusual.

One of the artists who stood at the origins of 19th century art was Orest Adamovich Kiprensky (1782-1836) ... If we put on the scales of history, on the one hand, all the pictures of historical painters, and on the other, several portraits of Kiprensky, then the latter will undoubtedly outweigh. They are the ones who tell us about that time; the soul of those years is in them. They have the beauty of excitement and impulse, the desire for the dynamics of inner life. Kiprensky was not satisfied with the reality around him; he looked for a sublime principle in a person, portraying his heroes in their best moments, conveying their ability to feel, their desire to live a spiritual life. Kiprensky's heroes peer into the world, entrust themselves to the interlocutor. It is no coincidence that these portraits are sometimes compared with poetic messages to a friend - with the genre of lyric poetry that was widespread in the pre-Pushkin and Pushkin times.

Kiprensky discovered not only new human qualities, but also new possibilities of painting. Each of his portraits has its own special pictorial system. Some are built on the sharp contrast of light and shadow. In others, the main pictorial means is a subtle gradation of colors close to each other. This variety of manifestations of the artist's creative face also belongs to the new age - the romantic creative concept.

Russian romanticism at its first stage is represented by a landscape painter Sylvester Shchedrin (1791-1830) ... He began at a time when some stagnation was observed in the Russian landscape: the decorative landscape of the 18th century was completing its development, and the emerging trends of lyrical understanding of nature were supplanted by the protocol severity and dryness of videography and classic schematism. The artist spent more than ten years in Italy, which was then painted by Russian artists and poets as the “promised land”. There he experienced a flourishing of creativity; he died there, not having time to return to his homeland. These were the best years of his short life and creativity full of searches. Shchedrin painted Italian views. Italy, with its picturesque, magnificent nature, was drawn to him as just the place where a landscape painter can and should create. Shchedrin's nature is always sublime, shining with joyful colors; it intoxicates a person, brings him a sweet sensation of happiness. It seems to predispose to that “dolce far niente” (“beautiful doing nothing”), which in the eyes of Russians was the true foundation of Italian life. The path to such an understanding of nature was opened for the artist by new romantic ideas about the relationship between man and the natural environment around him; nature turned out to be able to suppress a person with her immense greatness, or to open her inner life to him for joint existence.

V.A. Tropinin (1776-1857) He demonstrated with his work a gradual, and not abrupt, like Kiprensky's, transition from the 18th to the 19th century. Tropinin adopted the traditions of Borovikovsky's sentimentalism and generally used the heritage of the 18th century, which is especially noticeable in his early works ("The Girl from Podol").

However, the artist soon established his own principle of interpreting a person. His portraits of the 1920s and 1930s, i.e. the heyday, already testify to a completely independent imaginative concept. Tropinin can be considered the antipode of Kiprensky. The portraits of the Moscow master are always simple, “homely”. There is no particular inner excitement in his characters. But on the other hand, they behave at ease, calmly. The artist perceives and conveys the features of the model and the environment in which this model lives with great spontaneity. In these portraits there is the truth of the characters and the truth of the environment. They show interest in a person's specific environment, in his clothes, in a precisely marked moment in which this particular state of a person is revealed. At the same time, these portraits are distinguished by high pictorial merits: soft modeling of volume, accompanied by tonal unity, does not prevent Tropinin from sometimes seeing both the value of independent color qualities and the beauty of texture. All these features can be observed in the portraits of his son (c. 1818), Bulakhov (1823), Ravich (1825), Zubova (1834), etc.

The artist's interest in the environment, in the environment in which people live, led him to a special type of painting, in which the portrait is combined with the genre. Numerous “Lacemakers”, “Gold Embroidery”, “Guitarists”, as a rule, contain a typified portrait image and at the same time the artist recreates some action, albeit unambiguous and simple. In these works, Tropinin's connection with the sentimentalist heritage of previous painters is especially clear, but Tropinin's images gravitate more towards the genre, towards the everyday element.

Tropin's creativity largely determined the specific Moscow features of painting. Tropinin was a central figure in Moscow painting. Although he himself did not teach, teachers and students of the Moscow School were guided by the experience of Tropinin and his tradition continued until the end of the 19th century.

The true ancestor of the genre of genre in Russian painting was Alexey Gavrilovich Venetsianov (1780-1847) ... Pencil, pastel and oil portraits made by Venetsianov in the first decade of the century have an early romantic character. Then the artist turns to caricature and everyday sketching.

At the turn of the 10-20s of the 19th century, Venetsianov found himself in the genre of everyday life. The best of his works were created in the 20s (“Gumno”). The subjects of his paintings, he began to take the most ordinary phenomena of life: peasants peeling beets, a landowner giving her serf girls a “lesson” for the day, a shepherd who fell asleep by a tree, a scene of plowing, harvesting and haymaking. Finally, he created portraits of peasants - a boy Zakharka, an elderly man, a girl with cornflowers. The artist glorified ordinary people, not thinking about the contradictions of peasant life, trying to find, first of all, poetry in the very foundations of life in the village of his day.

Contemporaries attached great importance to historical painting. The painting "The Last Day of Pompeii" (1830-1833) was widely known Karl Pavlovich Bryullov (1799-1852) ; Gogol greeted her, Pushkin dedicated several lines to her. In the glare of lightning piercing the thick clouds, in the intense contrasts of light and shadow, the artist presented the death of the inhabitants of ancient Pompeii during the eruption of Vesuvius. The sublime beauty of man and the inevitability of his death are here in tragic contradiction. Most of Bryullov's portraits (Self-portrait, 1848) are also romantic in nature.

The greatest master of historical painting was Alexander Andreevich Ivanov (1806-1858) , an artist in whom, according to Chernyshevsky, “a deep thirst for truth” was combined with “infantile purity of the soul”. A man of extraordinary intelligence, Ivanov was ardently convinced of the great historical future of the Russian people. In his works, he strove to comprehend the element of popular movements in history, anticipating many of the searches of Russian realistic painting of the next decades.

In the middle of the century, in the era of Belinsky and Gogol, the exposure of the vices of social life came to the fore in the visual arts. Russian graphics - mocking and caustic book and magazine illustrations - are the first to start this movement. Painting followed. The satirical direction in painting was brightest of all presented by Pavel Andreevich Fedotov (1815-1852) ... His paintings, depicting the dark sides of Russian reality, laid the foundation for the art of the second half of the 19th century.