Karl Bryullov paintings in high resolution. Bryullov Karl: works, paintings, biography

Karl Bryullov. Self-portrait.

1848. Oil on cardboard. 64.1 x 54.

Bryullov's portrait heritage from the last St. Petersburg and Italian periods is no less valuable than Pompey, which brought the artist world fame. The pinnacle of Bryullov’s intimate portrait was a self-portrait painted in 1848, during his illness.

The portrait was created on that first spring day when the doctors allowed Bryullov to get out of bed after a debilitating, long illness. The artist spent seven months alone with himself; almost all visits were prohibited by doctors. The illness forced him into solitude. Solitude led to concentrated thinking. The self-portrait is evidence of how, in a strict, biased conversation with himself, the artist sums up nearly half a century of life. The result of creative quests. Summary of thoughts. Beneath the external stillness lies the intense work of thought. The portrait was painted with great skill and testifies to what powerful creative energy the artist possessed, despite his illness, and what heights he reached in mastering all the elements of painting. In the self-portrait there is a feeling of physical fatigue, traces of illness: tired eyelids, a hand hanging limply, as if melted to the bones, speak of physical illness. The head rests wearily on the red pillow; this color forms a coloristic dominant; it is Bryullov’s constant and favorite color, present in almost all his works, a color that expresses his creative temperament. Based on the drawing, the portrait was completed in paint in two hours.

“This is how one of Bryullov’s most important works was born,” writes G. Leontyeva in his book. This is not just a portrait of the artist, painted by himself. In a biased, strict conversation with himself, the master seems to sum up his creative quest. Summary of thoughts. The result of my own life. Furthermore. It seems that, looking at himself in the mirror, he - like us today, looking at a portrait - sees his generation through his own features. This is the confession of the son of the century. High tension of internal forces and boundless fatigue, sublime nobility and bitterness of disappointment, strength of spirit and humility - all this moving variety of feelings is captured by Bryullov’s brush and made eternal. Looking at this face, you remember the most bitter words the artist said about himself: “My life can be likened to a candle that was burned at both ends and held in the middle with red-hot tongs...”.

1832. Oil on canvas. Not finished. 173 x 125.5.
Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, Russia.

Around 1832, the artist created a work that was, as it were, the result of his creative quest in genre painting and mythology. He came up with an idea for the painting “Bathsheba,” on which he worked for more than four years.

Bryullov was filled with the idea of ​​depicting a naked body illuminated by the rays of the setting sun. The subtle play of light and shadow, the airiness of the environment surrounding the figure, did not deprive it of its sculptural volume and clarity of silhouette. In “Bathsheba” the artist conveys sensual eroticism, openly admiring every fold of a slender body and strands of thick, flowing hair like a man. Intensifying the impression, the master turned to the spectacular technique of color contrast. The matte whiteness of Bathsheba’s skin is set off by the dark skin of the Ethiopian maid clinging to her mistress.

The painting is based on a story from the Old Testament. According to the Bible, Bathsheba was a woman of rare beauty. King David, walking on the roof of his palace, saw Bathsheba below. Having taken off her clothes, the naked woman was preparing to enter the waters of the marble bath. King David was struck by the beauty of Bathsheba and was overcome by passion.

Bathsheba's husband, Uriah the Hittite, was away from home at the time, serving in David's army. Bathsheba did not try to seduce the king, as evidenced by the biblical text. But David was seduced by Bathsheba's beauty and ordered her to be taken to the palace. As a result of their relationship, she became pregnant. Later, David wrote a letter to the commander of Uriah’s army, in which he ordered Uriah to be placed where “the strongest battle will be, and retreat from him, so that he will be defeated and die” (2 Sam. 11:15). Indeed, this is what happened, and David subsequently married Bathsheba. Their first child lived only a few days. David later repented of his actions.

For all her high position as the most beloved of David's wives, Bathsheba took a place in the shadows and behaved in a dignified manner. Her influence on David appears to have been great. She prompted him to proclaim his eldest son Solomon king. She then contributed greatly to exposing the intentions of Adonijah (the fourth son of David) to take the throne of his father. In relation to David, she became a faithful and loving wife and a good mother to her children (Solomon and Nathan).

Portrait of Giovanina and Amacilia Pacini,
pupils gr. Yu.P. Samoilova.
1832. Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, Russia.

Bryullov painted many excellent portraits; with them he turned out to be closest to the realistic taste of the second half of the 19th century. Large ceremonial, imposing, “story-based” portraits of secular beauties are a unique phenomenon of its kind and have never been repeated in Russian art. We like them differently than in those days: we don’t take them too seriously, there’s something naive about their luxury, but that’s what makes them attractive.

The Horsewoman, depicting a young lady on a beautiful horse and a little girl meeting her, is one of Bryullov’s seductive works. At the request of Yulia Pavlovna Samoilova, Karl Pavlovich Bryullov painted a portrait of her pupils: the eldest, Jovanina, and the youngest, Amatsilia.

The genre of equestrian portrait or sculpture was fashionable when depicting crowned persons. Bryullov, violating this official canon, gave a regal pose to the young pupil Samoilova, who sits on a black horse. There is an angelic detachment in the features of her face; it seems that she, along with the fluttering ribbon on her hat and the fluffy blue and white Amazon costume, is about to fly into the skies. At the same time, the master fits the girl’s figure into a picture that has a coherent plot, full of colorful contrasts. The artist unfolds before the audience a scene of a morning walk when, having galloped along a dewy path under the shade of hundred-year-old trees, Giovanina stops the horse at the marble entrance of her adoptive mother’s house. Hearing the sound of hooves, Amacilia Pacini runs out of the door, looking like a doll in a pink dress, lace pantaloons and green satin shoes. She admires her older friend - the object of her childhood adoration. The rider's excitement was immediately transmitted to her, intensifying many times over; the black horse crosses its eyes, snores, tries to rear; sensing the mood of the owners, the dogs are worried; the wind bends the treetops; clouds are running across the sky: everything is excited, agitated, alarmed, but this is joyful excitement, the joyful excitement of happy people. Before us is a romantic story about the mischievous and delightful joys of youth. (A cute and funny detail: the collar of the dog that ran out onto the porch was marked with the name of the “customer” - “Samoylo”.)

Enthusiastic Italians compared Bryullov with Rubens and Van Dyck, writing that they had never before seen an equestrian portrait conceived and executed with such skill. This exaggeration is due to the unusual nature of Bryullov’s creation. The equestrian portrait was always a ceremonial one. It inevitably concealed a hidden meaning: a rider who saddles and subjugates a hot horse is a man of power. Here is not a commander leading an army into battle, not a conqueror entering a captured capital, not a monarch being crowned king - the girl returned home from a walk. In this work, Bryullov finally combines a ceremonial portrait and an everyday scene. He himself called the work “Jovanin on a Horse,” but for everyone it is “Horsewoman.” "Jovanin on a Horse" tells a little about "Jovanin" herself - Jovanina; little Amazilia - admiration, impulse, the charm of childhood.

Bryullov painted the picture with a feeling of completeness and joy of being, admiring the beauty and picturesqueness of the world, with the feeling that lived in him and which he found in these girls, Giovanina and Amatsilia.

1827. Oil on canvas. 62 x 52.5.

After graduating from the Academy of Arts, Karl Bryullov was sent by the Society for the Encouragement of Arts to Italy, where he worked hard, studying and embodying on canvas the life of the common people of this beautiful country.

Bryullov turned a scene from rural life, which he spied in one of the Italian towns, into an elegant ballet performance. The young peasant woman, like a graceful dancer, rose on her toes and spread her flexible arms, barely touching the vine with a bunch of black grapes. The musicality of her pose is emphasized by the light chiton dress that fits her slender legs. A thread of coral sets off a slender neck and a ruddy face framed by curly brown hair. Another girl, reclining freely on the steps of the house, rings the bells of a tambourine, looking coquettishly at the viewer. A younger brother in a short shirt intervenes in the cheerful company - a kind of bacchanalian cupid who carries a bottle to fill with fresh wine. Every character and object was important to the artist, who acted as a choreographer, be it a basket of ripe berries, a green pumpkin, a stream of water flowing from a fountain, or a cute shaggy donkey harnessed to a cart. This is the true world of theater, where all living things are actors!

The creative workshops of Rembrandt, Velazquez, Van Dyck, and Titian opened their doors to the artist from Russia. Having absorbed the achievements of world art, he splashed onto his canvases revelations equal to them in scale. According to the poet Alexei Konstantinovich Tolstoy, Bryullov was considered “the best painter in Rome.” The artist painted portraits of the Italian nobility and his compatriots. His painting becomes more transparent, the coloring of the paintings is more intense, the colors are fresher.

The young painter allows himself lyrical digressions - paintings on genre subjects, which, according to the judgment of a modern critic, were undoubtedly born of a happy accident, observed in the everyday life of this country, created under the influence of direct impression. These are the famous “Italian genres”, and the first of them - Italian Morning - brought him wide fame.

The idea of ​​merging man and nature, their comparison was very characteristic of the romantic movement: the combination of periods of human life with the passage of the day or with the seasons attracted many of Bryullov’s contemporaries.

The painting “Italian Morning” is one of the first genre compositions executed by Karl Bryullov directly on location. His heroine, washing herself under the jets of a fountain, penetrated by the sun's rays, airy and light, is perceived as the personification of the morning itself, the morning of a rising new day, the morning of human life.

In a letter sent to the Society for the Encouragement of Artists, he reported on his innovative discoveries, which preceded the search for a natural light-air environment by painters of the realistic and impressionistic movements in the second half of the 19th century: “I illuminated the model in the sun, assuming illumination from behind, so that the face and chest were in the shadows are reflected from the fountain illuminated by the sun, which makes all the shadows much more pleasant in comparison with simple lighting from the window.” “Italian Morning” was presented at an exhibition at the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts in 1826 and received an excellent review in the journal “Domestic Notes.”

The painting captivated everyone - the Italian and then the Russian public, members of the Society for the Encouragement of Artists and, finally, Alexander I, to whom the Society presented the painting as a gift. Later, in 1826, Nicholas I ordered K.P. Bryullov’s painting, which would be “matched” to the previous one. 

After the painting “Morning,” Bryullov strives to further develop a figurative comparison of the existence of nature and man. The painting Italian Afternoon was the result of the artist’s many years of searching. The work was created with a sense of endless attention and trust in reality.

Disregarding academicism, the artist sought and found new lighting possibilities. Bryullov wrote “Italian Noon” in a real garden, when the luminary was at its zenith. “For the most accurate arrangement of shadows and light, I am working this picture under a real vineyard in the garden,” Bryullov wrote about this work. He “covered” the face, shoulders and arms of the model posing for him with the shadow of the vineyard. The stunning effect of chiaroscuro on this canvas is emphasized by the reflections from the red shawl.

The artist sought to find beauty in the simple, everyday. His heroine was a young woman sparkling with enthusiasm, blooming with health, picking a bunch of grapes in the garden. She captivated the artist with the bright shine of her wide-set eyes, and most importantly, with her overflowing vitality. Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol wrote about her: “A passionate, sparkling woman, blazing with all the luxury of passion, with all the power of beauty.”

The heroine’s mature beauty matches the bunch of grapes she admires, filled with sun and earth’s juices. The zenith of the day, the zenith of the life of nature, the time of ripening of fruits is the zenith of human life.

In the painting “Italian Afternoon” (as in “Italian Morning”) the plot is taken not from mythology, not from the Bible, but simply from life. Bryullov decided to break the old aesthetic laws and managed to find the elegant in the everyday. But the courage and novelty of the idea caused unanimous resistance. Everyone expressed their disapproval of Bryullov’s new work: his older brother Fyodor, many colleagues and the public. The picture quite shocks the respectable members of the Society for the Encouragement of Artists, and they deprive Bryullov of his scholarship. But, fortunately, by that time the artist’s skill had become so strong that he decided to go his own way.

Both works, “Italian Morning” and “Italian Afternoon,” were located in the Winter Palace - in the personal chambers of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, which did not prevent artists and the public from seeing them. In the "Diary" of the artist A.N. Mokritsky dated October 14, 1835 tells how he and A.G. The Venetsianovs visited the Empress's boudoir to get acquainted with these picturesque masterpieces.

1830-1833. Canvas, oil.
State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia.

In 1821, in St. Petersburg, through the efforts of enthusiasts, the Society for the Encouragement of Artists was established, the main goal of which was to help artists by all possible means and promote the wide dissemination of all fine arts. Karl and Alexander Bryullov were given the honor of becoming the first pensioners of the Society in Italy. On August 16, 1822, the brothers’ journey to Rome began on the St. Petersburg-Riga stagecoach.

The creative workshops of Rembrandt, Velazquez, Van Dyck, and Titian opened their doors to the artist from Russia. Having absorbed the achievements of world art, he splashed onto his canvases revelations equal to them in scale. According to the poet Alexei Konstantinovich Tolstoy, Bryullov was considered “the best painter in Rome.” The artist painted portraits of the Italian nobility and his compatriots. His painting becomes more transparent, the coloring of the paintings is more intense, the colors are fresher. The young painter paints his paintings Italian Morning and Italian Afternoon, in which the plot is taken not from mythology, not from the Bible, but simply from life. This quite shocks the respectable members of the Society for the Encouragement of Artists, and they deprive Bryullov of his scholarship. Bryullov was forced to earn money by performing watercolor portraits.

In the summer of the same year, Bryullov, together with Anatoly Nikolaevich Demidov, the owner of mining plants in the Urals, visited the excavations of Pompeii for the first time. He heard about Pompey from his brother Alexander. While exploring this city, the idea flashed into the artist’s head to paint a large picture and represent the death of Pompeii on it, which he informed Demidov about. He, after listening to him, offered to buy the painting he had planned and entered into a contract with Bryullov, which obligated the artist to complete the order by the end of 1830.

Bryullov recalled his first impressions of visiting Pompeii: “... An excavated part of this unfortunate city was revealed to us. We went up, guards and guides sat at the entrance; one of them offered us his services and said that this place was a small forum, or a place where people gathered for bargaining and other public affairs... The sight of these ruins involuntarily made me transport myself to a time when these walls were still inhabited, when this forum, where we stood alone and where the silence was only interrupted by some lizard, was filled with people... It is impossible to pass through these ruins without feeling within yourself some completely new feeling, making you forget everything except the terrible incident with this city."

1840. Oil on canvas. 87 x 70.
National Gallery of Armenia, Yerevan, Armenia.

The painter Bryullov found his true calling in portraiture, achieving the highest artistic class in his portraits and paintings.

The heroes of Bryullov's portraits are almost always attractive. This is explained by the fact that most often these people are extraordinary, bright personalities, and by the fact that Bryullov avoided painting portraits of those who did not arouse his spiritual sympathy.

The author, captivated by the model, talks about his heroes in an upbeat intonation, sometimes as if he is reciting, abandoning the language of prose in favor of poetry. With his affection for the model, he wants to captivate the viewer.

Connoisseurs of Karl Bryullov’s painting are more familiar with the portrait of M.A. Beck with his daughter, painted in the same 1940, is a large canvas kept today in the State Tretyakov Gallery.

In this portrait, the luxurious furnishings of the living room, painted with Bryullov’s usual colorful brightness and convincingness in the rendering of precious velvets, bronze, and marble, become an equal object of viewer attention and interest. The heroine of the portrait, in her ideal, languid beauty and some kind of sluggish staticism, appears in the touching role of a mother. The calculation on the viewer's sentimental reaction, on awakening in him a feeling of tenderness, is obvious here.

The painter created dozens of excellent portraits of his contemporaries, striking in their skill and bringing honor to many collections around the world.

Bryullov was not at all attracted to official solemnity and significance. This, apparently, lies the reason that Bryullov not only did not become a court portrait painter, but avoided this role by all possible, and sometimes risky, means.

The courage with which he avoided the need to paint the emperor himself was remembered by many contemporaries. Bryullov took advantage of Nikolai’s lateness to his workshop: “he took his hat and left the yard, ordering him to tell the sovereign if he arrived: “Karl Pavlovich was expecting your majesty, but, knowing that you are never late, he concluded that something had delayed you and that you postponed the session until another time." Twenty minutes after the appointed time, the sovereign came to Bryullov's workshop, accompanied by Grigorovich, was amazed that he did not find Bryullov at home and, after hearing an explanation of the matter from Goretsky, said to Grigorovich: "What an impatient man!" this, of course, there was never any more talk about the portrait.” He almost demonstratively abandoned work on the portrait of Alexandra Feodorovna on a horseback ride after the empress canceled several sessions.

1839. Oil on canvas. Not finished. 102.3 x 86.2.
Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, Russia.

Portrait is one of the genres in art in which the appearance of human individuality is recreated. Together with the external resemblance, the portrait captures the spiritual world of the person depicted. This type of art remains the area where Bryullov’s talent reigns sovereignly and brilliantly. Along with bravura social portraits, impressive with their strong colorful and compositional effects (“Countess Yu. P. Samoilova leaving the ball with her adopted daughter A. Paccini,” circa 1842), he painted portraits of a different kind.

A calm mood dominates the images of people of art, more restrained in color, which seems to flicker from within the form, emphasizing the spiritual significance of the models. Here the artist turns to the analysis of human mood, capturing patterns of contradiction that torment the soul. He sees in faces and poses a combination of flammability of imagination and fatigue, movement of thought and rational coolness.

Such portraits include the portrait of I. A. Krylov. Insightful and perspicacious, Krylov seems to look into your soul, and his worldly wisdom highlights all the depths and secret strings of your inner world.

Ivan Andreevich Krylov is a Russian poet, fabulist, translator, and writer. In his youth, Krylov was known primarily as a satirist writer, publisher of the satirical magazine “Mail of Spirits” and the parody tragicomedy “Trumph”, which ridiculed Paul I. Krylov was the author of more than 200 fables from 1809 to 1843, they were published in nine parts and were reprinted in very large editions for those times. In 1842, his works were published in German translation. The plots of many fables go back to the works of Aesop and La Fontaine, although there are many original plots. Many expressions from Krylov's fables have become popular expressions.

On her maternal and paternal lines, Samoilova was related by ties of kinship to the families of Palen, Skavronsky, Prince Potemkin, and the Italians Litta and Visconti. Julia's mother, Maria, was the stepdaughter of the famous statesman Giulio (Julius Pompeevich) Litta, with whom she had a tender relationship, and in the world there was talk about the controversial paternity of Julia (to which the Italian type of her appearance gave rise). Litta (d. 1839) divided his entire colossal fortune and art collections between Julia, de jure granddaughter of his wife Catherine, and two side children. Samoilova bore the nickname “the last of the Skavronskys”, as she inherited her grandfather’s colossal fortune.

Maria Skavronskaya, Samoilova's mother, possessed a huge fortune that belonged to the Skavronsky family, relatives of Catherine I, and was the last bearer of this surname. Having married Count Palen and given birth to a daughter, after some time, when the child was five and a half years old, she left her and went to Paris to study music and singing, divorced Palen and married General A.P. Ozharovsky.

At the age of twenty-five, Yulia was married to Count Nikolai Aleksandrovich Samoilov, the emperor’s aide-de-camp (d. July 23, 1842). The couple soon lost interest in each other, largely due to the count's penchant for carousing and gambling. In 1827, the couple separated by mutual agreement, and Samoilov returned the dowry, took Julia to her father, Count Palen, and maintained very friendly relations with her.

The Countess settled on the Grafskaya Slavyanka estate near St. Petersburg, with a luxurious house built according to the design of Karl Bryullov’s brother, Alexander Pavlovich Bryullov. Later he would build her a palace on Elagin Island. The Countess behaved extremely independently. An enlightened circle gathered in her house, which Nicholas I did not like; she had to move first to St. Petersburg, and then to Italy, where she was friends with Rossini and Donizetti and provided patronage to artists and musicians, actively participating in the cultural life of the country.

The achievements of Karl Bryullov in the field of portraiture were recognized as unconditional and undeniable, including by such harsh critics as Vladimir Stasov and Alexander Benois. The best examples of Bryullov's ceremonial portrait include images of Countess Yulia Pavlovna Samoilova, the ideal of his entire life. The watercolor portrait of Yulia Pavlovna is touchingly beautiful in its purity.

Karl Bryullov worshiped this woman from the first day of their meeting in Italy until his last breath, before the one whom the All-Russian autocrat Nicholas I, her distant relative, disliked for her freedom of views and independence of behavior.

She met Karl Bryullov in Rome, in the famous salon of Zinaida Volkonskaya. The beginning of their relationship dates back to 1827. In the summer they traveled together around Italy and wandered among the ruins of Pompeii, where the idea of ​​the famous master of canvas was born.

Bryullov's fame as a master of portraiture was cemented by his Portrait of Yu.P. Samoilova with Giovannina Pacini and the Little Arab. Bryullov put all the power of his inspiration into the portrait of Samoilova. The group portrait is designed as a kind of life scene. Returning from a walk, Samoilova tenderly hugs her friends - Giovanina Paccini and the black little girl. The feelings of the characters are conveyed truthfully. Skillfully conveying the moment of movement, Bryullov did not violate the monumentality of the canvas. The composition also includes details of the furnishings: a sofa, a curtain, a carpet on the floor, the edge of a carved frame of a picture hanging on the wall. The elegant decoration does not block the spacious, light-filled chambers. This happens thanks to the wide open doors of the balcony overlooking the park.

“He exhibited a real-size portrait of a walking noble lady,” one of the Italian critics wrote about Bryullov, “... her bluish satin dress throws a lot of light around her... the figures with all the accessories are painted freely and with a rich brush.”

At the end of 1835, by order of Nicholas I, Bryullov returned to Russia and took the position of professor at the Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg, beginning his teaching career. In 1839, Karl married unsuccessfully. The couple's life together lasted only 2 months.

During a difficult time for Bryullov, the collapse of personal happiness and persecution from court circles, Samoilova came from Italy (in 1839) to support her friend. Disregarding the opinion of the world, she surrounded the artist with tender sympathy and took him to her estate near Pavlovsk - Grafskaya Slavyanka. This was a direct challenge to the court, which was located in Pavlovsk and saw how lines of guests were traveling to Samoilova. Bryullov began to paint a portrait, which again was supposed to show everyone his ideal in life and in art. The portrait of Countess Yulia Pavlovna Samoilova leaving the ball with her adopted daughter Amazilia Pacini is the peak of Bryullov’s work as a portrait painter.

The content of this portrait is a triumphant manifestation of the beauty and spiritual strength of an independent, bright, free personality. The fantastic grandeur of the architecture helps to reveal this new facet of the author's plan: it seems that there, in the depths of the huge canvas, masks are not just having fun at an ordinary masquerade, but there is a masquerade of life going on - everyone is trying to pretend to be someone other than who they really are.

The second title of the portrait - “Masquerade” - corresponds to the subtext, the second, main plan of the artist’s plan. In this world of lies, Samoilova, full of human dignity, disdainfully throwing off her mask, proudly demonstrates her non-involvement in the hypocrisy of the world. The countess's beautiful face is open - not only freed from the mask, but open to every movement of the sincere, passionate soul imprinted on it.

The red billowing curtain, with a cleansing flame, separates and cuts off Julia from the masquerade seething behind the buffoonish carousel, from the Sultan towering above the monotonous motley figures, from Mercury bending towards him, a helpful ambassador, pointing with his rod at the beauty walking away.

The artist also lives for a long time with the countess and in her villa in Lombardy. In addition, the countess owned an estate in Grousse (France), a palazzo in Milan and a palace on Lake Como. Fragments of correspondence between lovers have been preserved and indicate deep feelings.

Together with the Horsewoman and Portrait of Yu.P. Samoilova with Giovannina Pacini and the Little Arab, created while working on the famous “Pompeii”, this portrait forms a kind of triptych dedicated to the famous beauty.

In the painting The Last Day of Pompeii, Bryullov painted it next to the artist in the background, in the form of a mother hugging her daughters, fallen to the ground, and in other places.

Countess Samoilova had two adopted daughters - the younger Amatsilia (born in 1828) and the eldest Giovanni Pacini, children of the impoverished Milanese singer and composer Giovanni Pacini, author of the opera “The Last Day of Pompeii,” which impressed Bryullov. They mention that Countess Samoilova, who did not limit herself to anything, was one of the composer’s mistresses - as well as Polina Borghese, Napoleon’s sister. It is unknown when Samoilova took Amazilia into her upbringing, but judging by the painting “Horsewoman,” painted in 1832, she lived with her when she was already four years old. The issue with these two girls is not fully clarified; documents indicate that the composer actually had only one daughter. There is a version that the real name of the second girl, Giovannina, is Carmine Bertolotti and she is the illegitimate daughter of Clementina Perry, the sister of Samoilova’s second husband.

In 1845, Samoilova decided to part with Bryullov and broke with him. In 1846 she marries the Italian tenor Peri, loses her citizenship of the Russian Empire, sells the Count's Slavyanka and other property. Her second husband, opera singer Perry, who was distinguished by his extraordinary beauty, would die a year after the wedding from consumption.

And a year after his death, Yulia Pavlovna’s first husband, the famous “Alcibiades,” also died in Russia, which is why she mourned for two husbands at once for a long time. Eyewitnesses who saw her during this period of her life said that widow's mourning suited her very well, emphasizing her beauty, but she used it in a very original way. Samoilova sat the children on the long train of the mourning dress, as if on a cart, and she, like a healthy horse, rolled the children laughing with delight along the mirrored parquet floors of her palaces.

The third husband, diplomat Count de Mornay, with whom they married in 1863, would leave his already middle-aged wife a year after the wedding, explaining the departure by the complete dissimilarity of characters.

By the end of her life, Samoilova had lost almost all of her fortune. The adopted daughters, given in marriage, collected the promised money and property from the countess through the court. She died in Paris and was buried in the Pere-la-Chaise cemetery, along with her second husband.

Karl Pavlovich Bryullov born in St. Petersburg on December 12, 1799. His father, Pavel Ivanovich Bryullo, was a famous painter, and therefore the artistic fate of little Karl was determined immediately after his birth. All his brothers studied at the Academy of Arts, where their father taught.

Bryullov as a child I was sick a lot. Until he was 7 years old, he almost never got out of bed. But his father was very strict with him, and forced him to draw the required number of figures, horses, along with the rest of his brothers. If Karl could not or did not have time to do this, then the least punishment for him was to be left without food. And once, for such an offense, the father hit the child so hard that Bryullov remained deaf in one ear for the rest of his life.

At the Academy of Arts, Karl studied well and surpassed all his comrades. The teachers were surprised how well this boy drew. Having graduated from the Academy in 1821 with honors, Bryullov joined the Society for the Encouragement of Artists. It is thanks to the funds of this society that he goes to Italy, insisting that his brother Alexander, who graduated from the academy in the same year as him, also goes there. It was upon his departure to Italy that Karl Bryullo became Karl Bryullov at the insistence of Alexander I.

Bryullov's life in Europe

Bryullov visited many cities in Europe, but he liked Italy most, and he spent more than 12 years here. It was here that Bryullov established himself as an artist and became a famous and popular master.

Life in Italy was stormy and fun. By 1829, Bryullov officially terminated his contract with the Society for the Encouragement of Artists, which provided the artist with the means to live. Perhaps this was facilitated by the order from Bryullov of the painting “” by the Russian rich man Demidov. Bryullov painted the picture for 6 years.

Bryullov's return to Russia

In 1834, Bryullov was summoned to Russia by Emperor Nicholas I. His painting “The Last Day of Pompeii” was exhibited at the Academy of Arts. When I left Italy, he left his love there - Countess Samoilova, who also loved the artist very much.

In Russia, Karl Pavlovich Bryullov became a hero. He was greeted with flowers and jubilation. But personal life in Russia left much to be desired. He fell in love with Emilia Timm, who was a virtuoso pianist. Everything was fine, but on the eve of the wedding she admitted to the groom that she had been living with her father for a long time. Still, they signed, but after the wedding nothing changed. Emilia's father used this marriage as a cover, and after 2 months Bryullov had to dissolve the marriage.

After this incident, various gossip began to spread, and Bryullov was rejected almost everywhere. The artist began to get sick often, and his sick heart especially haunted him. In 1849 he went abroad for treatment, eventually ending up in Rome in 1850. There he died two years later on June 23.

Self-portrait

Artist Karl Bryullov is one of the greatest artists of Russia. And today I decided to start a series of publications about this great artist, his life and his work.

Biography, paintings of the artist, life, creativity and great love. It is impossible to tell everything in a few words and pictures. Moreover, both the creativity and the life of an artist, like any person, cannot be described in a few words.

Today I will talk about the main milestones in the artist’s life and about some of the artist’s works: the history of the creation of the painting, the plot and the artist’s intention.

Biography of the artist Karl Bryullov

Artist Karl Pavlovich Bryullov was born in 1799, on December 23 in the capital of the Russian Empire - St. Petersburg. His father was a fairly well-known decorative artist and woodcarver in the capital.

At the age of 10, Karl was admitted to the Academy in the class of historical painting. His teachers were famous master painters: Ivanov A.I., Shebuev V.K., Egorov A.E. From the very first days of his studies, the young artist showed his talent and his teachers expected extraordinary and talented works from him.

While still a student at the Academy, Bryullov created a number of complex compositions that attracted the attention of the public and specialists.

For example, in his “Narcissus” one can see the young author’s desire to combine the classicism that was dominant at that time and the living natural “ordinariness” of nature. Romanticism is just coming into fashion and the reflection of the human world and his feelings is completely new to the public.

The artist's brother, the architect Alexander, went to Italy in 1822. The “Society for the Encouragement of Artists” thus rewards the young architect. And Karl decides to go to Italy with his brother. He had no idea that he would return to Russia only after 14 years.
Italy simply amazes the young artist and provides a huge number of themes for painting. In 1823 - the famous “Italian Morning” that amazed St. Petersburg.

In 1824 - “Erminia with the Shepherds”, 1827 - “Italian Afternoon”. Bryullov studies genre motifs, searches for the necessary nature and, most importantly, tries to find a completely new “language” for his painting.

His paintings glorify the beauty of man and the beauty of the surrounding world. The artist wants to show the joy of life. He transfers this new vision to his portraiture. I will not list all the artist’s works in this genre (I will talk about some of them in more detail below), but remember “The Horsewoman”... This is a portrait, but a portrait, for its time, completely unusual. There is lightness and fire in it, hidden joy and triumph of living human flesh, and the bridled rage of a horse, and the tenderness of beautiful ladies.

There are no shadows or sorrow in the artist’s works of that period.

In 1835 he visited Greece and Turkey. As a result of this trip, a whole series of watercolors saw the light: “Temple of Apollo Epicurean”, “Delphic Valley” and others. Incredible colors and subjects delight art lovers.

The artist studies the work of old Italian masters, architecture and history. And the result is “The Last Day of Pompeii.” Experts call this work the most significant in the artist’s work. Karl Bryullov began work on the painting back in 1830 and painted it for three years).

In 1836, the artist returned to his homeland and received a professorship at the Academy of Arts. The St. Petersburg period of the artist’s work is mostly portraits. Noble men and beautiful ladies. The artist strives to show not only the natural beauty of a person, but also his inner world, experiences and joys, passions and inner nobility that is in everyone (as the artist believed).

In 1839, the artist began working on the painting “The Siege of Pskov by the Polish King Stefan Batory in 1581.” This work exhausts the artist. The theme doesn’t come at all; St. Petersburg is gloomy and damp. During the same period, the artist began to paint the dome of St. Isaac's Cathedral. The artist became seriously ill. He was unable to complete the painting and painting of the cathedral. The illness turned out to be very serious indeed and put the artist to bed for seven long months.
In 1849, Bryullov went abroad for treatment.

In Italy he feels much better and begins to work again: drawings, a series of watercolors and portraits.

And on June 23, 1852, the artist died. He died on the outskirts of Rome in the town of Manziano.

Shortly before his death he said:

“I didn’t do half of what I could and should have done.”

Paintings by artist Karl Bryullov

Bakhchisarai fountain (1838-1849)

Karl Bryullov knew Pushkin. They met often. After the death of the poet, Bryullov expressed a desire to participate in the publication of the collected works of the great poet, and drew sketches of the frontispiece.

During the same period, Bryullov began work on the painting “Bakhchisarai Fountain”. The artist completed a huge number of sketches in order to find the future composition of the painting, studied the positions of the characters’ bodies, and the clothes of oriental women. Bryullov wanted to show not the drama of Zarema and Maria’s feelings, but the romantic side of the life of an eastern harem. Sleepy laziness, languid monotony and the serenity of the lives of beauties. As in Pushkin’s lines:

…Carelessly waiting for the Khan
Around a playful fountain
On silk carpets
They sat in a crowd of frolics
And with childish joy they looked,
Like a fish in the clear depths
I walked on the marble bottom...

Italian Afternoon (1827)

This painting was painted by Karl Bryullov at the request of the St. Petersburg Society for the Encouragement of Artists. This happened after the huge success of Italian Morning.

And Karl wrote:

The heroine of the picture does not have antique proportions and does not at all resemble an ancient statue.

Bryullov shows the beauty of a real Italian woman.

And this simple Italian woman outraged the Society. The Chairman of the Society reminded the artist that the purpose of art is the graceful depiction of nature. And the lady in Bryullov’s canvas has “more pleasant than graceful proportions.”

However, Bryullov insisted on his right to show real, and not conventional, beauty.
In order to get a real play of light and shadows, the artist painted a picture in a real vineyard.

Agree that the picture is simply and incredibly beautiful.

Portrait of Yu.P. Samoilova leaving the ball with her adopted daughter Amazilia Paccini (1839)

Countess Yulia Pavlovna Samoilova is a special woman in Bryullov’s life. There is a separate post about the story of their love and friendship.

She is a female star, a socialite and “your slave.” A beauty with a bad temper, willful, loving and submissive. Truly an incredible woman.

In 1939, Samoilova came to St. Petersburg due to the fact that it was necessary to dispose of the huge inheritance left from her grandfather Count Litt. It was during this period that Bryullov began this portrait. The artist said that he wanted to show the masquerade of life. There, behind Samoilova, behind the red curtain, the royal ball thunders and social life gushes like a fountain. And in front of us is just a woman, in a royal outfit, but without a mask. She took off the mask that is needed for a world of lies, where everyone strives to isolate themselves from people and pretend to be someone they really are not.

And the main theme of the picture is the triumph and beauty of a strong and independent personality.

Horsewoman (1832)

This famous painting depicts the pupils of Countess Samoilova. On the left is the younger Amazia, and on the horse is the older Jovanina.

The artist loved Samoilova, and the girls were a part of the world that surrounded the countess. And Bryullov, loving the countess, could not help but love girls.

According to the artist’s plan, “The Horsewoman” is a large portrait to decorate the main hall in Samoilova’s palace. The Countess ordered the portrait. She said more than once that she wanted to cover all the walls with “his miracles.”

The artist shows his ideal world. And in this world life is beautiful. Here is the charm of childhood and the pride of youth. We see all this on the faces of the little heroines. The artist put so many feelings and emotions into this work that an everyday everyday scene appeared before the audience transformed, full of poetry and an extravaganza of colors.

Turkish woman (1837-1839)

Returning to gloomy and rainy St. Petersburg, the artist often turns to memories of his travels around the Mediterranean.

Memories and fantasies. The artist’s album contains a lot of sketches depicting women in outlandish oriental outfits. We can say that he was worried about the theme of the “Turkish woman” - an exotic and mysterious woman.

The ladies of society in the paintings of Karl Bryullov are dressed in “semi-oriental” outfits. There are quite a lot of watercolor works in the artist’s albums, which show the features of the artist’s contemporaries.

And the artist painted this Turkish woman from a model. The fact is that in addition to “Turkish Woman” there is also “Odalisque”. And the main character of both films is the same lady.

Bryullov very carefully painted the face of his Turkish woman, which is decorated with a bright, huge Turkish turban.

Experts say that “Turkish Woman” is a particularly feminine and life-like work by the artist. I have no desire to disassemble the picture into atoms. Karl Bryullov is a master. And his “Turkish Woman” is simply lovely. Without any ifs and highly artistic assessments.

Paintings by artist Karl Pavlovich Bryullov

Karl Pavlovich Bryullov is a famous Russian artist, monumentalist, watercolorist, portrait painter and representative of the school of realism and classicism. The future great painter was born into the family of academician and teacher of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences Pavel Ivanovich Bryullov and his wife Maria Ivanovna Schroeder. Karl had German-French roots, and besides him, the family had three brothers and two sisters. Sick and shy, Karl could not walk well until the age of 7, as he was often ill, but his father did everything to attract the boy to painting, and in 1809, he entered the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts, where he successfully studied until 1822.

The young man changed his surname Bryullo, which was unusual for Russian ears, to Bryullov. Talented, intelligent and versatile, Karl habitually helped his classmates, developed his creative abilities and successfully graduated from the Academy of Arts, and then received an invitation to Italy to improve his skills.

Italian creative period

The works of Karl Bryullov during the Italian period of his life are of a rather diverse nature, mainly reflecting the romantic moods of the brilliant creator. Only upon his return to Russia and further maturity did Karl Bryullov begin to devote time to more serious works in the style of realism, and some of his most outstanding artistic creations became self-portraits. The artist became interested in portraiture, and women began to occupy one of the main themes in his painting, from whom he successfully drew inspiration. You can cite several successful works of a talented painter at once, here are the paintings of Karl Bryullov with titles:

The work of Karl Bryullov well describes the triumph of life, the beauty and delight with which the artist created his work. Particularly noted in Russia was Bryullov’s painting “The Horsewoman,” which successfully showed the solemnity and restrained beauty of a charming equestrian, and the surrounding background was successfully included by Bryullov, being thought out to the smallest detail.

Creation of the painting “The Last Day of Pompeii”

Most of Karl Bryullov’s works are filled with cheerfulness, lightness and airiness. He also painted excellent watercolors for Russian and Italian aristocrats, painted canvases on historical and religious themes, and the key work of this period was the artist’s famous painting “The Last Day of Pompeii.” The artist came up with the idea for the painting after visiting the city of Pompeii, which tragically died as a result of the eruption of Vesuvius. He was engaged in painting this monumental picture until 1833, carefully approaching the description of the emotions and feelings of people who were influenced by uncontrollable elements, which caused widespread approval, but was rejected in Paris during the exhibition, although it received a high place there.

The creation ordered by the merchant Demidov has become a decoration of the Russian Museum to this day. At the same time, the artist was creating the painting “Bathsheba,” which had a religious background and remained unfinished. Countess Yulia Samoilova, the muse of Karl Bryullov, met the genius during the Italian period of his life and became one of the most important heroes of his artistic works, where the artist often depicted himself.

St. Petersburg career

The exhibition of Karl Bryullov at the Tretyakov Gallery still causes genuine delight - all his watercolor works were created using large, laconic spots of color, which made them expressive due to their expressiveness and contrast of combinations. At the same time, Emperor Nicholas himself wished for Bryullov to become a professor at the Academy of Arts and begin painting a monumental historical painting. An interesting plot for its creation was the siege of Pskov by the Polish king Stefan Batory, but the author was unable to complete it.

The masterly portrait painter began to be actively invited to the best houses of St. Petersburg to paint watercolors with the most eminent city officials, which at that time was considered a special chic. The biography of Karl Bryullov during this period is extremely rich - he draws portraits of the nobility, paints frescoes of Lutheran churches, and also begins to paint St. Isaac's Cathedral. Thanks to the work of Karl Bryullov, it was possible to free the genius of Ukrainian literature Taras Shevchenko from serfdom - in order to give him his freedom, Karl had to make a portrait of Zhukovsky, which could then be successfully and quite expensively sold at a court auction. The artist Karl Bryullov in the late period of his work was engaged in painting self-portraits - 1843, 1848. In them he is depicted as a tired, serious and already elderly man who has seen a lot in life, and his work becomes more mature and thorough.

Last stage of life

The years of Karl Bryullov’s life completely cover the first half of the 19th century and at the end of his creative career the artist rethinks his own work and tries to capture the romantic emotion of the images characteristic of his time. Bryullov’s latest work is a portrait of Michelangelo Lanci, the famous Italian archaeologist, in which the artist surprisingly accurately described the psychological characteristics and details of the hero of his canvas.

Karl Pavlovich Bryullov is an amazing phenomenon for his time; we still enjoy his masterpieces in various art galleries. During his life, the artist managed to try himself in different genres, and the well-known Taras Shevchenko and Pyotr Fedotov became his favorite students. The painter managed to significantly enrich Russia with his creativity, and in his footsteps many outstanding works by artists of a later period were created

Karl Bryullov is a famous artist whose name has become synonymous with the movements of classicism and late Russian romanticism in painting. The talent cultivated in Bryullov since childhood gave the world such unique works as “The Horsewoman”, “The Head of Bacchus”, “The Death of Inessa de Castro”, “Bathsheba”, “The Fortuneteller Svetlana”. And his painting “The Last Day of Pompeii” still delights true art connoisseurs around the world.

Childhood and youth

The future artist was born on December 23, 1799 in St. Petersburg. The Bryullov family had many children: Karl grew up surrounded by three brothers and two sisters. The father of the family had impeccable artistic taste: he was engaged in ornamental sculpture, carved wood, masterfully painted miniatures and taught at the Academy of Arts. It is not surprising that the children adopted from him a craving for creativity and a sense of beauty.

Karl grew up as a sickly boy and was forced to spend a lot of time in bed. However, despite this, he diligently delved into the subtleties of the art of painting, intensively studying with his father. He also did not allow any leniency and even sometimes deprived his son of breakfast for lack of diligence.

Such strict discipline, coupled with an innate gift, could not fail to produce results, and already at the age of 10, Karl Bryullov easily entered the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts, delighting the teachers with his thorough preparation and unconditional talent.

The artist’s first serious work was the painting “Narcissus looking into the water.” In this work, Karl Bryullov played on the myth of a young man named Narcissus, who constantly admired his own beauty. In 1819, the painting brought the artist his first award - a small gold medal from the Academy of Arts. This moment is considered to be the beginning of a serious creative biography of Karl Bryullov.

Painting

In 1821, Karl Pavlovich completed work on another masterpiece - the painting “The Appearance of Three Angels to Abraham at the Oak of Mamre.” This time, the Academy of Arts turned out to be more favorable to the young artist, recognizing the new creation with a large gold medal, as well as the right to travel to Italy to get acquainted with the European tradition of painting. However, circumstances were such that the young man was able to go abroad later - in 1822.

Karl Bryullov came to Italy with his brother Alexander. There, young people studied the work of Renaissance masters, as well as earlier works of European artists. Karl Bryullov especially liked genre painting. Impressed by this direction, the young man painted the famous paintings “Italian Morning” and “Italian Afternoon”. Everyday scenes from the lives of ordinary people turned out to be incredibly touching and filled with feelings.

Also, the “Italian period” in Bryullov’s works is marked by a large number of portraits: “Horsewoman”, a portrait of Yulia Samoilova with a small little black, a portrait of the musician Matvey Vielgorsky - all these creations date back to that time. The series of portraits continues later, after Karl Pavlovich returned to his native Petersburg.

A few years later, Karl Bryullov returned to his beloved Italy, where he studied in detail the ruins of ancient cities - Herculaneum and Pompeii, which were destroyed by a powerful earthquake. The majesty of Pompeii, which perished due to the elements, impressed the artist, and Karl Bryullov devoted the next few years to studying the history of Pompeii and archaeological materials. The result of painstaking work was a canvas called “The Last Day of Pompeii” and, according to art historians, became the pinnacle of the master’s creativity.

In 1833, after dozens of sketches and sketches, as well as 6 years of hard work, Karl Bryullov presented “The Last Day of Pompeii” to art lovers. The news about this painting instantly spread across all secular salons and art schools - artists and people simply not alien to art came to exhibitions in Milan and Paris specifically to get acquainted with Bryullov’s work, and were invariably delighted.

Karl Pavlovich himself was awarded the gold medal of Parisian art critics, as well as honorary membership of many European art academies. Such a large-scale work seemed to take all the master’s strength. After finishing “The Last Day of Pompeii,” Bryullov fell into a creative crisis, started and abandoned the canvases unfinished, and soon stopped picking up a brush altogether.

Deciding to take a break, Karl Pavlovich went on an expedition to Greece and Turkey. The change of scenery did the artist good: immediately after the trip, Bryullov wrote a whole series of watercolors and drawings, the most famous of which were “The Wounded Greek”, “Bakhchisarai Fountain”, “Turk Riding a Horse”, “Turkish Woman”.

In 1835, Bryullov, obeying the tsar's decree, returned to the Russian Empire. However, he did not immediately proceed to St. Petersburg, but stayed in Odessa, and then in Moscow. The golden-domed tree made a strong impression on the artist, charming with its majesty and at the same time simplicity.

Upon returning to St. Petersburg, Karl Bryullov, like his father before, began teaching at the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts. Later, the style of Karl Pavlovich’s students would be called the “Bryullov school.” Bryullov himself continued to work on portraits, in addition, he participated in the painting of the church on Nevsky Prospekt.

Personal life

For many years, Karl Bryullov’s personal life was connected with Countess Yulia Samoilova, who became for the artist both a lover, a loyal friend, support, as well as a muse and favorite model. The relationship between Bryullov and Samoilova was repeatedly interrupted; Julia went to Italy, where, according to rumors, she did not deny herself sensual pleasures. Then the couple got back together.

In 1839, Karl Bryullov married young Emilia Tim. The girl was barely 19 years old at that time. But a month later the couple separated. Karl Pavlovich's wife and her parents left for their native Riga, and the divorce proceedings lasted another two years, until 1841.

Emilia herself blamed her husband for the breakup, and some of the artist’s friends even turned away from him, siding with the girl. According to other information, the reason for the divorce was Emilia’s betrayal by dating another man.

Bryullov was having a hard time separating from his wife, and Yulia Samoilova, who came to St. Petersburg for a while, again became his support. The artist had no children.

Death

In 1847, the artist’s health made itself felt again: Karl Pavlovich’s rheumatism and ailing heart were seriously complicated by a severe cold, and Bryullov fell ill for a long time. However, even in this state the master could not help but create. In 1848, Bryullov completed a self-portrait, which to this day is considered an example of the genre and, according to art critics, conveys the artist’s character much better than a photo could.

A year later, Karl Pavlovich, at the insistence of doctors, left for the island of Madeira. The maritime climate should have eased the artist’s condition, but, unfortunately, it was too late. Bryullov’s health was constantly deteriorating, and on June 23, 1852, the master passed away due to an illness that undermined his body. After the artist’s death, unfinished sketches and sketches remained, which are now stored in private collections and museums around the world.

Works

• 1823 - “Italian Morning”
• 1827 - “Italian Afternoon”
• 1827 - “Interrupted Date”
• 1830-1833 - “The Last Day of Pompeii”
• 1831 - “Giovanina Pacini”
• 1832 - “Horsewoman”
• 1835 - “Olga Ferzen on a Donkey”
• 1839 - Portrait of fabulist Ivan Krylov
• 1840 - Portrait of the writer Alexander Strugovshchikov
• 1842 - Portrait of Countess Yulia Samoilova
• 1848 - Self-portrait