The Allegorical Portrait Created by D

The allegorical portrait created by D.G. Levitsky when his talent was beginning to flourish, has a special place in 18th century art. It embodies the high ideas of the time; ideas on civic duty, patriotism and an enlightened monarch as the ideal ruler.

Levitsky represented his model as apriestess at the temple of the goddess of Justice. Before the statue of Themis we see an altar on which Catherine II burns poppies symbolizing sleep and peace and quiet. At her feet she has some law books guarded by an eagle. In the distance is the sea with a ship – a reference to the maritime trade, which was protected by the navy as a guarantee of the state’s economic prosperity. Thus, this carefully thought-out composition is an allegory of a well-appointed state as understood in the Enlightenment epoch.

The abstract idea was expressed by the painter on a grand pictorial scale. The radiant golden figure of the Empress dominating the purple decorations of the temple creates a powerful color accord best-suited to the idea of celebration, glory and triumph.

The aesthetic ideal of the sentimentalism epoch is fully expressed by V.L. Borovikovsky in his portrait of Maria Ivanovna Lopukhina.

The soft washed-out outlines, the subtle nuances of cool colors shimmering with blue, lilac, greenish and silvery shades create an impression of air blending the figure and the landscape into a single harmonic image. The human being merges with nature and feels in part, a living model. Cornflowers and ears of rye, tree branches bending downwards, show a countryside scene harmonized with the model’s exquisitely simple garb and the soft, meditative expression of her face.

During the period of sentimentalism, artists were particularly attracted to the complex transitory states of the human psyche. Elegiac dreaminess and tender languor permeate the artistic scheme of the portrait. But these feelings are far from those of depression, they are balm to the human soul, signifying its receptiveness.

The statue "Cupid with an Arrow" by M.I. Kozlovsky is a typical example of sculpture in the style of classicism, in its choice of subject, composition and methods of treating marble. This statue, executed in the "classical style" deliberately evokes associations with works of ancient masters down to the stylized tree trunk by Cupid’s leg. This was a device used by Roman sculptors as a support for copying in marble, the Greek bronze originals. Later that motif became a token sign of Roman plastic art and of classicism imitating it.

The flowing outline, the harmony of the commensurate sculptured masses, the peculiar variant in the classical chiasmus, liken Kozlovsky’s statue to the masterpieces of ancient sculptors. The exquisite finish of the marble, its smooth texture, without nuances, are characteristic of a work completed in the period of classicism to a high professional level. Such sculptures were fashionable in the late 18th century, they appealed to the public and were often ordered for decorating palaces and parks.

The ancient Greek mythology was an inexhaustible source of themes, subjects and personages for sculptors of the classicism epoch. I.P. Martos chose for this sculpture the myth of Acteon, the grandson of Apollo and the son of King Aristaeus, who was taught the art of hunting by the centaur Chiron and had a passion for this sport. He happened to see the huntress Artemis nude while she was bathing. The irate goddess turned him into a stag and the unhappy youth was torn to pieces by his own hounds. This dramatic story was more than once used by painters and sculptors. Martos depicts Acteon in a complicated movement: he is running with his quiver on his back and at the same time is turning sharply at the sight of the bathing Artemis. This explains the gesture of his right hand seemingly stopping his movement. The sculptor successfully rendered this effect of a sudden obstruction to the youth’s free running in the complex angle of the figure. The gleaming lights on the smoothly polished and patinated bronze emphasize the dynamic structure of this sculptural composition.

A.G. Venetsianov wrote in his autobiographical notes: "In 1819 I resigned devoting myself later to painting from real nature, I went to my village […]".

Venetsianov chooses the simplest motives, his paintings contain virtually no action, he is interested in being, not in everyday life. The farmer’s labour is regarded by the artist as something primordial, eternally reiterated, like the change of seasons.

The feminine figure is scaled up in comparison to the horses. Her movements are graceful, she floats, not steps, her dress resembles a Greek tunic. This hero resembles Flora, the ancient goddess of fertility. The infant painted in the foreground, the woman’s son, is also perceived as a symbol – it is the embodiment of motherhood and fertility. Venetsianov sees the eternal beauty of the ancient idyll in the simple peasant scene. The solemn quiet rules this world. The artist achieves the awareness of magnificent clarity using laconic means and this is a characteristic of the Empire style, the period of late classicism.

The painting is based on the rhythm of smooth rounded lines. The horizon curves upward and the clouds floating in the sky respond to this undulation. The movement of feminine figures resembles a circular dance in this composition. The painting turns into a visible incarnation of the "earthly round", the canonic order that underpins the basis of life itself.

The critics appreciated that Venetsianov appealed to the foundations of Russian life. "At last we have found the artist who has turned his wonderful talent to the depiction of the national, the representation of objects which surround him and which are dear to his heart and to ours, and who is successful at it".

The portrait was painted in St. Petersburg in 1827. It was commissioned by A.A. Delvig, a friend of the poet A.S. Pushkin. When Delvig died, Pushkin purchased the portrait from his widow. After the poet’s tragic death the painting was passed to V.A. Zhukovsky, which his elder son then inherited and later Pushkin’s grandson acquired it. The board at the Tretyakov Gallery purchased it from him in 1916.

Understanding the significance in painting the portrait of the greatest Russian poet, O.A. Kiprensky harmoniously combines the spirit of romantic freedom and the pathos of exalted classics. He chooses the classicist static composition resembling ancient busts, therefore comparing the poet to the great individuals of the past. At the same time, the artist attempts to inform it with inherent dynamics: an energetic Napoleonic pose, arms folded across the poet’s chest (twenty years later K.P. Bryullov created a different type of individual in his Self-Portrait of 1848). The eyes gaze past the viewer into the distance. The background around the head is made lighter to produce some effect of a nimbus effect and a little statue of a muse stands in the background, suggesting poetic vocation and the patronage of the gods. A tartan shawl is thrown over his shoulder and is an allusion to George Gordon Byron, a famous poet recognised across Europe. With his portrait Kiprensky seems to reproduce the comment made by Goethe about Byron: "He is not classic, not romantic, he is nature itself".

Contemporaries and writers of memoirs regarded this portrait as the most complete representation of A.S. Pushkin. They said, "The artist was so inspired by the genius of the poet that the fire of inspiration seemed to have depicted itself on the canvas and in his features […]".

Pushkin composed a poem dedicated to Kiprensky about his portrait, which ends: "And I am laughing in the grave, I have escaped mortal ties".

"The Rooks have Returned" was displayed at the First Itinerant Exhibition in 1871 and it immediately attracted the visitor’s attention. Its creation was preceded by A.K. Savrasov’s journey along the river Volga in the Kostroma Region. As the author’s inscription testifies, it began in the village of Molvitino (Susanino today) not far from the town of Bui.

"The Rooks have Returned" marked the emergence of a new stage in the development in the Russian school of landscape painting. The road paved by Savrasov established the aesthetic significance of a simple, modest nature motif inspired by the artist’s individual attitude. The artist’s poetic vision turned daily life into a bright elegy regarding the eternal and constant renewal of life.

The picture depicts the outskirts of a Russian village. The snow has begun to melt in the spring sun’s warm rays, it appears slushy and indented. The water from the melted snow rises into the cold sky next to the birch trees. A light wind seems to bring a smell of warmth, smoke and the earth, awakening from the winter slumber. Wretched houses are visible behind a grey wooden fence; deep in the background there is a stone church with hip-roofed bell tower and further a flatland with waterlogged soil patches and snow strips framed in the violet forest border close to the grey blue horizon. Winter retreats, although without enthusiasm. Noisy happy birds fuss in the trees building nests and jubilantly spreading the news that spring is approaching.

The quivering awareness that change is close, the charm of the first spring days are present in the light, transparent colour scheme in the painting. The blue of the sky peers through the greyish winter clouds, as if spring has already arrived. The brown patches of the bare earth across the wide plain contend with the cold, violet grey shades of the snow in their warm colour.

A light airy mist envelopes the foreground and the background’s fading vastness in the painting.

This simple work proved to be a true revelation for Russian art. The subtle lyricism in Savrasov’s landscapes juxtaposed with the soulful humility of Russian nature and the superficial beauty and salon-like solemnity of paintings, which followed the academic trend. Describing his impressions of the exhibition, I.N. Kramskoy wrote about the landscapes, in one of his letters to F.A. Vasiliev, that they have, "water, trees, even air, but only rooks have a soul of their own".

An untiring traveler, V.V. Vereshchagin made several trips to Central Asia. As a result, he took part in the Turkestan campaign of 1871-1873 as an ensign in the corps of General Kaufman.

His observations of life in Asian countries provided the base for numerous nature studies and several cycles of paintings united under a common theme. The most brilliant of these was his Turkestan series, a group of pieces with the common title, "Barbarians. The Apotheosis of War" (its initial title was Tamerlane’s Triumph). It is one of the most conceptualized creations by Vereshchagin.

The painting depicts the desert scorched by the burning sun, dead withered trees, gathering crows. Deep in the painting’s background is an Asian city in ruins. However, the viewer’s eye is seized by the horrific mass of human skulls. This is the usual remains left by a Tamerlane army, a 14th century conqueror famous for his atrocities.

The war between France and Prussia which had started in Europe at the time provided the impetus for the painting’s creation. The accusing, tragic essence in this work is underlined in the artist’s inscription written on the painting’s frame: "This is dedicated to all the great conquerors of the past, present and future".

It is a painting by a master who did not attempt to depict triumphant parades and valour, but who wanted to represent the atrocities and the tragedy of war. This painting has become a symbol for battle painting during the second half of the 19th century.

The theme of matrimony acquires dramatic pathos in many works of the 1860s. This is associated with the fact that women had no rights in Russian society during the 19th century. The heroine in V.V. Pukirev’s painting is one of many sad and charming feminine images created by Russian literary and fine art.

The painting portrays the wedding of a penniless girl to an old and rich public officer. The contrast in the situation is enhanced by the clash of the solemn event, the priest’s rich robes, the bride’s expensive wedding dress adorned with flowers of fleur d’orange and her pale tearful face. A wedding ring will be placed on her finger in a moment and this sad union will become legal. To enhance the drama in the situation the artist introduces the figure of a philospher, an indignant young man who arms are crossed, the portrait of the artist himself. Another character in the painting is just as significant – it is an old woman looking over the shoulder of the bridegroom.

The aesthetic awareness in the 1860s gave this old woman lurking near the young heroine the scorned role of the match-maker (The Major Goes a Courting (1848) by P.A. Fedotov, Temptation (1856) by N.G. Shilder). The old woman's image is vicious and significant in V.V. Pukirev’s painting. She has an evident interest in the entire event, she conceals herself behind the bridegroom’s back and observes everything with attentive and foul eyes, reminiscent of the grotesque figures from the medieval "death dance". The emergence of this character gives the scene an unexpected meaning.

It is not only the young weeping bride who will suffer here, the arrogant old man gazing down on her with a master’s eye is not a conqueror. The dark silhouette behind him, in the spirit of realistic art, predicates his possible early death.

Accordingly the artists of the 1860s demonstrated that it is not just the victims of social injustice who suffer, those that bring evil to them can never achieve true happiness.

The painting by M.A. Vrubel "Seated Demon" is the first significant work of Russian symbolism, which defined its main theme: the striving of the creative individual for stylish beauty.

Vrubel’s painting encompasses different examples of world culture: the character from M.Yu. Lermontov’s"The Demon", the philosophy of F. Nietzsche. This basis helps the artist to create a new myth, which reflects the spiritual explorations of his age. He takes the image of the "light" Demon to contend that his hero "is a spirit, who isn’t evil, so much as suffering and melancholy, yet, at the same time, is a spirit of splendour and power". The Demon’s image is characterised by a certain inner ambiguity: it has an etheral spiritual profile and a mighty body resembling a stone shining in the setting sun’s rays. He sorrowfully contemplates"the ancient gold of the sunset" and seems to recall a world of heavenly beauty he has left. But the Demon’s sorrow is not wasted. Miraculous transformations are taking place around him. Flowers resemble brilliant crystals, a bed of precious stones. The peculiarity of Vrubel’s painting style is revealed in the faceted forms. Using a palette-knife, he appears to combine the techniques of a painter and sculptor. This results in the emergence of a monumental technique, which resembles a mosaic.

The theme of the Demon takes a living role in the creative work of the artist.

"March" is I.I. Levitan’s brightest work. This landscape reflects the uniqueness of Russian Impressionism.

Nature is transformed by bright colours in this painting. The yellow and the blue produce a resounding contrast. All the colours are associated with light. Although snow is still on the ground and there is a feeling of light frost, every part of the landscape is filled with the joy of spring. The yellow wall of the house warmed by the sun casts gold reflexes everywhere, they heat the space in the painting and start a cheerful scrap with the cold blue shadows. Everything in the foreground is filled with movement. The adrupt relief brush touches represent both the play of sunlight, and the scattered snow. The melting, dirty snow on the road is filled with the barely visible flicker of pink and green hues. A "change in nature’s decoration" seems to be taking place. The tree trunks spreading their branches towards the sun in the centre of the composition are symmetrical like wings. The colours of a pine forest, which has faded over the course of winter, move deep into the background of the painting. Cold and silence hide there. The gaze involuntary dissolves in the numerous impressions, but a horse warming itself in the sun attracts the attention of the viewer.

The Impressionist motion in this painting combined with the complex compositional structure reflect the variety of natural rhythms in the awakening of spring.

"Girl with Peaches" is the first masterpiece by the young V.A. Serov and the first display of his talent. The painting was produced at Abramtsevo, the estate of S.I. Mamontov, an art patron. It represents the atmosphere of creative companionship that directed the circle uniting the best artists of the time. The painting embodied the ideal of "gratification" which defined the later development of Russian Impressionism.

The portrait of Vera Mamontova, the daughter of S.I. Mamontov, is in the centre. The artist is fascinated by the harmonious internal world of the Abramtsevo circle’s little "muse". Serov gathers fragments of an interior, landscape and still life around the girl. Every object in this space is in powerful hands of light that pours in from the window and dissolves the familiar outlines and surfaces of objects, transforming them into brush strokes like "shaggy" dabs and colour reflexes. The girl’s face and her blouse with the large bow are painted in warm, soft hues while cold silver tones dominate the space around her. Serov’s discoveries in painting make the depiction quiver and fill it with internal motion. The model’s impatient pose is combined with introspection concealed deep in her black eyes. The artist achieves an astonishing awareness of the balance between the spiritual state of the girl and the world around her.